Monthly Archives: August 2018

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30

Mahendragiri, the last of the seven warships of the Nilgiri-class stealth frigates, will be launched on September 1.

Commissioning between 2025 & 2027

• So far, six Nilgiri-class warships have been launched
• Nilgiri and Himgiri were launched in 2019 and 2020, respectively
• The launch of Udaygiri, Dunagiri, Taragiri and Vindhyagiri began in May 2022
• All Nilgiri-class ships are scheduled to be commissioned between 2025 and 2027

Dr Sudesh Dhankhar, wife of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, will do the honours at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai. So far, six Nilgiri-class warships have been launched. Nilgiri and Himgiri were launched in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Udaygiri, Dunagiri, Taragiri and Vindhyagiri have been launched since May 2022. The launch of the seventh and last ship — Mahendragiri — will mean five launches of the same class warships in about 15 months. All Nilgiri-class ships are scheduled to be commissioned between 2025 and 2027.

Frigate features

Displacement: 6,670 tonne

Length: 149 metres

Width: 17.8 metres

Draft: 5.22 metres

Speed: 28 knots

Range: 10,200 kms

Crew: 226 sailors

Engines: 2 General Electric LM2500

The speed of manufacturing warships has improved ever since the new method of “integrated construction” has been adopted. Mahendragiri is named after a mountain peak in Eastern Ghats located in Odisha.

Three Nilgiri-class warships are a follow-up of Shivalik-class frigates but with vastly improved stealth features, advanced weapons and sensors and platform management systems.

The Nilgiri warships are built with new radar-absorbing coatings, composite materials and shape superstructures that avoid radar detection. Mahendragiri will have a 76mm main gun, two 30 mm AK-630M anti-aircraft artillery systems, two torpedo tubes, launchers for eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and 32 Barak-8 surface to air missiles. Its main radar will be MF-STAR.

The Nilgiri-class warships have been designed in-house by Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau, the pioneer organisation for all warship design activities. A substantial 75 per cent of the orders for equipment and systems of the Nilgiri class have been made to indigenous firms, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Four of Nilgiri-class warships are under construction at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai, and three at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited, Kolkata. Both shipbuilders are public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Defence.

Libreville (Gabon), August 30

Mutinous soldiers claimed to have seized power in Gabon on Wednesday and put the president under house arrest, hours after he was declared the winner in an election that extended his family’s 55-year reign in the oil-rich Central African nation.

In his first public appearance since the coup attempt, President Ali Bongo Ondimba called on people to “make noise” to support him. But crowds instead took to the streets of the capital and sang the national anthem, apparently to celebrate his potential ouster.

Bongo’s family has been accused of getting rich on the country’s resource wealth while many of its citizens struggle to scrape by. The coup attempt came hours after he was declared winner of an election criticised by international observers.

Within minutes of the announcement, gunfire was heard in the centre of the capital, Libreville. Later, a dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television and announced that they had seized power.

Crowds took to the city’s streets to celebrate the end of Bongo’s reign, singing the national anthem with soldiers.

“Thank you, army. Finally, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” said Yollande Okomo, standing in front of soldiers from Gabon’s elite republican guard.

Shopkeeper Viviane Mbou offered the soldiers juice, which they declined.

“Long live our army,” said Jordy Dikaba, a young man walking with his friends on a street lined with armoured policemen.

Later, Bongo pleaded for support, appearing in a video showing him sat in a chair with a book shelf behind him. He said he was in his residence and his wife and son were in different places.

“I’m calling you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise really,” he said. The video was shared with The Associated Press by BTP Advisers. A communications firm that helped the president with polling for this election     There’s been widespread discontent with the Bongo family for years and a coup attempt is not surprising, said Maja Bovcon Africa, senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk assessment firm. But she said more immediate inspiration likely came from a recent spate of coups in the Sahel, where military officers have shown that they can seize power without repercussions.

Gabon’s coup leaders can also play to doubts about the electoral process, Africa, the analyst, said. The vote was not transparent and practically held behind closed doors, she said.

Every vote held in Gabon since the country’s return to a multi-party system in 1990 has ended in violence. Clashes between government forces and protesters following the 2016 election killed four people, according to official figures. The opposition said the death toll was far higher.

“Gabon’s electoral laws and framework do not ensure credible elections,” Freedom House said in its 2023 country assessment.

The soldiers who claimed power Wednesday planned to “dissolve all institutions of the republic,” said a spokesman for the group. He said that Bongo’s “unpredictable, irresponsible governance” risked leading the country into chaos.

Gabon is a member of the OPEC oil cartel, with a production of some 181,000 barrels of crude a day, but its over 2 million people face high unemployment and rising prices. Nearly 40% of Gabonese ages 15-24 were out of work in 2020, according to the World Bank.

Several French companies said they were suspending operations and moving to ensure the safety of their staff, and a man who answered the phone at the airport said flights were cancelled Wednesday. The private intelligence firm Ambrey said all operations at the country’s main port in Libreville had been halted, with authorities refusing to grant permission for vessels to leave.

A second statement by the coup leaders, who came from the gendarme, the republican guard and other elements of the security forces, said the president was under house arrest in his residence, surrounded by family and doctors.

People around him have been arrested for “high betrayal of state institutions, massive embezzlement of public funds (and) international financial embezzlement” said the military, among other charges.

There has been no word from the president.

Several members of the Bongo family are under investigation in France, and some have been given preliminary charges of embezzlement, money laundering and other forms of corruption, according to French media reports.

The coup attempt came about one month after mutinous soldiers in Niger seized power from the democratically elected government, and is the latest in a series of coups that have challenged governments with ties to France, the region’s former colonizer.

Gabon’s coup, if successful would bring the number of coups in West and Central Africa to eight since 2020.

Unlike Niger and two other West African countries run by military juntas, Gabon hasn’t been wracked by jihadi violence and had been seen as relatively stable.

In his annual Independence Day speech on Aug 17, Bongo said, “While our continent has been shaken in recent weeks by violent crises, rest assured that I will never allow you and our country Gabon to be hostages to attempts at destabilisation. Never.”  

At a time when anti-France sentiment is spreading in many former colonies, the French-educated Bongo met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in late June and shared photos of them shaking hands.

 The mutinous officers vowed to respect “Gabon’s commitments to the national and international community.”    

France has 400 soldiers in Gabon leading a regional military training operation. They’ve not changed their normal operations today, according to the French military.

French government spokesperson, Olivier Veran, said Wednesday: “France condemns the military coup that is underway in Gabon and is closely monitoring developments in the country, and France reaffirms its wish that the outcome of the election, once known, be respected.”     

When asked about Gabon Wednesday, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell said it would be discussed by EU ministers this week. Defense ministers from the 27-nation bloc are meeting in Spain on Wednesday, and foreign ministers on Thursday. Borrell will chair both meetings, and Niger will also be a focus.

“If this is confirmed, it’s another military coup, which increases instability in the whole region,” he said.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, said Wednesday that China was closely following Gabon’s situation and called on the parties to resolve the issue peacefully, keeping in mind the interests of the nation and its people.

Bongo has served two terms since coming to power in 2009 after the death of his father, who ruled the country for 41 years. Another group of mutinous soldiers attempted a coup in January 2019, while Bongo was in Morocco recovering from a stroke, but was quickly overpowered.

Bongo faced an opposition coalition led by economics professor and former education minister Albert Ondo Ossa, whose surprise nomination came a week before the vote.

Reached Wednesday, Ossa said he wasn’t ready to comment on the attempted coup and was waiting for the situation to evolve.

After the vote, the Central African nation’s Communications Minister, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, announced a nightly curfew from 7 pm to 6 am, and said internet access was being restricted indefinitely to quell disinformation and calls for violence.

NetBlocks, an organisation tracking internet access worldwide, said internet service saw a “partial restoration” in Gabon after the coup. AP

India lodges strong diplomatic protest

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 29

India has dismissed a new map put out by China that claims Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as its territory, besides huge chunks of South China Sea and Taiwan.

3rd attempt in 5 yrs

• China has included Taiwan and South China Sea in map
• It’s the third such map — earlier two issued in 2018, 2021
• Beijing has extended the same treatment to Russia, one of its closest partners

“Putting out a map doesn’t mean anything. The territories belong to India. This government is very clear about its territories. Absurd claims won’t make others’ territories yours,” said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on China officially releasing the “2023 edition of China’s standard map”.

• Editorial: Chinese map

“India has lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on its map that lays claim to India’s territory,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

China occupied Arunachal and Aksai Chin in the 1962 war. Jaishankar, in an indirect reference to the “nine-dash-line that claims nearly the entire South China Sea as Beijing’s territory, said “it’s an old habit of theirs”.

Beijing claims Taiwan its part and its integration with the mainland is part of a “vowed objective” of President Xi Jinping. The Chinese claims over the South China Sea are contested by a host of nations, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The 2023 map was released on Monday and its launch was highlighted on western social media platforms by the Beijing-controlled ‘Global Times’ which, it said, had been launched on the website of the “standard map service hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources”. In April, New Delhi had rejected China “renaming” several locations in Arunachal. This was the third attempt after two previous ones in 2018 and 2021.

Ironically, China has extended the same treatment to Russia, which it claims is one of its closest partners. The Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources in March this year renamed eight Russian cities and territories.

DAYS after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources has released the country’s ‘2023 edition of the standard map’, which shows the disputed border area of Aksai Chin and the entire Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh within its territory. Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs had claimed that it had ‘standardised’ the names of 11 places in Arunachal, which is called ‘Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet’ by the Chinese.

India has lodged a strong protest with China over the new map. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has asserted that it’s an ‘old habit’ of China to make absurd claims on other countries’ territories, while the Congress, the main Opposition party, has stated that China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh are ‘absurd, illogical and historically incorrect’. China’s cartographical move, which appears to be a fresh provocation, is set to cast a shadow on President Xi’s expected visit to India next week for the G20 summit.

New Delhi has been categorical in stating that Arunachal Pradesh has ‘always been and will always be’ an integral part of the country. However, China seems to be in no mood to respect India’s territorial sovereignty. It was Arunachal that had witnessed a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at Tawang in December last year. India needs to hold its ground and remain on guard in the face of China’s posturing. Though China has repeatedly proved to be an unreliable neighbour, India has kept all lines of communication open and never shied away from expressing its genuine concerns. The onus is on Beijing to engage in a meaningful dialogue with New Delhi and walk the talk on disengagement and de-escalation in border areas by taking verifiable action on the ground.

Amritsar: DAV College observed the National Sports Day with great enthusiasm and fervour which is celebrated every year on the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. Principal Amardeep Gupta in his address enlightened the gathering that the day embraces sportsmanship and brotherhood that comes with sports. National Sports Day is celebrated graciously all over the nation to honour national sports teams for their outstanding performance for their respective country. Celebrating the Day, Dr B B Yadav, head, Physical Education Department, paid tributes to Major Dhyan Chand by recalling his contribution to the country and the Indian sports in particular. Dr Daizy Sharma, Dr Gurdas Singh Sekhon, Dr Rajni Khanna, Dr Neeraj Gupta, Dr Munish Gupta, Dr Vikas Bhardwaj, Dr Sandeep Sharma were also present on the occasion.

Games mark national sports day

Celebrations of the National Sports Day became a moment marked with zeal and passion when Spring Daleans cheered up their buddies for their outstanding performance in zonal level sports tournaments organised for football, table tennis, cricket, badminton and gatka. Sahiljit Singh Sandhu, Chairman, Spring Dale Educational Society shared that the while the school football team was adjudged winners in the zonal football tournament, table tennis under-14, under-17 and under-19 category for boys. Girls’ team also won by the championship. The school gatka team was adjudged overall winners in zonal gatka tournament for boys U-14 and U-19 category where the school cricket team won the zonal tournament U-19 for boys. School Principal Rajiv Kumar Sharma shared that during the zonal badminton tournament, school badminton team for boys was the winner in U-14 and U-17 category whereas the girls’ team was adjudged the first runner-up for U-17 and second runner up for U-14 category. “There could be no befitting way to celebrate the National Sports Day,” said Sharma while congratulating the winning teams.

Rakhi-making competition organised

The joyous festival of Raksha Bandhan was celebrated with great enthusiasm by the Ashramites. The celebration began with a special assembly where students of grade-1 explained the significance of Raksha Bandhan highlighting its cultural and emotional importance. Students had the opportunity to learn about the customs associated with Raksha Bandhan through different activities, which not only enriched their understanding of the festival but also promoted cultural awareness and respect for traditions. One of the highlights of the event was the ‘rakhi-making’ activity for the tiny-tots of Class I and II. They showcased their creativity by designing and crafting beautiful rakhis, which symbolise the bond of protection and love between brothers and sisters. Students of Grade V participated in ‘Poetry Writing Competition’, which was fully loaded with love and emotions. Students of Grade VI decorated the puja thali in ‘Thali Decoration Competition’. Grade III students wrote paragraphs emphasising the importance of sharing and becoming independent.

SBS holds sports events

SBS College of Pharmacy celebrated the National Sports Day by organising two- day sports events in the college. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sachin Saggar, Principal, SBS College of Pharmacy, said that the National Sports Day is celebrated to commemorate the achievement and services of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand on his birthday. He advised the students to maintain proper balance between sports activities and studies for overall growth and development. The event concluded with distribution of trophies and medal to winners of various events. Alka Arora, MD, SBS group of colleges, Amritsar, while congratulating the winners, said that sports help develop overall character to become more efficient, confident and adaptable. It teaches various life skills and healthy habits to students.  

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, August 28

Olympian Neeraj Chopra did not disappoint India as he came up with a superb throw of 88.17 and secured the gold medel in the World Athletics Championships on Sunday.

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem won silver, while Czech Republic’s Yakub Vadlejch took bronze.

Arshad Nadeem made a final attempt in sixth round with a big one, but it was still short of what he wanted and Chopra claimed the gold.

But what really caught social media’s attention was the 25-year-old Olympian from Haryana sharing a moment with Pakistan’s Nadeem after the javelin throw final in this beautiful video.

The wholesome video shows Neeraj invite Nadeem under the India flag.

Geneva, August 29

More than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed in government-held areas of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the UN children’s fund Unicef said on Tuesday. It said several other schools have been badly damaged. About a third of school-age children there are attending classes fully , it said.

Putin not to attend Prigozhin’s funeral

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend the funeral for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said, following reports that he will be buried on Tuesday.
• Prigozhin who headed the Wagner group had rebelled against Putin in June and his move lasted a few hours.

The war followed Covid disruptions, meaning some Ukrainian children were facing a fourth consecutive school year of disruptions as they return to classes this week after the summer break, Unicef said.

“This has left Ukraine’s children struggling to progress in their education,” said Regina De Dominicis, Unicef Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. — Reuters

So well brought out by this Paki ex army offr… how the concept of Martial Races was evolved by the Britishers after 1857… and the current state of Pak

Moscow claims attack repelled near Robotyne

Kyiv, August 28

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had liberated the southeastern settlement of Robotyne and were trying to push further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces. The Ukrainian military said last week that its forces had raised the national flag in the strategic settlement, but were still carrying out mopping-up operations.

“Robotyne has been liberated,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar was quoted as saying by the military. The settlement is 10 km (six miles) south of the frontline town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region on an important road towards Tokmak, a Russian-occupied road and rail hub.

Tokmak’s capture would be a milestone as Ukrainian troops press southwards towards the Sea of Azov in a military drive that is intended to split Russian forces following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s defence ministry posted a video on social media platform X of soldiers describing the liberation and raising the flag in the settlement. “Mr. President, commander-in-chief, the village of Robotyne has been liberated from the occupiers by the forces of the 27th Mechanised Brigade and adjacent units,” a Ukrainian soldier said in the video.

Russia has not confirmed the Ukrainian advance. In its statement, Russia’s defence ministry said Moscow’s troops had repelled attacks by Kyiv’s forces near Robotyne and Verbove. Ukraine’s success in retaking Robotyne follows media reports of a meeting this month of senior NATO military chiefs and Ukraine’s top general on resetting Ukraine’s military strategy. — Reuters

US consulate employee accused of spying

• Russia’s top domestic security agency says a detained ex-employee of the US Consulate in Vladivostok is accused of collecting information about Russia’s action in Ukraine for the US.
• The Federal Security Service said Robert Shonov “gathered information” on the military operation, mobilisation processes, etc.

#Russia #Ukraine

Disengagement in the Depsang Bulge is proving to be a tough hurdle for the two sides

Manoj Joshi

Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

A touch of acrimony seems to have crept into the negotiations between India and China regarding their border dispute. The latest issue is about who made a request for the meeting that took place in Johannesburg between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping last week. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement claimed that it happened at India’s request, while sources say that India had sought an informal conversation with China but had rejected a long-standing Chinese request for a formal bilateral meeting.

India and China are working on a three-stage process that seeks to disengage forces from ‘friction points’ in eastern Ladakh.

On Thursday, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said the Prime Minister had conveyed to President Xi India’s concerns on the ‘unresolved’ issues along the LAC and that “the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas was essential for the normalisation of India-China ties.” He added that in this context the two leaders agreed “to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.”

This was in response to China’s Foreign Ministry saying earlier in the day that “at PM Modi’s request”, Xi had met him in Johannesburg. Besides stressing the need for improving China-India relations, the statement read, “The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border region.”

Neither the Chinese nor Indian statements provided details of the talks in Johannesburg, but the Chinese statement did note that “the two leaders had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on the current China-India relations and other questions of shared interest.” So, this was not just a casual conversation.

While ostensibly the Indian and Chinese statements seem quite innocuous, what seems to be missing this time is the word ‘consensus’ that had figured in the report relating to their meeting at the G20 summit in Bali last year. A controversy had arisen there as well. Late last month, after a meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Beijing said in a statement that in Bali last year, Prime Minister Modi and President Xi had met briefly and reached an “important consensus” on stabilising bilateral ties. After some waffling, the Ministry of External Affairs acknowledged that such a meeting did indeed take place but added that “restoring peace and tranquillity is crucial for the overall resolution.”

India and China had recently held the 19th round of their Corps Commander-level talks on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo meeting point. This was followed by talks at the Major General level at the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) meeting point. At that time, there was speculation that the meetings were aimed at clearing the decks for a possible Xi-Modi meeting in Johannesburg. But it is now clear that there are still issues preventing disengagement from the last two points blockaded by China in 2020 — the Depsang Bulge and the Charding-Ninglung nullah.

India and China are working on a three-stage process that seeks to disengage forces from what India calls ‘friction points’ in eastern Ladakh, where the Chinese have blocked Indian patrols, to be followed by de-escalation by some 50,000 troops which both have brought up near the border. This is with the hope that it will finally lead to the normalisation of ties between them.

Disengagement in the Depsang Bulge is proving to be a tough hurdle for the two sides. This is not surprising since it was by far the largest area — 970 sq km — affected by the Chinese blockades. New Delhi is understandably leery of accepting a buffer zone which could be entirely at its cost. The Chinese aim seems to be to iron out the bulge and remove any advantage India derives from it.

Part of the Chinese posture comes from the fact that the bulge was the southern locale of the ill-fated forward policy of 1962 where India had deployed poorly supported posts in a north-west/south-east line stretching from the Chip Chap river and its environs. The Indian posts were wiped out in the first 24 hours of the war. What the Chinese now seem to want to assert is the boundary gained by war, but without saying so.

One thing is clear: even if the two sides manage some kind of a limited disengagement in the area, there is likely to be no de-escalation. Both sides have built up permanent facilities in the area and consolidated their positions.

Since 2017, it has been apparent that the Chinese were undertaking a major buildup in Tibet and strengthening their positions along the LAC. Last December, Chris Biggers, who works with radio frequency geospatial intelligence firm HawkEye 360, said in an interview that China had substantial combat force in the region opposite eastern Ladakh and had the ability to counter any Indian move in the area. There is a significant Chinese buildup along the Chip Chap river valley, facing DBO. Another area seeing a buildup is Rutog, at one tip of the Pangong Tso, where two new garrisons have emerged. To back up its forces, the Chinese are constructing a new G695 highway, parallel but closer to the LAC than the old G219 Xinjiang-Tibet highway.

Regardless of how the Depsang issue pans out, it is more than clear that there is no going back to the past now.