India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, along with leaders and senior officials from countries including China, Russia and Iran. It is the first time in nearly nine years that India has sent a foreign minister to its nuclear-armed neighbour.
The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) is an intergovernmental security and economic bloc formed in 2001 by Russia, China and former Soviet states in Central Asia to promote stability in the region and counter western influence from groups such as Nato. Iran joined the group last year.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will lead the two-day Council of Heads of Government, the second-highest forum within the SCO, in Islamabad on Wednesday and Thursday. Pakistan assumed the bloc's rotating chairmanship at the previous meeting, in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, in October last year.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Belarusian Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Tajik Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Kyrgyzstan’s Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Akylbek Zhaparov and Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref are also attending the summit. The leaders will discuss continuing economic, trade, environmental and social co-operation.
Pakistan has made stringent security arrangements, closing several key routes to Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi, as well as shutting down schools, colleges and businesses for three days amid increased deployment of troops throughout the capital.
Authorities arrested hundreds of supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party planned a protest against his jail sentence but later called it off.
Mr Jaishankar’s visit is seen as significant in the context of the hostility between India and Pakistan since the subcontinent was divided in 1947 after independence from British colonial rule. The two nations have fought three wars and have frozen diplomatic relations since 2019 when they were on the verge of another war over the Kashmir region where each controls a part of the territory but claims it in its entirety.
Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi after it revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution that gave special status to Kashmir.
Sushma Swaraj was the last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan, for a conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad in December 2015. Pakistan’s former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India in May 2023 to attend a meeting of SCO foreign ministers in the southern state of Goa. Pakistan in August invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the latest SCO meeting.
“Like with any neighbour, India would certainly like to have good relations with Pakistan,” Mr Jaishankar said recently.
Mr Li’s visit is also being watched closely. He is the first Chinese premier to visit Pakistan in 11 years. He was received by Mr Sharif at the airport and is scheduled to hold talks with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and other political and military figures over four days. Pakistan considers China a “close friend”, its foreign ministry says.
Beijing is building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of its flagship Belt and Road Initiative to promote global trade. The corridor comprises a road and rail network connecting China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s coast and the development of a deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan province. On Tuesday Mr Li inaugurated an airport next to Gwadar Port.
The%20specs
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
- Malaysia bt Hong Kong by 3 wickets
- Oman bt Nepal by 7 wickets
- UAE bt Singapore by 215 runs
Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu, Sep 6: Final
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
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Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Scotland v Ireland:
Scotland (15-1): Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Sam Johnson, Sean Maitland; Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); Josh Strauss, James Ritchie, Ryan Wilson; Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Simon Berghan, Stuart McInally, Allan Dell
Replacements: Fraser Brown, Jamie Bhatti, D'arcy Rae, Ben Toolis, Rob Harley, Ali Price, Pete Horne, Blair Kinghorn
Coach: Gregor Townsend (SCO)
Ireland (15-1): Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack Conan, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; James Ryan, Quinn Roux; Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (capt), Cian Healy
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour
Coach: Joe Schmidt (NZL)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
