India presses for global reform as UN row with Pakistan sharpens

India pressed for a bigger role in global governance while trading barbs with Pakistan at the UN. The wider day of developments linked diplomacy, trade and security tensions across several regions.

In Short

• Indian IT firms filed fewer US green card requests after labour curbs
• Canada will send 300 delegates to deepen trade links with India
• Pakistan leaders reviewed security amid emergency talk and protest threats

A series of international developments on Saturday ranged from India’s push for a bigger voice in global decision-making and sharp exchanges with Pakistan at the UN to trade, security and political developments in North America, Europe and South Asia.

The updates included External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s call in Addis Ababa for a more representative global order, India’s remarks at the UN on Pakistan and nuclear rhetoric, a fall in green card applications from Indian IT firms in the US, and Canada’s decision to send its biggest trade mission to India in more than 30 years.

In Addis Ababa, Jaishankar said India and Africa cannot remain underrepresented in global decision-making. He called for reform of the UN Security Council to make global governance more democratic and representative.

In Washington, Indian IT companies facing suspension from the US permanent labour certification programme made fewer applications for green cards this year. The decline indicated that the action may not have a significant impact on their functioning.

At the United Nations, India hit out at Pakistan and said nuclear weapons must not be treated as "routine instruments of statecraft". It also said New Delhi will "not bow" to nuclear blackmail.

In another exchange at the UN, India said it was "regrettable" that Pakistan continued to abuse the platform of the world body by peddling lies and falsehoods about the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

In Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reviewed the political and security situation amid reports that the federal government was considering imposing an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The development came as Chief Minister Afridi vowed peaceful protests during a long march.

In Ottawa, Canada said it would send nearly 300 business delegates to India next week in its largest trade mission to the country in over 30 years. The move is aimed at expanding commercial ties and "more than double bilateral trade" by 2030.

In Europe, a Paris court sentenced a 29-year-old Indian man to 20 years in prison for leading a masculinist group that forced young girls, many of them minors, to perform sexual acts, authorities said.

In Washington, President Donald Trump struck a deal with Russia for the supply of diesel to the US and global markets after talks with President Vladimir Putin. The deal came weeks after the US Congress authorised Trump to impose steep tariffs on top purchasers of oil and gas from Moscow.

US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a co-author of the Russia sanctions act, criticised the diesel deal and called it an "embarrassment".

Trump also criticised Norway for not awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he should have won it eight times for each war he settled.

In Colombo, hundreds of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks began a protest march from the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, seeking the release of firebrand religious leader Galagodaatte Gnanasara, who is serving a jail sentence for contempt of court.

Separately, Elon Musk shared reports of Reliance-backed firms’ donations to the BJP, intensifying his campaign against the corporate group he had accused of blocking Starlink’s entry into India.

Overall, the day’s developments brought together diplomatic friction involving India, political tensions in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, trade outreach by Canada, legal action in France, and fresh controversy in the US over Russia, the Nobel Peace Prize and Musk’s criticism of Reliance-backed firms.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends