OPINION

Elections Pose Yet Another Challenge To Pakistan

By Sajjad Ashraf*

ISLAMABAD (IDN-INPS) – Though some legal challenges on constituency delimitation remain, Pakistan is well on its way to a general election. Caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk took the oath of office at the beginning of June, setting the stage for elections to take place on July 25, 2018.

Punjab province is the main electoral battleground where the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has held power for 30 years, more or less. It is being challenged by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). A substantial win in Punjab is necessary for any party to form government at the national level.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 July 2018

Photo: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Source: East Asia Forum.

Mahathir Appears To Be Setting The Stage For A New Malaysia

By Shankaran Nambiar*

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN-INPS) – Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appears to be setting the tone for a revision of Malaysia’s geo-economic policy, if the bilateral meetings with his Indian and Japanese counterparts in the early days of his administration are anything to go by.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Mahathir not too long after the latter assumed office. The meeting was significant in so far as Modi is keen on ‘Acting East’ and forging stronger ties with ASEAN. With Mahathir at the helm, Modi may well have an active and influential partner in the region. India is likely to be an economic powerhouse in the coming decade or two, and any long-term economic architecture in the region will have to take this reality into account.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 July 2018

Photo: Alice Slater | Credit: channel.tv

Trump-Putin Summit A New Opportunity To Ban The Bomb

By Alice Slater, World BEYOND War

The writer serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War. Following is the text of her article first published with the caption Watch Out World: Peace May be Breaking Out!! https://worldbeyondwar.org/watch-out-world-peace-may-be-breaking-out/

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Less than a week or so before Donald Trump's groundbreaking meeting planned with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, to take place after the July 11-12 NATO summit, the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons celebrated its first birthday on July 7 when 122 nations voted a year ago in the UN General Assembly to ban the bomb, just as we have banned biological and chemical weapons.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 July 2018

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Will Continue Support Of Africa's Transformation Under Way

By Amina Mohammed

Following are extensive excerpts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks to the 31st ordinary session of the African Union in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 1, 2018. – The Editor.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (IDN-INPS) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, places great importance on our long-standing but new-found strategic partnership with the African Union. Sustainable development is at the centre of that work. Africa's Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development share a common vision and, together, they provide the basis for the African Union-United Nations Partnership framework for development informing the action plan to be launched in Addis Ababa in the coming days.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 July 2018

Photo: Inauguration Ceremony of Women's Farm Cooperative in Nielle, Côte d'Ivoire. UN Photo/Abdul Fatai Adegboye

Sham Organisations Pose A Serious Threat To Cooperatives

Viewpoint by Amy Zhang*

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The United Nations International Day of Cooperatives, commemorated every year on the first Saturday of July, underlines the role of cooperatives in sustainable development, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation, giving the hope for an equitable future. But what led to the creation of cooperatives and how do they function.

Today's cooperatives can be traced back to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844. Although other cooperatives preceded them, the Rochdale Pioneers' co-operative became the prototype for societies in Great Britain.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; Africa; 06 July 2018

Photo: Cover of The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018.

A Sense of Urgency Required For Meeting the 2030 Deadline

By António Guterres

Following is the text of the United Nations Secretary-General's Foreword to The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018 published on 20 June. With just 12 years left to the 2030 deadline, we must inject a sense of urgency, writes Guterres. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future. Three years into the implementation of the Agenda, countries are translating this shared vision into national development plans and strategies.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 05 July 2018

Photo: Europe needs key decisions to be made in the near future to give the people answers to the major questions of our time, agreed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in a press conference at the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace in April 2018. Credit: Bundesregierung/Steins

French President Macron Is Going To Get Things Done

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – At the European summit on June 28-29 the leaders spent most of the time discussing immigration restrictions. Yet the Syrian rush through the Mediterranean is now a trickle. The African migration is down by 95 percent.

No wonder that Emmanuel Macron, the young (40) president of France, was frustrated. Although he spent hours trying to liberalize the consensus on immigration restrictions he really wanted to spend most of the summit on reforming how the Eurozone works. An inner group of 19 members use the Euro as their currency.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 July 2018

Image: Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. UN Photo/Milton Grant

NPT Proves To Be An Exercise In Bad Faith As It Turns 50

By Alice Slater

The writer is the New York representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On July 1, the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) turned 50. In that agreement, five nuclear weapons states – the U.S., Russia, UK, France, and China – pledged to make "good faith efforts" to give up their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear weapons states vowed not to acquire them. Every country in the world agreed to join the treaty except for India, Pakistan, and Israel which then went on to develop their own nuclear arsenals.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 03 July 2018

Photo: ACP Secretary-General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes addressing the United Nations Summit for the adoption of Agenda 2030 for global development on 26 September 2015, United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Amanda Voisard.

79-Nation ACP Exercises Decisive Influence Globally

By Dr. Patrick I. Gomes

Following is the text of foreword by Dr. Patrick Ignatius Gomes, the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), to 'Striving for People, Planet and Peace – 2018 Report of the Joint Media Project of INPS-SG-IDN'. Prior to taking up the position of ACP SG, he served as Guyana’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Community and as Guyana’s representative to WTO and FAO. – The Editor.

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The ACP Group of States, established by the Georgetown Agreement on 6 June 1975, consists of 79 developing countries composed of 48 from Sub-Sharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific/Oceania region, accounting for a population of more than one billion persons.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - former ACP Seretary-General; OPINION; 01 July 2018

Photo: The home of Shumona (right) in Bangladesh has been destroyed by storms four times in the past five years. Credit: Mahmod/ActionAid.

Real Money Crucial for Success of Paris Climate Pact

By Harjeet Singh

The writer is Global Lead on Climate Change at ActionAid International and is based in New Delhi. The commitment and sincerity of developed countries to provide climate finance will determine whether the Paris Agreement will succeed in combating climate change, he warns. Views are personal. This article first appeared on 'India Climate Dialogue' on 22 June 2018, and is being reproduced with due acknowledgement. – The Editor

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – The home of Shumona, 9, and her grandmother in Patuakhali in southern Bangladesh has been destroyed by storms four times in the past five years. She and millions of climate change victims like her in the developing world remain oblivious to the fact that behind her suffering is unthinking industrialisation.