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Afghanistan Pakistan Ties: Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained strained since December 2024, when nearly 50 people were killed in Afghanistan’s Paktika province after Pakistan’s air force bombed the region.

Days after India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke with the Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi – the first ministerial-level outreach by India to Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, China has moved swiftly to organise a meeting between Islamabad and Kabul.

At the informal meeting, moderated by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, both Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed “in principle” to send ambassadors to each other’s country as soon as possible. They also expressed their willingness to upgrade the level of diplomatic ties, a statement by China’s foreign ministry has said.

CHINA ENGAGES AFGHANISTAN DIPLOMATICALLY

Besides the meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also held bilateral talks with Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar separately.

Beijing, which aims to foster stronger ties between Islamabad and Kabul, has swung into action after seeing India’s outreach to the Taliban administration. China was the first country to accept an ambassador from the Taliban-run administration in Kabul though it does not formally recognise its government. New Delhi, which has also kept diplomatic channels open, is yet to officially recognize the Taliban government.

THE AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN EQUATION

Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained strained since December 2024, when nearly 50 people were killed in Afghanistan’s Paktika province after Pakistan’s air force bombed the region.

Seeing that most of those who died in the bombing were children and women, Pakistan has, till date, not officially confirmed that it was their military which carried out the action. Islamabad however, did say that it was carrying out “anti-terror operations” in Afghanistan against terrorist groups that act against Pakistan.

Over the years, Pakistan has been openly blaming Afghanistan for being a “safe haven” for terrorists targeting it – Kabul has rejected these allegations.

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration has also expressed concern over the manner in which Pakistan was deporting tens of thousands of refugees. Mr Muttaqi had met his counterpart Ishaq Dar last month to address these concerns.

WHO SAID WHAT AFTER TODAY’S MEETING

Thanking China for facilitating talks with the Taliban, Pakistan’s foreign office has “welcomed positive momentum in bilateral ties, including enhanced diplomatic engagement, trade, and transit facilitation.”

China’s foreign minister said that Beijing and Islamabad also agreed to support the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, and are willing to expand trade exchanges with Afghanistan. Mr Wang also mentioned that during talks all sides agreed on security cooperation, combating terrorist forces and safeguarding regional peace and stability.

Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also “emphasized the importance of political and economic relations with both countries and expressed hope for further progress in these areas in the future.”

INDIA WIDENS COOPERATION WITH TALIBAN

India and the Taliban administration have been taking steps to strengthen ties since August 2021, when the regime came to power after US’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. Over the years, a series of meetings between Indian diplomats and Taliban officials have worked towards broader cooperation between the two countries which have shared historic ties.

Though ties have not yet normalised, India’s policy towards Afghanistan under the Taliban regime has been focused on providing humanitarian aid and the well-being of Afghan citizens. Diplomatic initiatives have also been ongoing towards bringing normalcy to ties. A series of diplomatic meetings have also taken place over the last one year.

A high-level meet also took place in Dubai in January this year, when foreign secretary Vikram Misri, along with an Indian delegation met Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and an Afghan delegation. The two leaders held wide-ranging bilateral talks, including on Chabahar Port.

The meeting in Dubai was aimed at bolstering cooperation over humanitarian aid, developmental assistance, trade, commerce, sports, cultural ties, regional security, and projects of national interest.

In recent times, the Government of India has also permitted the Taliban to gradually take control of the Afghan missions in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad in order to provide consular services to its nationals in India and assist those coming from Afghanistan to India on business or to study, or get medical care.

The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, but suspended it for 90 days till July 9.

India and the US may announce an interim trade agreement before July 8, with New Delhi seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff on domestic goods, an official said.

The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, but suspended it for 90 days till July 9. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place.

The government official said India’s endeavour to protect its sensitive sectors may entail some quota or minimum import price (MIP). Such sectors include agri goods and dairy.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was there in Washington earlier this week to give an impetus to the trade talks. He held meetings with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Talks are moving positively. Before July 8, we are looking at concluding an interim deal before the first tranche. It will include goods, non-tariff barriers, some areas of services also like digital. We are trying that the 26 per cent additional duty and the 10 per cent baseline tariff should not be there for India,” the official said, adding that India is seeking concessions for its labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and leather.

At present, the Trump administration requires approval from the US Congress to bring tariffs below the MFN (most favoured nation) rates.

But the administration has the authority to remove the reciprocal tariffs imposed on a number of countries, including India.

India may look at certain commitments from the US on the duty concessions for its labour-intensive sector in the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Both countries have fixed a deadline to conclude the first phase of the pact by fall (September-October) of this year to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.

The minister-level meetings were followed by the deliberations between the chief negotiators of the two countries, which will continue until May 22.

Officials from New Delhi and Washington are looking to take advantage of the 90-day tariff pause window to advance the talks. The US has suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9. It was announced on April 2 to bridge the widening trade deficit.

To boost bilateral trade, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America.

On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops.

While the import of GM crops from the US continues to remain a non-starter due to regulatory norms in India, New Delhi is open to import non-GM products like Alpha alpha hay (a kind of cattle feed).

The US has on multiple occasions raised concerns over certain non-tariff barriers being faced by American goods in the Indian markets.

Whether another round of talks will happen on the proposed pact between the two countries, the official said, “We are trying to finalise things as early as possible.” The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion. The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country’s total merchandise trade.

With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of USD 41.18 billion in goods in 2024-25. It was USD 35.32 billion in 2023-24, USD 27.7 billion in 2022-23, USD 32.85 billion in 2021-22 and USD 22.73 billion in 2020-21. The US has raised concerns over this widening trade deficit.

Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple for any iPhones sold, but not made, in the US.

President Donald Trump’s bid to bring manufacturing of Apple’s iPhone to the United States faces many legal and economic challenges, experts said on Friday, the least of which are the insertion of “little screws” that would need to be automated.

Trump threatened on Friday to impose a 25% tariff on Apple for any iPhones sold, but not made, in the US, as part of his administration’s goal of re-shoring jobs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS last month that the work of “millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones” would come to the U.S. and be automated, creating jobs for skilled trade workers such as mechanics and electricians.

But he later told CNBC that Apple CEO Tim Cook told him that doing so requires technology not yet available.

“He said, I need to have the robotic arms, right, do it at a scale and a precision that I could bring it here. And the day I see that available, it’s coming here,” Lutnick said.

The fastest way for the Trump administration to pressure Apple through tariffs would be to use the same legal mechanism behind punishing tariffs on a broad swath of imports, said trade lawyers and professors.

The law, known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, allows the president to take economic action after declaring an emergency that constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the U.S.

“There’s no clear legal authority that permits company-specific tariffs, but the Trump administration may try to shoehorn it under its emergency power authorities,” said Sally Stewart Liang, a partner at Akin Gump in Washington.

Other means of levying company-specific tariffs rely on lengthy investigations, Liang said.

But tariffs on only Apple “would provide a competitive advantage for other important phones, which undermines Trump’s goals of bringing manufacturing to the United States,” Liang said.

Experts said Trump has viewed IEEPA as a flexible and powerful economic tool, because it is not clear that courts have the power to review the president’s response to a declared emergency.

“In the administration’s view, as long as he enacts the ritual of declaring an emergency and pronouncing it unusual or extraordinary, there is nothing a court can do,” said Tim Meyer, an international law professor at Duke University.

In a case brought by 12 states challenging Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade, the court is considering that issue, and whether IEEPA authorizes tariffs at all.

If the Trump administration wins that case, “the president is not going to have any trouble coming up with an emergency as a justification to impose tariffs on Apple iPhone imports,” Meyer said.

Trump could even simply include iPhones under the trade deficit emergency that already formed the basis for tariffs declared earlier, Meyer said.

But moving production to the U.S. could take up to a decade and could result in iPhones costing $3,500 each, Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said in a research note. Apple’s top-of-the-line iPhone currently retails for around $1,200.

“We believe the concept of Apple producing iPhones in the US is a fairy tale that is not feasible,” Ives said.

Even without getting that far, a tariff on iPhones would increase consumer costs by complicating Apple’s supply chain and financing, said Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia.

“None of this is positive for American consumers,” he said.

The 45 Armored Brigade, the latest heavy combat unit from Germany in Lithuania, will have a total strength of around 5,000.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Lithuania this week to inaugurate Berlin’s brigade to help protect the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It’s the first permanent foreign troop deployment from Germany since the Second World War.

On his visit on Thursday, May 22, Mr Merz was joined by German defence minister Boris Pistorius. The ceremony officially marked the formation of an armoured brigade.

Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Merz said the security of the Baltic allies was also “our security,” CNN reported.

He even called on allies to expand efforts to bolster European defences against Moscow. By strengthening its military, Berlin has signalled to allies to further invest in security, Mr Merz said.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda termed it a “historic day,” since this was the first time a German brigade was based outside its territory on a long-term basis after the 1940s.

German troops in Lithuania

Germany has deployed its troops in Lithuania, which shares the borders with Russia’s Kaliningrad and Belarus, a key Moscow ally.

With its new brigade, it aims for a deeper engagement in the country, where it first started moving troops in 2017. This had been a work in progress for more than a year. It later expanded into an “activation staff,” which included 250 people, during last fall.

The 45 Armored Brigade, the latest heavy combat unit, will have a total strength of around 5,000, including 4,800 German soldiers, along with 200 civilian staff. It is expected to reach its full capacity by 2027.

On Thursday, dozens of military helicopters were seen roaring in the sky over the central cathedral square in Vilnius. 

Defence strategy

The German chancellor highlighted the country was “investing massively in its armed forces.”

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talked about raising its defence spending to the NATO target of 2% of GDP. He even made official a $113 billion special fund to modernise the Bundeswehr.

In January, Lithuania increased its defence spending from a little over 3% to somewhere between 5% and 6% of GDP, beginning 2026.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have increased following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam last month.

India on Saturday slammed Pakistan over its “disinformation” on the Indus Waters Treaty, which was suspended after a deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam last month. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, said the 65-year-old treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan, a “global epicentre of terror”, ends its support for cross-border terrorism.

His response came after the Pakistani representative raked up the agreement issue at the UN, saying “water is life and not a weapon of war”.

India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, which was signed in 1960, on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam attack left 26 people dead. New Delhi’s action came after it found “cross-border linkages” to the dastardly terror attack.

“India has always acted in a responsible manner as an upper riparian state,” Mr Harish said as he highlighted four points that “exposed” Pakistan.

“First, India entered into the Indus Water Treaty 65 years ago in good faith. The preamble of that treaty describes how it was concluded with spirit and friendship. Throughout the six and a half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of that treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India,” he said.

Mr Harish said that over 20,000 Indians have been killed in terrorist attacks in the last four decades. 

India has shown “extraordinary patience and magnanimity” throughout this period, he said.

“Pakistan state-sponsored cross-border terrorism in India seeks to hold hostage the lives of civilians, religious harmony, and economic prosperity,” he said.

“Second, in these 65 years, far-reaching fundamental changes have taken place, not only in terms of escalating security concerns through cross-border terror attacks but also growing requirements for producing clean energy, climate change, and demographic change,” the Indian Ambassador said.

“Technology for dam infrastructure has transformed to ensure safety and efficiency of operations and water use. Some of the old dams are facing serious safety concerns. However, Pakistan has continued to block consistently any changes to this infrastructure and any modifications of the provisions which is permissible under the treaty,” he said

Mr Harish said that in 2012, terrorists even attacked the Tulbul navigation project in Jammu and Kashmir. 

“These cynical acts continue to endanger the safety of our projects and the lives of civilians,” he said.

“Third, India has formally asked Pakistan to discuss modifications on several occasions in the past two years. However, Pakistan continues to reject these, and Pakistan’s obstructionist approach continues to prevent the exercise of full utilisation of the legitimate rights by India,” he stated.

“Four, it is against this backdrop that India has finally announced that the treaty will be in abeyance until Pakistan, which is a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border terrorism,” Mr Harish added.

“It is clear that it is Pakistan which remains in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty,” he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have increased following the Pahalgam attack.

India, after finding cross-border links to the attack, launched “Operation Sindoor” on May 7 and struck terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Pakistan then launched a massive missile and drone attack, but the threats were thwarted. In retaliation, Indian forces struck airfields in Pakistan. A ceasefire on May 10 ended the hostilities.

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