MOSCOW, MAR 23 – Russia and China said on Tuesday they wanted a summit of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council amid what they called heightened political turbulence, with Moscow saying they believed the United States was acting in a destructive way.

The two allies, whose relations with the West are under increasing strain, made the call for a U.N. summit in a joint statement after talks between the two countries’ foreign ministers.

“At a time of increasing global political turbulence, a summit of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council is particularly necessary to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve humankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability,” the statement, published on the Russian foreign ministry’s website, said.

Moscow has long been unilaterally pushing for such a summit.

The statement did not mention the United States by name. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was cited by the TASS news agency as telling a news conference after talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that Moscow and Washington were both unhappy with U.S. behaviour.

Washington, TASS cited him as saying, was relying on Cold war-era military and political alliances to try to destroy international legal architecture.

Both countries’ ties with Washington are strained.

U.S. and Chinese officials on Friday concluded what Washington called “tough and direct” talks in Alaska, while Russia’s ambassador is back in Moscow for talks after U.S. President Joe Biden said he believed President Vladimir Putin was a killer.

Kicking off his two-day China trip on Monday, Lavrov issued a call for Moscow and Beijing to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar.

Tuesday’s joint statement urged other countries to refrain from interfering in the domestic affairs of Russia and China.

Lavrov said Russia and China regarded European and Western sanctions as unacceptable.

On Monday, the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on a handful of Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Russia too is braced for a new round of U.S. sanctions over what Washington says was its meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which Moscow denies.

Lavrov, according to TASS, also took a swipe at the European Union, accusing Brussels of destroying Russia-EU ties and saying that Moscow only has relations with individual EU nations now.

Fifteen people have died and 400 are missing after a huge fire destroyed the shanty homes of tens of thousands of Rohingya in the world’s biggest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, the UN said Tuesday.

Nearly one million of the persecuted Muslim minority — many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that UN investigators concluded was executed with “genocidal intent” — live in squalid conditions at the network of camps in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district.

The fire broke out Monday and left at least 50,000 people homeless as it ripped through their flimsy bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, according to police and aid groups. Terrified families fled with whatever they could carry, with distraught children separated from their children in the rush.

It was just the latest blaze in recent weeks — and the biggest since 2017. Bangladesh has ordered a probe.

“People ran for their lives as it spread fast. Many were injured and I saw at least four bodies,” said Aminul Haq, a refugee.

Johannes Van der Klaauw, the UN Refugee Agency’s representative in Bangladesh, said that so far it has confirmed 15 people dead, 560 injured, 400 missing and at least 10,000 shelters destroyed.

“What we have seen in this fire is something we have never seen before in these camps. It is massive. It is devastating,” Van der Klaauw told reporters in Geneva via video link.

Officials said the blaze appeared to have started in one of the 34 camps — which span about 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) of land — before spreading rapidly to three other sites despite desperate efforts to put out the flames.

Thick columns of smoke could be seen billowing from blazing shanties in a video shared on social media, as hundreds of firefighters and aid workers pulled refugees to safety.

Firefighters finally brought the blaze under control around midnight. 

Unable to flee

Police inspector Gazi Salahuddin said the fire grew after gas cylinders used for cooking exploded.

Mohammad Yasin, a Rohingya helping with the firefight, told AFP the blaze raged for more than 10 hours and was the worst he had seen.

A volunteer for Save the Children, Tayeba Begum, said, “children were running, crying for their families”.

Refugees International said in a statement: “Many children are missing, and some were unable to flee because of barbed-wire set up in the camps.”

This was echoed by Myo Min Khan, a Rohingya, who wrote on Facebook: “We were unable to flee because of the fence, my youngest daughter got injured badly.”

AFP was not independently able to verify the claims about the fence.

Police rejected the accusation, saying only a tiny part of the camp was fenced.

“This tragedy is an awful reminder of the vulnerable position of Rohingya refugees who are caught between increasingly precarious conditions in Bangladesh and the reality of a homeland now ruled by the military responsible for the genocide that forced them to flee,” Refugees International said.

Third in four days

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said it has pledged $1 million to relief efforts but a further $20 million would be required to react to the most urgent needs.

It was the third blaze to hit the camps in four days, fire brigade official Sikder, who only goes by one name, told AFP.

Two separate fires at the camps on Friday destroyed scores of shelters, officials said.

Sikder said the cause of the blaze was not yet known.

Two big fires had also hit the camps in January, leaving thousands homeless and gutting four UNICEF schools.

Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner, Saad Hammadi, tweeted that the “frequency of fire in the camps is too coincidental, especially when outcomes of previous investigations into the incidents are not known and they keep repeating”.

Rohingya leader Sayed Ullah demanded an immediate probe. “It is not clear why these fire incidents are happening repeatedly in the camps. It needs proper and complete investigation,” he said.

The government has meanwhile been pushing for the refugees to be relocated to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, saying the settlements were too crowded.

So far, 13,000 Rohingya have been moved to the flood-prone island, which critics say is also in the path of deadly cyclones.

DNA

KARACHI, MAR 23: FPCCI’s Pak UAE Business Council (PUBC) held their first inaugural meeting today under the Chairmanship of Mr Diwan Fakhruddin and announced a new round of initiatives to take the trade relations between Pakistan and UAE to the next level. The meeting was attended by all the members of PUBC. Vice President of FPCCI Mr Nasir Khan graced the meeting with his presence signaling how important it is for FPCCI to spearhead the growth of trade between the two brotherly countries.

“Our relations with UAE are strong and Trade plays a major role in it and we need to now create a new road map to meet the changing needs of the UAE market sectors so as to grow both our exports to and imports from UAE” says Mr Diwan. He also emphasized on the fact that that companies doing business in UAE has to ensure quality and position itself “in building Brand Pakistan so as to effectively compete and enhance our market share in the UAE”.

“FPCCI plays a major role in Pakistan’s economy as export trade is the backbone hence PUBC will play an effective role through creating awareness and motivating FPCCI members to tap the emerging opportunities in UAE particularly in food and technology” said Mr Diwan.

He also announced the following in the meeting:

·         Area of focus # 1: Creating a HELP DESK of PUBC which shall provide all the information and assistance to the Pakistani companies wanting to do business in UAE or importing from UAE.

·         Area of focus # 2: A team shall be created by the Chairman to analyse the trading data between UAE and Pakistan so as to derive necessary business intelligence to create the new roadmap for enhancing the trade between the two countries.

·         Area of focus # 3: How to build Brand Pakistan in UAE workshops and online seminars for the FPCCI members.

·         Area of focus # 4: Ensure we maximise the opportunities arising from Expo 2021 for the FPCCI members through the Pakistan pavilion,

Asia-Pacific has two main hubs for traders; Singapore and UAE. The former is far and trade is relatively expensive there while the latter is closer and trade is quicker making it ideal for Pakistan. We can use this to our advantage and double our export.

The meeting was concluded with emphasis on Expo 2021. Mr. Diwan stated that this can be a gamechanger for Pakistan if we grab all opportunities that it has to offer. Companies and investors from all around the globe will be present and this will be our opportunity to showcase what Pakistan has to offer in terms of IT sector, agriculture, textile, tourism and much more. We urge all manufacturers in Pakistan especially in Gujarat, Sialkot and Gujranwala to participate in this exhibition, introduce themselves and help our economy grow.