Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

India, Pakistan to benefit from North-South Transport Corridor

India, Pakistan to benefit from North-South Transport Corridor

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin on Tuesday (21) said Russia is developing a North-South Transport Corridor, which will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran and Pakistan, as well as west Asian countries.

Putin also said Russia will expand its international economic connections, as well as build new supply corridors, in view of the crippling sanctions imposed by the West for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine nearly one year ago.

"We will develop the ports of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, we will particularly focus on the North-South International Corridor," Putin said in his one hour and 45 minutes State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly.

"We will continue developing this corridor," Putin was quoted as saying by the state-run Tass news agency, noting that it will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran, Pakistan as well as West Asian countries.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode transport project to move freight to India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.

Russia, India and Iran first signed the agreement for the INSTC whose aim is to to reduce the time taken for shipments to reach Russia and Europe, and enter central Asian markets.

Putin said a decision has been taken to extend the Moscow-Kazan highway to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen, and in the future, to Irkutsk and Vladivostok, and potentially to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, which will expand Russia's economic ties with the markets of Southeast Asia.

During a visit to Yerevan in Armenia in October 2021, India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar proposed that the strategic Chabahar Port in Iran be included in the North-South Transport Corridor.

The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at a distance of around 80 km from Chabahar.

The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by then Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan.

The Chabahar port is being considered a gateway for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with Central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi.

"The point of our work is not to adapt to current conditions, but to bring our economy to new frontiers," Putin said during his state of the nation address.

"It is a time not only of challenges, but of opportunities," he added, welcoming what he called the growing "independence" of Moscow's economy from foreign markets.

Russia's GDP contracted by 2.1 per cent in 2022 according to figures released by state agency Rosstat on Monday (20).

"The Russian economy and management system turned out to be much stronger than the West believed," Putin said.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Putin in the coming months.

Xi's meeting with Putin will be part of a push for multi-party talks on peace in Ukraine and allow China to reiterate its calls that nuclear weapons not be used, the report added.

Preparations for the trip are at an early stage and the timing has not been finalised, the WSJ said, adding that Xi could visit in April or in early May, when Russia celebrates its World War Two victory over Germany.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi arrived in Moscow on Tuesday as the country appears to be ramping up its diplomatic effort to push for a peace settlement in Ukraine.

Wang will likely discuss Xi's trip while he is in Moscow, WSJ said, quoting people familiar with the summit planning.

(Agencies)

More For You

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less
UK ramps up drought response following driest spring

The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries

Getty Images

UK ramps up drought response following driest spring since 1893

Key points

  • Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
  • Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
  • Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
  • North-west England officially declared in drought

Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer

The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.

The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Norman Tebbit

Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Former minister, Thatcher ally Norman Tebbit dies at 94

Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.

"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less