NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday held talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on the latest developments in Afghanistan as he stopped over in Qatar’s capital Doha on his way back home from a four-day visit to the US.

The Taliban’s political leaders have been residing in the Gulf country for years.

“Met Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani @MBA_AlThani_DPM & FM Qatar during my stop over in Doha. Had useful exchange of views on Afghanistan,” Jaishankar tweeted.

The talks came five days after Afghan capital Kabul fell to the Taliban after it swept across Afghanistan, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in an over month-long offensive following the withdrawal of the US forces.

The Qatari foreign minister, who also holds the post of deputy prime minister, said the discussions included the recent developments in Afghanistan.

“Delighted to welcome again my colleague @DrSJaishankar, #India’s Minister of External Affairs. Our discussion included ways of developing the historical relations between our two friendly nations, along with the recent developments in #Afghanistan,” he said on Twitter.

On Tuesday, India completed the evacuation of all its diplomats and other staff members from Kabul under a difficult and complicated exercise, two days after the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital.

The mission to evacuate close to 200 people including the Indian envoy and other staffers in two military aircraft was accomplished with support from the US.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said the Taliban has been carrying out door-to-door searches of several embassies in Kabul and had gone to the Indian mission complex as well.

Jaishankar had made two stopovers at Doha in June during his visit to Kenya and Kuwait.

Qatar had also hosted talks between the Taliban and the United States.

Earlier this month, Qatari special envoy for conflict resolution Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani visited India during which he met Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and J P Singh, the Joint Secretary in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

UNITED NATIONS: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India has a historical relationship with the Afghan people and that will continue to guide its thoughts and outlook as he spoke on the volatile situation in the war-torn country at the UN Security Council.

“We have a historical relationship with the Afghan people and I think that relationship will continue to guide our thoughts and outlook,” he said.

On another question, he said: “we’re working with international partners in this regard, especially the US, as it controls the airport”.

He emphasised that repatriation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan remained its top priority.

He said this while addressing reporters at the UN Security Council stake-out after chairing the Security Council briefing on the ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’, held under India’s current Presidency of the Council.

In response to a question, he said on the issue of “where we go on from now” with the Taliban in control in Afghanistan, he said: “the immediate issue that we are looking at is really the repatriation of our nationals.”

“In India’s case, India’s nationals, other countries have their concerns”.

In response to a question by PTI on the situation in Afghanistan and that Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed can take advantage of the situation to increase cross-border terrorism, he said India has unfortunately had a long experience with cross-border terrorism.

“I think I made it very clear that we have had unfortunately a long experience with cross border terrorism. We are not the only country which has had it, there are other countries. I mentioned Afghanistan,” Jaishankar said.

“I specifically, in fact, mentioned some of the groups that you did – Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. I think this is a continuing issue and we made the point very strongly that it’s important therefore that there are no double standards, that there are no distinctions in the fight against terrorism,” he added.

India on Tuesday rushed back home its ambassador Rudrendra Tandon and staff from the embassy in Kabul in a military transport aircraft following escalating tension, fear and uncertainty gripping the Afghan capital after the Taliban insurgents seized the Afghan capital on Sunday.

The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the Indian Air Force carrying around 150 people, including diplomats, officials, security personnel and some stranded Indians, landed at the Hindon airbase near the national capital at around 5 PM after a brief halt at Jamnagar in Gujarat, in the wake of escalating tension, fear and uncertainty gripping the Afghan capital after its take over by the Taliban two days back.

It was the second evacuation flight as another C-17 aircraft brought back around 40 people from the Hamid Karzai International (HKI) Airport in Kabul on Monday as part of India’s emergency evacuation mission that was carried out following coordination with relevant authorities including US officials handling security at the airport in the Afghan capital.

He also said that events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security as the Taliban seized power in the war-torn country, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.

Jaishankar, chairing a high-level United Nations Security Council briefing on “Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’ held under India’s current presidency of the UNSC, voiced concern over the situation in Afghanistan where India has made investments in the past two decades.”

Jaishankar said that in India’s own immediate neighbourhood, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Khorasan (ISIL-K) has become more energetic and is constantly seeking to expand its footprint.

“Events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security,” he said, adding that the heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justify this growing anxiety.

Jaishankar said whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement.

“It is, therefore, vital that this Council does not take a selective, tactical or complacent view of the problems we face. We must never countenance sanctuaries for terrorists or overlook their raising of resources,” he said.

Jaishankar thanked Dr Davood Moradian, Director General of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, for joining the briefing remotely and for sharing his valuable insights on the issue.

India on Tuesday rushed back home its ambassador Rudrendra Tandon and staff from the embassy in Kabul in a military transport aircraft following escalating tension, fear and uncertainty gripping the Afghan capital after the Taliban insurgents seized the Afghan capital on Sunday.

The ISIL-K is a blacklisted faction of the Islamic State terror group.

The UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee in 2019 blacklisted ISIL-K, which is also known as ISIL’s South Asia Branch, ISIL Khorasan, Islamic State’s Khorasan Province and South Asian Chapter of ISIL.

BEIJING: China’s national legislature on Friday formally endorsed the three-child policy mooted by the ruling Communist Party, in a major policy shift aimed to prevent a steep decline in birth rates in the world’s most populous country.

In an apparent attempt to address the reluctance of the Chinese couples to have more children due to mounting costs, the amended law has also passed more social and economic support measures to address the concerns.

The new law stipulates that the country will take supportive measures, including those in finances, taxes, insurance, education, housing and employment, to reduce families’ burdens as well as the cost of raising and educating children, state-run China Daily reported.

The NPC has revised the law to implement the central leadership’s decision to cope with new circumstances in social and economic development and promote balanced long-term population growth, the report said.

In May this year, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) approved a relaxation of its strict two-child policy to allow all couples to have up to three children.

China permitted all couples to have two children in 2016, scrapping the draconian decades-old one-child policy which policymakers blame for the demographic crisis in the country.

Chinese officials claim the one-child policy implemented for over three decades has prevented over 400 million births.

The decision to permit the third child came after this month’s once-in-a-decade census showed that China’s population grew at the slowest pace to 1.412 billion amid official projections that the decline may begin as early as next year.

The new census figures revealed that the demographic crisis China faced was expected to deepen as the population of people above 60 years grew to 264 million, up by 18.7 per cent last year.

As the calls for the government to do away with the family planning restrictions grew louder due to the concerns that the declining population in the country could result in serious labour shortages and negatively impact the world’s second-largest economy, the CPC decided to permit a third child while declining to completely scrap the family planning policy.

“Data shows the ageing of the Chinese population has further deepened, and we will continue to face the pressure to achieve a long-term balanced population development,” Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said while releasing the census figures on May 11.

The two-child policy failed to enthuse couples to have a second child as fewer opted for the second child, citing heavy expenditure in raising the children.

The poor response made Liang Jianzhang, professor at Peking University’s School of Economics, to suggest the government offer parents one million yuan (USD 156,000) for each newborn child to shore up the country’s declining birth rate.

Dan Wang, the chief economist at Hang Seng Bank (China), said the three-child policy would have a positive impact on China‘s birth rate, but not as much as the authorities hoped for.

“The high costs of housing and education, as well as a lack of job protection for women, are strong economic constraints on having children,” she said, adding that the cost of having a third child would be too high for most middle-class families.

The declining trend prompted Chinese demographers to predict that India’s population may overtake China’s earlier than the UN projection of 2027 to take the top spot as the most populous country in the world.

Projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country around 2027, India is expected to add nearly 273 million people between now and 2050 and will remain the most populated country through the end of the current century, a UN report said in 2019.

The UN report stated that in 2019, India had an estimated population of 1.37 billion and China 1.43 billion and by 2027 India’s population is projected to surpass China’s.

Lu Jiehua, professor of sociology at Peking University, said that China’s population may peak by 2027 before it starts to decline.

Some demographers believe the peak may come as soon as 2022.

China is also facing the risk of falling into the trap of low fertility, as it recorded 12 million births in 2020, marking a drop for the fourth consecutive year.

China’s total fertility rate of women of childbearing age was 1.3, a relatively low level.

A report this year by China’s central bank – the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) – said demographics of China is set to change as its population growth enters negative growth after 2025, which will result in a shortage of consumer demand.

“When the total population enters negative growth [after 2025], there will be a shortage of demand.

We need to pay attention to the impact of demographics on future consumption,” said Cai Fang, a member of the monetary policy committee of the PBOC.

The PBOC study said China should immediately liberalise its birth policies or face a scenario in which it has a lower share of workers and a higher burden of elderly care than the US by 2050.

It said the country should not interfere with people’s ability to have children or it will be too late to reverse the economic impact of a declining population.

China is also eyeing a progressive, flexible and differentiated path to raising the retirement age.

NEW DELHI: A virtual meeting of top opposition leaders to finalise a ‘common Strategy against Modi government’ and to raise several issues related to the public, including price rise, Pegasus snooping, COVID-19 mismanagement, unemployment and economic slowdown is scheduled for Friday. The meeting would be chaired by Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi.

“We will discuss and finalise the strategy to raise the problems faced by the general public and the issues that the government did not allow to discuss in the monsoon session of the Parliament that concluded recently,” Yechury said.

“We have to take up the issues related to the common man. The questions are about COVID-19 mismanagement, shortage of vaccine, economic slowdown, unemployment, hunger, price hike of essential commodities, the farmers issue, government privatisation policy and Pegasus snooping row. All these questions were to be discussed in the Parliament and the government did not allow the discussion so, we will go to the public regarding all these issues,” Yechury elaborated.

The CPI(M) General Secretary further told ANI that in the opposition meeting, scheduled for today, the leaders will discuss and finalise a common strategy to go in public with and to expose the Modi government’s “real face”.

Today, opposition leaders will be meeting virtually under the leadership of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and top leaders, including three Chief Ministers, including Mamata Banerjee CM of West Bengal, Uddhav Thackeray CM of Maharashtra, and M K Stalin CM of Tamil Nadu. NCP President Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary D Raja, among others are expected to join the meeting.

The meeting is a part of the Congress party’s efforts to unite various opposition parties on key issues to set the platform to defeat BJP in the upcoming assembly elections in 5 states.

In the recently concluded monsoon session of the Parliament, opposition parties displayed unity, leading to disruption of both Houses. The opposition leaders had given several Suspension of Business notices, Adjournment Motion Notice and had sought a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row, along with the farm laws and other issues.

Today’s meeting is being held in the backdrop of the government demanding strict action against those who indulged in unruly behaviour in the Upper House during the passing of the Insurance Amendment Bill.