Joe Biden kicks off two-day Angola visit

DHAKA: Bangladesh has asked India to stop ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from making “false and fabricated” comments while she is in the country, its foreign ministry said.
Hasina fled to India in August following violent protests that killed more than 1,000 people.
In an online address on Wednesday, she called on her supporters to stand against the interim government in Bangladesh, accusing it of seizing power unconstitutionally.
Thousands of protesters trying to disrupt Hasina’s address had demolished and set fire to the home of Mujibur Rahman, her father and Bangladesh’s founding leader. The violence continued after Hasina spoke.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry handed over a protest note to India’s acting high commissioner in Dhaka, conveying “deep concern, disappointment and serious reservation” over her comments, it said on its Facebook page.
“The ministry ... requested ... India to immediately take appropriate measures, in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding, to stop her from making such false, fabricated and incendiary statements,” it said.
Hasina could not be contacted for comment.
Although India did not comment on the communication from Bangladesh, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal condemned the destruction of Rahman’s home as an “act of vandalism.”
“All those who value the freedom struggle that nurtured Bangla identity and pride are aware of the importance of this residence for the national consciousness of Bangladesh,” he said.
It was in the same house that Rahman declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971, and he and most of his family were assassinated within its walls in 1975.
Hasina transformed the building into a museum dedicated to her father’s legacy.
The interim government’s chief adviser, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, appealed to people on Friday to restore law and order and ensure there were no more attacks on properties linked to Hasina’s family or politicians from her Awami League party.
“Any attacks to their properties gives them an excuse to draw international attention to themselves and dish out their fabricated stories ... Any deterioration of law and order will give a wrong message to the world,” he said.
Bangladesh has been grappling with political strife since Hasina was ousted, with the interim government struggling to maintain law and order amid continuing unrest.
India and Bangladesh, which share a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 miles) border, have longstanding cultural and business ties.
India also played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh.

BRUSSELS: The main international forum for drumming up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine will for the first time meet under the auspices of a country other than the US as uncertainty surrounds the future of Washington’s support for arming the war-torn country.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations, was brought together by former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to coordinate weapons support in the months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism for backing Ukraine, criticizing its President Volodymyr Zelensky and saying last month that his administration had already held ” very serious” discussions with Russia about ending the conflict.
The UK is convening the 26th meeting of the contact group on Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The meeting is aimed at discussing “priorities for Ukraine as the international community continues to work together to support Ukraine in its fight against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement released on Thursday.
It’s the first time that a country other than the US has convened the forum, although Austin’s successor, Pete Hegseth, is scheduled to take part. It was not immediately clear whether the UK convened the meeting on its own initiative or whether Washington requested it.
A senior US official said, “We appreciate the UK’s leadership in convening the 50-plus countries who participate in this forum. Ally and partner burden-sharing remains critical to helping achieve peace in Ukraine.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The US is by far the largest single foreign contributor of military aid to Ukraine, providing about 30 percent of Ukraine’s weaponry, as much as the 27 members of the European Union put together.
Kathleen Burk, emeritus professor of history at University College London, told The Associated Press that if the US has asked Britain to chair the meeting of Ukraine’s Western backers, it “seems to tell me that disengagement has already begun.”
Zelensky attended the last meeting in January, as the Biden administration rushed to provide his country with as much military support as it could, including a new $500 million package of weapons and relaxing restrictions on missile strikes into Russia.
The aim was to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.
In June last year, NATO defense ministers approved a permanent system to provide reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine after delays in Western deliveries of funds, arms and ammunition helped invading Russian forces to seize the initiative on the battlefield.
The NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which began work in December, had been described as a way to “Trump-proof” NATO backing for Ukraine, a reference to concern that Trump might withdraw US support for Kyiv.
NSATU, which is headquartered at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany, was publicly portrayed by NATO officials as a system that would complement rather than replace the contact group.