Afghan security forces have recaptured Tora Bora, a former fortress of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, from Islamic State (IS) militants, officials confirmed.IS had taken the tunnel and cave complex in Nangarhar Province from the Taliban five days ago...

NEW DELHI � Although Afghan businesses have long wanted to exploit the potential of India's huge market, trade between the two countries has been hampered due to their tense relations with Pakistan.

But a plane loaded in Kabul with 60 tons of medicinal plants landed in New Delhi this week, raising hopes of giving a major boost to commerce between landlocked Afghanistan and India.

The flight flagged off the establishment of a new air cargo corridor between the two countries. Along with another, more long-term initiative to develop the Iranian port of Chabahar, India hopes to ease access to conflict-ridden Afghanistan and eventually to Central Asian countries.

Pakistan is a barrier

Pakistan allows Afghanistan to send a limited amount of perishable goods over its territory to India, through which the shortest and most cost effective land routes lie. However, India is not allowed to send any imports through Pakistani territory.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani decided to establish the air corridor last September after Pakistan rejected fresh calls by the Afghan leader to allow his country to engage in direct trade with India over its territory.

Although India is the second largest destination for exports from Afghanistan, this lack of easy access has been a dampener.

Air corridor trade

In New Delhi, officials hope the new corridor will boost annual trade between the two countries from $700 million to $1 billion in three years and give a lift to exports of Afghanistan's agricultural and carpet industries.

A second flight is scheduled to land in New Delhi next week, bringing 40 tons of dried fruit from Kandahar.

At a ceremony marking the inaugural flight in Kabul on Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he wants to make Afghanistan an exporter country.

As long as we are not an exporter country, then poverty and instability will not be eliminated, he said.

Indian foreign ministry officials say the connectivity will allow Afghan businessmen to leverage India's economic growth and trade networks for its benefit and give farmers quick access to sell perishable products.

Does the air corridor trade have a viable future?

A prominent trader in New Delhi, Shyam Sunder Bansal, said he stopped trading with Afghan businesses several years ago due to the challenges such as transit routes, banking and currency facilities.

India is hoping to eventually extend air cargo flights to other cities.

But Bansal is skeptical whether it will be commercially viable to sustain imports via air. They cannot continue it forever because that will be unconventional, uneconomical, he said.

However, a South Asia expert with the Indian Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, Sukh Deo Muni, said since the distance involved is not too long, the air freight corridor could be viable.

He said New Delhi is committed to the project as it will open up access for India to not just Afghanistan but also Central Asian markets. According to Muni, broader significance is to give two messages. We are committed to Afghanistan and we want to tell Pakistan, you cannot obstruct our access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. This is the long term view.

Afghanistan mainly sends fresh and dried fruits, vegetables and oilseeds to India. It also takes a host of products from India -- a flight from New Delhi has carried pharmaceuticals, water purifiers and medical equipment to Kabul as part of the initiative.

Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said the frequency of the air service would depend on demand. It is, at the end of the day, a commercial venture which is supported very heavily, very strongly and very purposefully by both the governments.

Land corridor through Iran

India has also initiated another key project to develop the Iranian port of Chabahar and open a direct transport corridor to Central Asia and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. This would also give Kabul an alternate route to the Indian Ocean, which currently uses the Pakistani port of Karachi for sea trade.

There was optimism last year that the project would take off, but it is barely making headway amid fresh worries that the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump may reimpose sanctions on Iran.

Source: Voice of America

ISLAMABAD � Afghanistan's Taliban released a new video Wednesday showing two professors, one American and one Australian, urging U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate their freedom with the Islamist insurgent group.

American Kevin King, 60, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 48, teachers with the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, were kidnapped at gunpoint near the campus last August.

The Taliban wants freedom for its soldiers being held at the U.S.-run Bagram air base and the Afghan prison called Pul-e-Charkhi in return for freeing the two professors, the hostages said in their video message.

My captors treat me well. They treat me and my colleague Tim Weeks as their guests; but every prisoner's final wish is to get freedom from the prison, said King, who was seen with a long beard.

King said he recorded the message on June 16.

Plea to Australian PM

For his part, Weeks urged Australian politicians to raise the issue in Parliament, saying the only way for him to go home is for the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to speak to the Taliban and Trump in order to reach an agreement with their captors.

I pray that this happens shortly and that the Taliban soldiers may be returned home to their families for Eid [the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan] and that I may be able to go home to my family and to my friends. Help, please. Thank you, said Weeks.

A U.S. State Department official said later Wednesday, "We are aware of a recent video purporting to feature a U.S. citizen kidnapped in Afghanistan. We are still working to examine the video and are not currently in a position to comment on it."

"We continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Taking and holding civilian hostages is reprehensible and we condemn such actions in the strongest terms. The U.S. government is committed to seeing our citizens returned safely to their families and the department works closely with agencies across the government to do so," the official said.

The official said the department would be unable to comment further "due to privacy considerations."

The Afghan government did not immediately respond to the video.

Second video

This was the second video distributed by the Taliban to the news media since January as proof of life of the abductees in a bid to press for demands.

The hostages are believed to be in the custody of the notorious Haqqani network, an ally of the Taliban.

Barnett Rubin, associate director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University and writer of several books on Afghanistan, said, "The video appears to show that the two men are in reasonable physical health but under tremendous emotional strain, as is natural.

"They repeat the demands of the Taliban for a prisoner exchange. It would be wrong to speculate about the sincerity or insincerity of their statements, nor does it even mean anything, as no one can make free decisions under such conditions," Rubin said. "I don't want to comment on specific demands as that could disrupt ongoing efforts. I am sure the U.S. and Australian and Afghan governments are doing their utmost."

Michael Kugleman, a Pakistan-Afghanistan analyst at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan policy research group in Washington, said, "Watching this video is heartbreaking. The professors do not look or sound well, they look nervous, and they appear to be engaging in propaganda on the Taliban's behalf."

Execution plans

The video's release comes at a time when Afghan authorities are reportedly planning to execute a group of Taliban prisoners convicted on terrorism charges.

It is not clear, however, whether Annas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the Haqqani network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, is among the group of prisoners.

Afghan officials have not confirmed the reports, and the Taliban, in response, has threatened to unleash new attacks against all Afghan institutions if the government goes ahead with the executions.

The Afghan insurgents are also holding another U.S. citizen, Caitlan Coleman, 31, and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, 33. They were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012.

In a video message released in December, the couple urged then-President-elect Trump to negotiate with the Taliban to secure their release in return for the prisoners.

Source: Voice of America

STATE DEPARTMENT � The United States is urging China to play a more prominent role in combating global terrorism and help change the calculus on North Korea, ahead of high-level security talks with Beijing.

The first round of the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue kicks off in Washington Wednesday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis will host a Chinese delegation led by State Councilor Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the People's Liberation Army's Joint Staff Department.

Senior U.S. officials say China has taken a fairly limited profile in counterterrorism efforts. It is not a member of the 68-nation global coalition countering the Islamic State militant group

We would like to see them step up and take more responsibility, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Susan Thornton told VOA on Monday.

Thornton said China has a lot of interest in Iraq, and the U.S. thinks it should be doing more to contribute to the efforts of the international coalition to defeat IS.

Killings concern China

Earlier this month, two Chinese citizens were killed by Islamic State militants after being kidnapped in southwestern Pakistan. In November 2015, IS said it killed Chinese national Fan Jinghui. Both cases triggered grave concern from Beijing.

We have seen them [Chinese officials] become more interested over time, added Thornton, noting the talks are an early feeler on getting China more involved.

On Tuesday, Chinese officials said both countries have been victims of terrorism.

Cooperation is in the interests of both sides, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing.

Leveraging China's ties to North Korea

On North Korea, the U.S. is looking for China to change the calculus of the isolated regime and exert its leverage as North Korea's largest trading partner.

The most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region is North Korea, said Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Helvey on Tuesday. We seek to deepen our cooperation to realize the outcome which is in the best interest of peace and security in the region and the world.

The United Nations has blacklisted hundreds of North Korean entities, but many of them try to get business done though China, according to U.S. officials.

The issue is a sticking point between Washington and Beijing that experts say needs to be the focus of frank discussion.

The Chinese remain unconvinced that the U.S. goal is not regime change. The U.S. side remains unconvinced that China's goal is not to use the North Korean problem as leverage in the relationship, Dennis Wilder from Georgetown University's U.S.-China Initiative told VOA.

This is a matter of strategic trust that can only be built through this type of dialogue at the most senior levels, added Wilder, who served as the senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush.

'Freeze' proposed

Rand Corporation senior defense analyst Derek Grossman notes the last thing Beijing wants is a conflict that would end Kim Jong Un's regime and unleash new power dynamics at its doorstep.

Grossman said China's perpetual security concern is reflected in its proposal that the U.S. and South Korea freeze routine joint exercises in exchange for Pyongyang suspending its missile and nuclear programs.

U.S. officials say they welcome actions by countries that have ramped up pressure on Pyongyang, including phasing out the use of North Korean laborers, and denying the landing rights and refueling privileges of North Korea's national airline Air Koryo.

A lot of the wages of these workers go to the regime and to fund unlawful programs in North Korea, Thornton told reporters.

U.S. officials said Wednesday's Diplomatic and Security Dialogue is a departure from the Strategic and Economic Dialogue of years past that covered a wide range of issues. Instead, they say this week's discussion reflects a streamlined approach and will more narrowly focus on key security issues.

South China Sea

Another area in which Washington hopes to make headway is the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing's island building has raised concerns.

U.S. officials are calling for a binding code of conduct to resolve differences.

All parties should freeze any construction or militarization of features that they have outposts on in this space and make room and create the conditions for diplomacy, said Thornton.

Source: Voice of America

Pakistani officials say an air force jet has shot down an unmanned Iranian drone that was "deep inside the Pakistani airspace."Pakistani media quoted two unnamed officials on June 20 as saying the unmanned aircraft was shot down in the Panjgur district...

ژانگجیانگ، چین ، 20 جون 2017 ء/ سنہوا-ایشیانیٹ / — 2017ء چینی بین الاقوامی آبی مصنوعات کی نمائش (سی آئی اے پی ای 2017ء) و چینی سمندری غذائی حصول کا میلہ 18 جون سے ژانگجیانگ بین الاقوامی کنونشن و نمائشی مرکز میں شروع ہوچکا ہے۔ “چینی آبی مصنوعات کی صنعت کو دنیا سے منسلک کرنے […]