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I remember reading in some sites that IMF went back to supporting austerity measures.
The IMF know damn well that austerity is almost as unpopular in developed countries as it is in the Global South, so they want to avoid having their support for austerity come under anyone's looking glass. Hence occasional steps away from it when the cameras are rolling.
The IMF has to take public opinion into account, but I imagine the careerists there are the kind of civil servants who don't have a high opinion of democracy.
Looks like the anti-Rajakpaksa crowd is hanging around President's House last I checked until he submits his resignation formally.
The president only said verbally that he'll do so.
Rajapaksa spotted in the Maldives.
The Rajapaksas are finished. But what now...
The Indians and the Chinese are helping, but neither is gonna do it for free. India will want to wrest influence from Beijing so as to break the infamous String of Pearls strategy. China will want a return on previous investment.
Looks like the crowd don't even want the opposition leader to head an interim government.
Rajapaksa spotted in Singapore.
I suspect he won't stay too long. For those who don't know, Singapore has a Tamil community and the Tamil language is treated equally with English, Malay and Mandarin Chinese.
Cross-posting from the General Russia and the General Middle East threads:
Russia to use United Arab Emirates dirham to trade with India
Russia is looking to complete an oil deal with Indian refiners using the United Arab Emirates' local currency, rather than in dollars, according to a Reuters report.
An invoice seen by Reuters revealed an Indian refiner was asked to pay for deliveries in dirhams, though the figure was first calculated in dollars. A payment in dirhams was made out to Gazprombank via Mashreq Bank, its corresponding bank in Dubai.
At least two Indian refiners have already settled some transactions using dirhams, and there are more to come soon as trading firms used by Rosneft only just started asking for payments in dirhams this month, the report added.
The moves signal Moscow is increasingly distancing itself from the US dollar as a way to minimize the impact of Western sanctions.
Typically, the dollar is the primary international trade currency, especially for commodities like oil. This also affords the US political and financial leverage over other nations, as exhibited by recent sanctions imposed on Moscow. But Russia looking to alternate currencies now.
Earlier in March, Russia and India were in talks to revive a Cold-War era currency pact to evade sanctions too. A rupee-ruble ledger would allow the nations to do business without the use of US dollars.
Additionally, in recent months trade volume between yuan and rubles have soared, hitting a six-month high in June, Bloomberg data shows. Spot trading between the two currencies hit $48 million in the interbank market last month.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is the new Sri Lankan president.
Cringe but free
"Meet the new boss, literally just the old boss"?
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
I mean, the people electing him and the people who, uh, de-elected the old President are not remotely the same people.
Sri Lankan officials denied that ex-president Rajapaksa is hiding in Singapore. Said that he’ll return soon.
ICA said that he’s on a short term pass.
So guys, keep an eye on Pakistan. It looks like Imran Khan is managing (despite...frankly...himself) to stage a comeback without the Army's backing. He won by elections in Punjab last week (even when it seemed like the votes would be thrown out from one of his coalition partners, the courts backed him). Controlling Punjab technically has nothing to do with the federal govt prospects for early general elections, but it is a good indicator of where the momentum is right now.
I find that a bit worrisome to boot, given his rather jaundiced views on policy making in general and foreign affairs in particular.
Interesting news that I heard lately aside from Rajapaksa…
I'd be less worried about Khan regaining power and more that he comes close enough to regaining power that the military decides to openly step in against him, TBH.
The Army can't. The main reason Khan hasn't been swatted aside like all the rest has nothing to do with he himself. He's a pretty bog standard short-sighted Pakistani demagogue.
However, he is a demagogue whose main constituency are the military rank and file. So even of the Army officers want him gone (and they do), they can't launch a coup like they used to because its not entirely clear the average grunt would follow their orders if they did.
That being said, if Khan had complete support of the rank and file, the generals wanting him gone would be themselves gone by now, or a coup in support of him would have taken place from a lower level officer. So the fact that the army is divided is the bigger danger.
On the one hand, a Pakistani politician able to resist the military ought to be a good thing. On the other, the reason he can resist the military is because he's just as bad.
Whoever wins, we lose.
Looks like Singapore's allowing Rajapaksa to extend his stay.
That's about what most local analysts have concluded as well.
In more news, it looks like the Electoral Commission of Pakistan has declared that Pakistan's PTI party has taken foreign donations, which marks them as a foreign funded party by the commission's definition. It possibly, if the Supreme Court allows it, opens the door to Khan being barred from ever running for public office again due to the "sadiq and ameen" clause, the same clause that got Nawaz banned.
Lot of schadenfreude from the N-league, lot of "everyone else is corrupt what does it matter" from the PTI people.
Also, in unrelated news, the 12th Corps (the main military formation in Balochistan) Commander died in a helicopter crash yesterday. BLA militants are claiming they shot it down though this has not been confirmed by the Army yet.
US to take part in military exercise near India's disputed border with China, any Indian sources talking about this?
So it is true. I don't think that's normal, though?
Sri Lanka Defers Visit From Chinese Ship Over India’s Concerns: China complains of ‘gross interference’ after delay of stop by survey vessel. That reminds me of something: Why do we hear much less about India haranguing and bullying other countries than China or Russia? Do they just have better PR, or does New Delhi practice more restraint?
I don't think the Indian government can project its power to the same extent as the Chinese or Russian governments, it's mostly limited to countries in its immediate vicinity. Beyond that, it probably just has a better PR team. Friendly relations with the American government probably help.
Didn’t the IMF start backing away from austerity a few years ago?
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran