JAIPUR: The Indian state of Rajasthan is preparing for new collaborations with Saudi Arabia, its industry and commerce minister said, following meetings with the Kingdom’s delegation to the region’s first international investment summit in Jaipur.
India’s largest state by area hosted the first Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit this week to draw foreign cooperation, as it seeks to double its gross domestic product to $350 billion in the next five years.
Representatives from over 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, UK, Australia, Japan and Russia were present during the three-day event that concluded on Wednesday.
The Saudi Ministry of Investment, which set up an Invest Saudi pavilion at the forum, brought 16 delegates for prospective cooperation talks with Indian businesses.
“It was the biggest delegation. I must thank the Saudi Arabian government for this initiative,” Rajasthan Industry Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore told Arab News after a meeting with Saudi delegates on Tuesday evening.
“I see the partnership between the two nations growing stronger. As it is very strong politically, I think even in terms of business, we can move much closer ... We had a wonderful interaction. They have already begun to show their interest in mining.”
Rajasthan, with its expansive desert landscapes hosting numerous photovoltaic plants, leads India in solar energy production. The state is also the top producer of marble, home to the country’s largest lead mines, and holds rich deposits of copper and rare-earth elements.
“It’s one of the best places to invest in India ... there are multiple sectors that Saudi companies could be interested in,” Rathore said.
“We have a lot of land, we have a lot of sun, and we have multiple sectors, including minerals, mining, renewable energy, petrochemical, logistics, infrastructure, education, agro-based products — innumerable (sectors).”
Cooperation in the hospitality industry was also on the table. Rajasthan has nine sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list, including Jaipur city, six forts built between the 5th and 18th centuries, and Keoladeo National Park, which hosts thousands of native, resident and migratory birds.
“We have discussed if multiple hotels can be set up because tourism is quite big,” Rathore said. “We also discussed the possibility of a Saudi company investing in a luxury train.”
Abdullah Al-Arfaj, director of international relations for South and West Asia at the Saudi Ministry of Investment, told Arab News after talks with the industry minister that discussions “centered around key areas such as agriculture, food security, mining, health care, education, and human resources.”
Cooperation in agriculture would focus on innovative practices and establishing reliable supply chains, while in mining it would “develop Rajasthan’s mineral wealth, utilizing Saudi expertise in mining and resource management,” he said, adding that the Kingdom was also keen on attracting top talent from Rajasthan to the sectors of technology, health care and engineering.
“These collaborative areas align with our shared priorities and present significant opportunities for long-term economic and social impact,” Al-Arfaj said.
“We explored opportunities to leverage Rajasthan’s strengths in these sectors while aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals to promote economic diversification and sustainable development.”
India’s Rajasthan state explores strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia in mining, food security
https://arab.news/9suth
India’s Rajasthan state explores strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia in mining, food security
- Kingdom keen on attracting Rajasthani talent in technology, health care, engineering
- Saudi Arabia sent the largest delegation to Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit
World entering new era as nuclear powers build up arsenals — SIPRI think tank
- Nine nuclear states — US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel plan to increase their stockpiles
- Of total global inventory of estimated 12,241 warheads in Jan. 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use
STOCKHOLM: The world’s nuclear-armed states are beefing up their atomic arsenals and walking out of arms control pacts, creating a new era of threat that has brought an end to decades of reductions in stockpiles since the Cold War, a think tank said on Monday.
Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,241 warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its yearbook, an annual inventory of the world’s most dangerous weapons.
Around 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles, nearly all belonging to either the US or Russia.
SIPRI said global tensions had seen the nine nuclear states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — plan to increase their stockpiles.
“The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end,” SIPRI said. “Instead, we see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements.”
SIPRI said Russia and the US, which together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons, had kept the sizes of their respective useable warheads relatively stable in 2024. But both were implementing extensive modernization programs that could increase the size of their arsenals in the future.
The fastest-growing arsenal is China’s, with Beijing adding about 100 new warheads per year since 2023. China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as either Russia or the US by the turn of the decade.
According to the estimates, Russia and the US held around 5,459 and 5,177 nuclear warheads respectively, while China had around 600.
Police break up Nigeria protest as anger mounts over killings in southern state
- Gunmen attacked the village of Yelewata in Benue state, killiing over 100, according to Amnesty International
- Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings, in comments during his Sunday prayer in Rome, calling it a “terrible massacre”
JOS, Nigeria: Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the central city of Makurdi on Sunday, as anger mounted over the killing of dozens of people by gunmen in a nearby town.
Gunmen attacked the village of Yelewata on Friday night in a region that has seen a surge in violence amid clashes between Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farmers competing for land and resources.
Police fired tear gas to break up a protest by thousands of people, witnesses said, as demonstrators called on the state’s governor to act swiftly to halt the cycle of violence.
“The protesters were given specific time by the security to make their peaceful protest and disperse,” Tersoo Kula, spokesperson for Benue state’s governor, told AFP.
John Shiaondo, a local journalist, said he was covering the “peaceful protest” when the police moved in and started firing tear gas.
“Many people ran away for fear of injuries, and I also left the scene for my safety,” he told AFP.
Joseph Hir, who took part in the protest, said people were protesting the killings in Benue when the police intervened.
“We are not abusing anyone, we are also not tampering with anybody’s property, we are discharging our rights to peacefully protest the unabated killings of our people, and now the police are shooting tear gas at us,” he told AFP.
Benue state governor Hyacinth Alia told a news conference late Sunday that the death toll had reached 59 in Yelewata, though residents said the toll could exceed 100.
“We will move very quickly to set up a five-man panel... to enable us find out who the culprits are, to know who the sponsors are and to identify the victims and to see how justice will be applied,” Alia said.
Amnesty International put the death toll at more than 100.
The rights group called the attack “horrifying,” saying it “shows the security measures (the) government claims to be implementing in the state are not working.”
Pope Leo XIV also condemned the killings, in comments during his Sunday prayer in Rome, calling it a “terrible massacre” in which mostly displaced civilians were murdered with “extreme cruelty.”
He said “rural Christian communities” in Benue were victims of incessant violence.
Authorities typically blame such attacks on Fulani herders but the latter say they are targets of violence and land seizures too.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a statement Sunday night he had “directed the security agencies to act decisively and arrest perpetrators of these evil acts on all sides of the conflict and prosecute them.
“Political and community leaders in Benue State must act responsibly and avoid inflammatory utterances that could further increase tensions and killings,” he said.
Governor Alia said earlier that “tactical teams had begun arriving from the federal government and security reinforcements are being deployed in vulnerable areas.”
“The state’s joint operational units are also being reinforced, and the government will not let up its efforts to defend the lives and property of all residents,” he said.
Attacks in the region, part of what is known as the central belt of Nigeria, are often motivated by religious or ethnic differences.
Two weeks ago, gunmen killed 25 people in two attacks in Benue state.
More than 150 people were killed in massacres across Plateau and Benue states in April.
EU chief calls at G7 for world to ‘avoid protectionism’
- “Let us keep trade between us fair, predictable and open. All of us need to avoid protectionism,” von der Leyen says
KANANASKIS, Canada: EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday called on G7 leaders to avoid protectionist trade policies as leaders from the industrialized countries arrived at their annual summit.
“Let us keep trade between us fair, predictable and open. All of us need to avoid protectionism,” von der Leyen said at a press briefing, with US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught certain to enter the conversations at the three-day event.
North Korea troops suffered more than 6,000 casualties in Ukraine war, UK defense intelligence says
- North Korea and Russia are under UN sanctions — Kim for his nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for the Ukraine war
SEOUL: North Korean troops have suffered more than 6,000 casualties fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine, more than half of the about 11,000 soldiers initially sent to the Kursk region, the British Defense Ministry said in a post on X on Sunday.
Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Trump in a social media posting called on ICE officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”
Trump’s declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.
At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a US official familiar with the matter who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
