India, Japan sign pacts on AI, metals and energy after Modi-Takaichi talks

NEW DELHI, July 2: India and Japan agreed on Thursday to boost cooperation in artificial intelligence, metals, energy and defence as well as prepare a joint roadmap for economic security, as the Asian nations sought to further strengthen their ties.

The agreements were ​signed after talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi, who is on ​a three-day visit to New Delhi.

"Japan and India will leverage each other's strengths to ⁠grow strong and prosperous together," Takaichi told reporters after the talks. "Amid a turbulent international landscape, ​building such a mutually complementary cooperative relationship has become increasingly important."

Her visit follows a trip by Modi ​to Tokyo last year, when Japan pledged to more than double its investment in India to more than $61 billion over the next decade, highlighting deepening economic ties.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached $27.5 billion in fiscal year 2025/26, ​while Japanese investment in India was $3.2 billion between April and December 2025, according to Indian government ​data.

The two leaders held "wide-ranging talks on the full spectrum of India-Japan ties, including trade and investment, ‌economic ⁠security, energy, emerging technologies, defence and people-to-people exchanges", the Indian foreign ministry said.

Both sides adopted three "landmark" documents on economic security, energy resilience and AI, it added.

"The convergence of Japan's precision technology and India's software capabilities will give a new momentum and strength to global AI development," Modi told reporters.

Neither prime ​minister took questions.

Modi said ​the two countries, which are ⁠also members of the Quad grouping, signed an agreement on their first co-development project in the defence sector. Australia and the U.S. are the other two members ​of the Quad grouping, which is widely seen as a bloc formed ​to counter ⁠China's rising influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Japan is among India's largest investors, backing major infrastructure projects including a high-speed rail corridor between the cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Japanese firms have also increased investments in ⁠Indian companies, ​including a recent $1.6 billion deal for a 20% stake ​in Yes Bank.

Takaichi is accompanied by a large business delegation.

Pak Army Handed Guns To Kashmiris, Now They Call Us Terrorists: PoK Leader

RAWALKOT, July 2: The anti-government protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have entered the 24th day, with over 80,000 demonstrators gathered at the Eidgah grounds in Rawalakot, with Sardar Aman Khan, the leader of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), making one of the biggest revelations about Pakistan's state-sponsored terror infrastructure.

Khan claimed that it is Pakistan's military that originally supplied weapons to Kashmiris. He said that the Pakistan Army pushed weapons and ammunition into Jammu and Kashmir.

"It was the Pakistan Army itself that handed guns to Kashmiris. And today, they have the audacity to call us terrorists," he said.

While addressing the gathering, Khan also referred to a Jaish-e-Mohammed event last year in February in which armed participants marched through the city carrying dangerous weapons such as AK-47s and swords.

He said that the Deputy Commissioner of Rawalakot allowed and provided security to the rally.

"Deputy Commissioner Rawalkot, you used to organise rallies here with guns and swords. Do you remember? And you will call us terrorists. All these people (protesters) are heirs of this land," he said.

His address was met with loud applause from the crowd.

Khan warned the Pakistani government that if the 38 demands of the movement were not accepted and implemented, the issue would no longer be limited to that and would instead become a movement to demand that Pakistan completely vacate Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Two days earlier, protesters in Rawalakot voiced opposition to Islamabad's control of the region.

During the demonstration, speakers claimed that the region should no longer be considered under Pakistan's control and warned about seeking stronger engagement with India.

In his address, Khan said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was not part of Pakistan and claimed that Pakistan needed the region more than them.

The protests are not limited to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and supporters living abroad have organised demonstrations outside Pakistani diplomatic missions in several countries.

'World Order Will Collapse': Pakistan's Cry For Help Over Indus Waters

ISLAMABAD, July 1: Amid fears of water shortage during the severe heatwave, a desperate Pakistan hosted an "international conference", warning that every "world order that is on paper" will collapse if the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is not upheld.

India had suspended the water-sharing treaty, brokered by the World Bank, as one of the punitive measures against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025 that killed 26 civilians.

The treaty has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between the two nuclear-armed neighbours since 1960.

Pakistan is worried about a possible water crisis as the usual sweltering summers are likely to become even more devastating this year amid the El Niño weather pattern taking hold over the equatorial Pacific waters.

Speaking at the so-called international conference titled 'The Indus Waters Treaty: A Key Instrument for Peace and Regional Stability' in Islamabad, Pakistan's deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar, claimed India's decision to revoke the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was "illegal" and said water should never be used as a political tool.

"No party can unilaterally suspend or terminate its obligations under a treaty that contains no such provision," Dar claimed while addressing a seminar on the Indus Waters Treaty in Islamabad, Radio Pakistan reported.

He said the Indus Waters Treaty is not merely a water-sharing arrangement but a "vital instrument of regional peace, stability and cooperation".

"Shared waters must never be weaponised. They should remain a bridge between nations, guided by cooperation, dialogue, and respect for international law for the benefit of present and future generations," he said.

He described water as essential to human dignity, food security, economic development, and environmental sustainability, arguing that rivers crossing international borders should foster cooperation rather than confrontation.

He also reiterated Pakistan's position that any attempt to divert, interrupt or reduce water allocated to Pakistan under the treaty would be treated as an "act of war," referring to a decision adopted by Pakistan's National Security Committee after India announced the suspension. Dar claimed that any attempt to deprive Pakistan of the waters "rightfully allocated" to it would have "profound consequences" for regional peace and security.

In his address at the seminar, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the Indus River was not for negotiations. The former foreign minister proposed a new "international convention against the weaponisation of waterways".

"If anyone believes that Pakistan will surrender Sindh, they do not know Pakistan. They do not know Sindh. They do not know Punjab. They do not know Balochistan. They do not know Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They do not know Kashmir or Gilgit Baltistan. They do not know the people who have lived by these rivers for thousands and thousands of years. We want peace, but peace with dignity. We want dialogue, but dialogue under law. We want coexistence, but not submission. So from this seminar, from this city, from this moment let a message go forth. Pakistan will defend its water, its people, its treaty, its sovereignty and its future," he said.

Issuing hollow warnings to cover up Islamabad's diplomatic isolation, Bhutto Zardari said, "any attempt to undermine Pakistan's water rights would receive a national response".

He further stated that "Pakistan would not compromise on the fundamental rights of its people". Failing to address India's core security concern regarding state-sponsored militancy, Bhutto Zardari argued that "the use of water as a weapon was contrary to international law".

One of the strongest remarks came from Pakistani Minister Musadik Malik, who claimed that the future of the treaty would determine the credibility of international agreements worldwide.

"The Indus Waters Treaty has witnessed three wars between the two nuclear powers. If this treaty doesn't hold, no world order that is on paper post World War II will remain secure," Malik said.

"When a law needs to be tested, it must be done at the weakest point and not the strongest point. The Indus Waters Treaty is the strongest pact the world has ever seen," Malik added.

Pakistan in recent months has repeatedly accused India of violating the treaty since New Delhi announced its suspension. During Tuesday's seminar, Mehar Ali Shah, chairman of Pakistan's Indus River System Authority, alleged that India reduced water flows in the Chenab River in recent months in violation of the treaty.

There was no immediate comment from New Delhi. However, speaking at a United Nations event marking World Water Day 2026, India's Permanent Representative Harish Parvathaneni said New Delhi was compelled to put the treaty in abeyance after repeated provocations and failure of bilateral engagement. He said the Indus Waters Treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan takes credible and irreversible steps to end support for terrorism.

Brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty regulates the distribution of water from the Indus River system. Under it, India controls the eastern rivers, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, while Pakistan receives the waters of the western rivers -- the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.

Until May 2025, the treaty survived multiple wars between the two countries, including conflicts in 1965 and 1971, as well as the 1999 Kargil conflict, and has long been regarded as one of the few enduring agreements between the neighbours.

Putin Faces a Political Crisis as Fuel Shortages Ripple Through Russia

MOSCOW, July 1: Fuel shortages across Russia have triggered a new political challenge for President Vladimir Putin, as a relentless Ukrainian drone campaign aimed at the country’s oil refineries has brought the war home for most ordinary Russians.

While Ukraine has targeted Russian energy facilities for years, the quantity and firepower of Ukrainian drones and missiles have risen. This has allowed Kyiv to hit refineries as far as Moscow.