An Israeli-backed militia leader in Gaza, Yasser Abu Shabab, was killed. In an effort to elicit hostility among the population of Gaza as they attempted to survive Israel’s genocide, Israel employed him. explains Soraya Lennie.
Published On 5 Dec 2025
The leaders of Russia and India displayed diplomatic resilience in New Delhi, India, by projecting a message that their bilateral partnership is protected from widening global fractures in the city that is the most polluted country in the world.
At the Russia-India annual bilateral summit in New Delhi – against a backdrop of intensifying Western pressure, punctuated by recent United States tariff threats and the ongoing negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine – the two leaders framed their relationship as a stabilising force.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, praised India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for putting pressure on them and investing in the shared bond while Modi called the two countries’ relations “steadfast like a pole star.”
In a rare outing of protocol, Modi and Putin met at the Delhi airport to meet him for dinner and took a shared ride back to the Indian PM’s residence. Putin frequently uses his Aurus limousine for talks, so it’s known as “limo diplomacy.”
On Friday, memorandums of understanding were exchanged between multiple ministers from each side, expanding trade and cooperation in various sectors, from energy to agriculture and pharmaceuticals.
According to Modi, the agreements will “increase the prosperity of India and Russia” under the framework of the India-Russia economic cooperation program through 2030. A $100 billion trade goal has been agreed upon by the nations.
And, in a major signal to the West, Putin said: “Russia is ready for uninterrupted shipments of fuel to India”. India’s relationship with the US, which claims to be funding the conflict in Ukraine, has become strained as a result of Russian crude importation. Due to Russia’s ongoing purchase of Russian oil, US President Donald Trump hit India with an additional 25 percent trade tariff earlier this year, increasing the total tariff to 50 percent on Indian exports to the US.
So, what were the main takeaways from this summit?
The summit provided a platform for the two countries to reach a slew of trade agreements spanning jobs, health, shipping and chemicals.
However, some experts believed the summit was more significant as a political propaganda stunt.
The summit’s signaling that neither side intends to dilate this relationship and is prepared to withstand any external pressure was a key takeaway, according to Harsh Pant, a geopolitics analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
Moreover, Pant said: “The attempt is to build the economic partnership, beyond oil and defence”. Without that, he continued, “the bilateral relationship is not responsive to contemporary realities.”
The summit is of “extreme importance because of the greater willingness on the part of both Russia and India to turbocharge this relationship,” according to Robinder Sachdev, president of the Delhi-based think tank Imagindia Institute.
“Both sides want to increase their engagement beyond just government-to-government deals, in oil and defence sectors, and boost people-to-people ties”, said Sachdev. That could be the longest string in this bilateral relationship.
Following their media interviews, neither leader responded with a question, which Putin summed up by saying the Russian delegation was pleased with the bilateral partnership’s “deepening” prospects.
Putin added that, along with other BRICS countries – a growing bloc of emerging economies – India and Russia are promoting a “more just” and “multipolar” world. Puntin referred to their “close working dialogue” and “regular” phone calls as further evidence of the closeness that he shared with Modi.
Modi stated in his statement that the two nations’ “Economic Cooperation Programme” aims to diversify, balance, and sustainably manage trade and investment, as well as expand opportunities for export, co-production, and co-innovation.
“Both sides are working towards the early conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union”, Modi added.
Modi added that improving “connectivity” between Moscow and New Delhi is a “major priority” for the two countries, noting that bilateral relations have always been strong and important pillars of energy security.
Modi also mentioned the opening of two additional Indian consulates last month and proposed two new 30-day visa programs for Russian nationals.
Modi said he had discussed the war in Ukraine with Putin and conveyed that India has “stood for peace since the beginning”.
In addition to the April 2024 attacks in Kashmir and the Moscow City Hall bombing, “India and Russia have long supported each other and worked shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism,” said Modi.
Since 2000, the Indian prime minister has a one-year visit to Russia, and the Russian president makes a second visit the following year. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it was stopped and only resumed when Modi traveled to Russia in 2024.
Ultimately, the Russian president’s 30-hour flying visit to Delhi sends a clear message to other world leaders amid growing pressure on him to conclude a peace deal with Ukraine. Putin claims that “Moscow is not alone, and the Kremlin’s attempts to isolate it have failed,” according to experts.
The US and its allies in Europe had hoped that Putin would agree to a peace deal with New Delhi. However, India did not call on Russia to end the war, although PM Modi appeared to reiterate his earlier position that “this is not an era of war”.
During discussions between the two leaders at Hyderabad House in Delhi on Friday, the Indian prime minister said, “India is on the side of peace.”
Modi argued that “we support every effort to bring peace back to the world,” adding that “India-Russian relations should grow and reach new heights.”
Expressing his gratitude to Modi, Putin said, “The two nations also have relations in the military sphere, in space development, artificial intelligence, and other areas … and we intend to move forward in all these areas”.
New Delhi is currently caught in a precarious geopolitical equation, a reality that has starkly tested the scope of India’s foreign policy.
On the other hand, India is subject to punitive trade tariffs and an increasingly coercive United States. By purchasing crude oil, the Trump administration claims that India has effectively funded Putin’s Ukrainen war machine.
The war in Ukraine, however, has tested the friendship between Moscow and New Delhi – a relationship that goes back decades.
India has remained unaffected by any formal alliances with any superpower since its 1947 independence, leading the non-aligned movement during the Cold War. However, it actually resembled the 1960s Soviet Union more.
Since the end of the Cold War, India has deepened strategic and military ties with the US while trying to keep its friendship with Russia afloat.
The largest buyer of Russian weapons is still India. India’s dependence on the Russian military sector was recently revealed during New Delhi’s four-day clashes with Pakistan, with real-time reliance on Russian platforms like the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters and the S-400 missile system.
Investing in ties with Moscow and hosting Putin at this time allows New Delhi some leverage in a fragmented global order and maintains what it calls “strategic autonomy” to pursue its “multi-alignment” foreign policy.
The leaders at the Delhi summit were given the opportunity to reiterate that “neither side wants this relationship to end, and both sides want to invest diplomatic capital,” according to Pant of the ORF.
Trump and his administration’s focus on India more, he said, illustrating the importance of the relationship with Russia.
The bilateral energy cooperation, according to the Russian president, “remains unaffected” in large part due to Western sanctions against Moscow and the White House’s imposing punishing tariffs on India for importing Russian oil.
Putin told broadcaster India Today that Washington continues to buy Russian nuclear fuel for power plants.
“That also serves as uranium and fuel for the US reactors.” Why shouldn’t India enjoy the same privilege as the US does when we can purchase our fuel? said the Russian president. We are prepared to discuss this matter with President (Donald) Trump, saying, “This question deserves thorough investigation.”
Since 2022, India-Russia trade has grown significantly, reaching a record high of nearly $69 billion this year, primarily due to New Delhi’s desire for discounted Russian crude oil.
However, these numbers remain lopsided: Indian exports, largely pharmaceuticals and machinery, stand at roughly $5bn, resulting in a widening $64bn trade deficit.
Additionally, the most recent official information from India’s commerce ministry shows that the country’s crude imports from Russia have decreased by 38 percent from last year’s record high of $ 5.8 billion to $ 3.55 billion in October.
Despite all of this, Russia still accounts for about 30% of India’s total oil imports in terms of value and volume.
While noting that the import numbers have come down, Putin stressed that trade remains “unaffected by current conditions, fleeting political swings or the tragic events in Ukraine” and added that Russian businesses had built a solid and efficient commercial relationship with India, one based on mutual trust.
Putin landed in New Delhi with an entourage which included Andrei Belousov, his defence minister, and a large delegation from business and industry, including top executives of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
Before the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, Belousov met Rajnath Singh, his Indian counterpart, at the Manekshaw Center in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Russian defense minister stressed “the Russian defence industry’s readiness to support India toward becoming self-reliant in the field of defence production,” a joint statement read.
A Russian delegation also expressed interest in importing fishery and meat products from India and resolving market access issues, the Indian government said in a separate statement following a meeting between agriculture ministers on the sidelines.
A smaller portion of $ 127 million of fishery products went to Russia last year, but India exported it for $ 7.45 billion.
According to geopolitical analysts, New Delhi is hoping for a quicker resolution to its strategic partner’s pressure after the summit, thereby releasing it from international pressure.
Four people were killed by an airstrike on a alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, according to the US military. US War Secretary Pete Hegseth is under investigation for a previous attack that resulted in the death of survivors in a follow-up strike. He ordered the attack.
Published On 5 Dec 2025
Published On 5 Dec 2025
In Hama, tens of thousands of Syrians have gathered to remember Bashar al-Assad’s assassination. In 2024, an opposition-led lightning offensive led to the Assad regime’s sacking.
Published On 5 Dec 2025
The tragedy has rekindled some of the mistrust and divisions in Hong Kong that erupted as a result of the devastating housing estate fire that claimed the lives of at least 159 people.
On November 26, the city watched horrifiedly as the fire started at Wang Fuk Court and quickly spread to seven of the complex’s eight towers. According to official reports, many residents were trapped inside because the alarms were malfunctioning.
list of 4 itemsend of list
After burning for more than 40 hours, Wang Fuk Court is on track to be one of the worst fires ever to occur, with 176 people killed in the blaze that started in 1948. However, the casualties rate have kept rising since the fire was extinguished on November 28.
Many Hong Kongers have never considered the scale.
This is a downtown area, not a small village in the middle of nowhere. We wouldn’t have anticipated that this would have happened, Issie, an educator who works in Wang Fuk Court’s Tai Po district, told Al Jazeera.
“This is a completely unthinkable situation. We anticipated that the government would have “put out the fire.”
Hong Kongers quickly mobilized following the fire’s eruption, when they distributed food, water, and shelter to young protesters despite not always agreeing with them. This is unlike the protests of 2019, which have taken place since.
As other residents of the housing estate’s 4, 000-plus residents were quickly gathered online assistance databases, including clothing, food, and other supplies, in Tai Po.
A petition was then released calling for “four demands” of government accountability in response to the protest’s “five demands, not one less” slogan. More than 10,000 people signed the petition, according to local media, before it was eventually removed.
In a striking visual similarity to the 2019 protest artwork “Lennon Walls,” handwritten notes adorned the fire’s victims.
A Hong Kong professor with experience with the city’s governance structure told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity because of concerns for the impact on their careers, that “mobilization is in Hong Kong’s “DNA.”
Because it was meant to be a significant renovation project, “people couldn’t explain why that happened.” He claimed that the renovation project, which was carried out to make the building structure and the residents safer, ended in tragedy.
Athena Tong, a visiting research fellow from Hong Kong and a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, shared the sentiment that the government was slow to act.
According to Tong, “the fact that society, the regular citizens, needed to mobilize at that scale to help with relief demonstrates that there is no trust in the government’s competence,”
Hong Kongers began to question the government’s prompt response online, including a suggestion from early experts and officials that Wang Fuk Court’s bamboo scaffolding, a custom in Hong Kong construction, should be replaced with metal.
Later, fire investigators determined that Styrofoam blocks and subpar mesh netting were the main culprits.
However, some of the discontent stems from the deep existential questions that the protests in 2019 raised about Hong Kong’s future, according to observers.
As a number of grievances began to surface, some of which date back to the city’s 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty, the protests erupted into a widespread antigovernment movement in 2019.
The issue ranged from whether Beijing was backing off with its commitments to the former British colony’s “high degree of autonomy” until 2047 under the “one country, two systems” agreement with China to how the local leader of Hong Kong would be chosen. Some people were concerned about the future of Hong Kong’s distinctive identity and culture.
By contrast, pro-government Hong Kongers and Chinese officials perceived the protests as a city ebbing into pieces, possibly with the support of the US government, who wanted to destabilize Hong Kong for their own reasons.
Hong Kong was temporarily at a standstill for months as a result of the protests, but as a result, COVID-19 containment laws started to become in effect in 2020. Beijing passed legislation that made it next to impossible for large-scale protests in the middle of 2020.
The government’s response in 2019 and 2025, according to Issie, the resident of Hong Kong.
These things wouldn’t have happened before, she said, “especially when it comes to people being critical of their policies, and even this time when people were trying to help.”
A Hong Kong government spokesman earlier this week claimed that “foreign forces, anti-China, and destabilizing forces” were using “seditious pamphlets” to “maliciously smear the rescue work, instigate social division and conflict to undermine the society’s unity” in a language that was strikingly reminiscent of its 2019 remarks.
According to China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, a “small number of external hostile forces” were attempting to “reverse the tragedy and “replica tactics from the anti-extradition bill unrest” in 2019 to obstruct rescue and recovery efforts.
According to local media reports, Hong Kong police have detained at least 15 people on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire, and have also detained at least three others on suspicion of sedition and “attempting to incite discord” in response to the arrests.
According to local media, Miles Kwan, a university student, and former district councillor Kenneth Cheung, who was detained for leafleting, are among them.
The local government’s Executive Council member Ronny Tong claimed that there isn’t much information available about the sedition-related arrests, and that more evidence than criticism of the government would have helped to support the national security charges brought against them.
The law is the law, in our opinion, with a capital W. The police might err on the side of caution if someone violates the law at a sensitive time. The courts will be there to protect them if they overreacted, Ronny Tong said.
He claimed for Al Jazeera that it made sense for the government to reroute volunteers’ efforts to streamlined their work. The government provided a 100, 000 Hong Kong dollar ($12, 847) subsidy over the course of the past week, promising Wang Fuk Court residents would receive free housing until their homes were rebuilt.
Although only a small number of details have been made public, Hong Kong leader John Lee has also demanded an independent committee to look into the fire and review the building-work system in Hong Kong.
No government official had resigned as of Friday due to the deadly fire.