THE prime minister of Pakistan has offered to hold talks with India but warned New Delhi to refrain from launching any attacks on his country following last week’s suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Imran Khan said he hoped “better sense” would prevail after the attack that killed at least 40 Indian troops. But he warned in a speech that if India attacks, “Pakistan will not merely think of retaliation, but rather we will retaliate”.
India has blamed Pakistan and threatened a “jaw-breaking response” for last Thursday’s bombing, in which a militant rammed an explosive-laden van into a paramilitary bus in Kashmir.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals soared following the attack. Islamabad condemned it while also cautioning India against linking Pakistan to the bombing without an inquiry.
On Monday, four Indian soldiers, three suspected militants, a police official and a civilian were killed as Indian soldiers searched for militants.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s has said his security forces have been given “total freedom” to deal with militants in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.
They have fought two of their three wars over it.
ELSEWHERE, the president of Ukraine has signed a constitutional amendment committing to join the EU and Nato.
Speaking in parliament, President Petro Poroshenko, who is running for a second five-year term in the March 31 election, told Verkhovna Rada that he aims to make a formal bid to join the EU by 2023. But he acknowledged Ukraine needs to come a “long way” to meet the criteria of joining both institutions.
European Council president Donald Tusk addressed the parliament in Ukrainian, declaring that “there is no Europe without Ukraine”. He pledged that the EU would never acknowledge Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and would keep its sanctions against Moscow.
MEANWHILE, Donald Trump has pleaded with the military in Venezuela to support opposition leader Juan Guaido and issued a dire warning if they continue to stand with president Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
“You will find no safe harbour, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything,” Trump said in a speech at Florida International University in Miami before large American and Venezuelan flags.
The US president added: “We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open.”
The Venezuelan military could play a decisive role in the stalemate but has largely remained loyal to Maduro.
Maduro accused Trump of speaking in an “almost Nazi style” and lashed out at his counterpart for thinking he can deliver orders to Venezuela’s military.
AND finally, 11,000 companies in the Netherlands have completed risk assessments since a furry “Brexit monster” was unveiled last week in a campaign to spur firms into seeing how the UK’s withdrawal would affect their business, the Dutch government have revealed.
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