Pakistan ran tests of a ballistic missile || Weekly News, 31st of August, 2019

The Pakistani Armed Forces tested a new ballistic missile «Ghaznavi». The missile is capable of carrying various types of warheads, including the nuclear ones, at a distance of up to 290 km. This was announced by a spokesman for the armed forces of Pakistan, Major-General Asif Gafur, on his Twitter. The trials took place during the recent escalation of the relations between India and Pakistan. On 5th of August, New Delhi decided to deprive Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, and introduce direct control in the state. Islamabad criticized this decision, and saw it as a sing of ethnic and religious purges. The Pakistani authorities downgraded their diplomatic relations with India, banned the mutual trade, and cut-off the rail and bus connections with India.

The second set of the US sanctions against Russia, related to the ‘case of Skripals’, came into force in the US at midnight on Monday. The second set of sanctions under »the Law on the Control of Chemical and Biological Weapons», related to the »case of Skripals» was enacted because Moscow, according to Washington, didn’t provide the guarantees, required by this very law, on the non-use of chemical and biological weapons — RIA NEWS reports. The new sanctions include the restrictions on all types of loans or other financial and technical assistance to Russia from the international financial organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. The US will tighten the permission on the sale of a number of goods and technologies to Russia. The US will forbid the American banks to participate in the primary market of the Russian currency sovereign debt, and to issue loans to the Russian government.

The French President Emmanuel Macron, after the end of the G7 summit on Monday, annouced the meeting of the country leaders in the «Norman format» in September. “We will meet in September, as the heads of states and governments, in the Norman format” — Macron said during a press conference. He noted that he began the discussion of this issue during his meeting with Vladimir Putin about a week ago in Breganson. According to him — back then, the Russian president supported the idea of ​such meeting. At the same time, Macron didn’t specify where this meeting will be held. The heads of states and governments of the G7 announced that Paris and Berlin hope to achieve solid results, after the September summit in the Norman format.

The Turkish high command sent a convoy of armored vehicles to the Syrian border, to ​​the Turkish-American Joint Operations Center. This was reported on Monday by the TASS with a reference to the CNN Turk. The convoy is made of tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks with ammo. The goal of the troop deployment wasn’t announced. In the recent months, the Turkish high command has been steadily increasing the presence of their troops on the border with Syria. Ankara has repeatedly announced the preparations for a new military operation in Syria, east of the Euphrates River. This area is currently controlled by the Kurdish self-defense forces. Turkey considers them to be terrorist. Despite the US support provided to the Kurdish groups — Ankara has repeatedly stated that their presence in close proximity to the Turkish border threatens the national security.

An explosion took place in the city of Jalalabad, in the eastern Afghanistan, near the Consulate General of Pakistan. At least 3 people were injured, including a policeman. This was reported by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry. “None of the members of the Pakistani Consulate were injured. According to the preliminary information — a policeman and two visitors were injured” — Mohammed Faisal, a spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, twitted. He underlined that consular officers got in touch with the Afghan authorities for the sake of safety of the building and the diplomatic mission itself.

The large-scale multinational military exercises »Rapid Trident-2019» will be held in Ukraine. More than 3,500 troops from 14 NATO countries and NATO partners will partake in the training — the US Army command in Europe announced. “About 3,700 troops from 14 allied and partner countries, including nearly 375 US troops and civilian specialists, will take part in the exercises” — the US Army Command in Europe announced on Twitter. The exercises will be held from 13th to 28th of September, in the ‘International Center for the Peacekeeping and Security of the National Army Academy’, near the city of Lviv. Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.