International and Bilateral Issues

Leading nations, including India, on Thursday agreed that the international community must respond urgently to the crisis in Somalia, described by Prime Minister David Cameron as the “world's worst failed state”, blighted by two decades of civil war and famine and caught up in a vortex of terrorism, piracy and famine.
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed wanted an end to the arms embargo.

In a bid to address the widespread disenchantment within Balochistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Thursday offered to drop all cases against Baloch leaders who have left the country and are spearheading the movement for independence from overseas.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan claimed to have secured across-the-floor assurance from Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress that both parties were opposed to the resolution introduced by a Congressman seeking the right of self-determination for the Baloch people.
The matter came up as the Prime Minister raised the issue that has incensed the political class and forced the media to break its silence on Balochistan, which has been festering since 2002 amid growing calls for independence.

China has said it wants to work with India and other countries to boost maritime cooperation, particularly with regard to coordinating naval escorts in the Indian Ocean to fight piracy.
Chinese officials said they were particularly keen to increase coordination with the Indian navy, as naval officials from 20 countries met in the eastern port city of Nanjing on Thursday at the start of a first-of-its-kind two-day international initiative on ocean escorts, hosted by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
the countries had agreed to follow an integrated escort schedule, arranged on a quarterly basis, with the schedule-making being led by “a reference country” chosen every quarter. China, as the first reference country, had already proposed a schedule, and other countries involved in the operation would formulate their schedules accordingly
The PLAN has become increasingly active in escort missions in the Gulf of Aden, protecting Chinese vessels on a crucial shipping route on which China's energy imports depend. The PLAN also carried out a first of its kind operation last year in evacuating Chinese citizens out of Libya, underscoring its increasing willingness, and capability, to engage in operations beyond China's frontiers, although the country has a long-standing policy of not sending its military overseas.