Nitish Meets PM, Assam Alert, Thailand-Cambodia Border Talks Resume

Nitish Kumar meets PM, Shah

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his first visit to the national Capital after retaining charge of the eastern State a month ago following the NDA’s landslide victory in the Assembly election. Kumar, accompanied by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary and JD(U) leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, met Modi and Shah separately and is believed to have discussed various issues — both development and political — related to the State. “Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri @NitishKumar, Deputy CM, Shri @samrat4bjp and Union Minister, Shri @LalanSingh_1 met Prime Minister @narendramodi today,” the Prime Minister’s Office said on ‘X’. Earlier, the chief minister, along with his deputy Choudhary and Union Minister Singh, met Shah at his residence. During their meetings, the Bihar leaders are believed to have discussed various issues related to the development of the State, sources said.

Assam on high alert: Himanta

Assam is on “high alert” in the wake of the fresh wave of unrest in neighbouring Bangladesh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday. Sarma, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme, said the State Government was closely monitoring the developments in Bangladesh. ‘We have seen that in Bangladesh, Hindus are being subjected to atrocities and burnt alive. Those who are currently in power in Bangladesh have been talking about including northeast India in their country,” the CM claimed.

Thailand, Cambodia to resume talks

Thailand and Cambodia will resume talks later this week to work toward a more durable ceasefire along their border, Thailand’s foreign minister said on Monday, stressing that progress depends on detailed bilateral negotiations rather than public declarations that internationalise the dispute. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said Monday after an Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While Cambodia has publicly said it is ready for an unconditional ceasefire, Bangkok never received any direct proposal and Thailand believed such statements were aimed at increasing international pressure rather than resolving the issue, Sihasak said following the meeting that was arranged to seek ways to end the crisis.