- 1 day ago
Pakistan's National Assembly has passed a new defence law that gives Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir extensive authority over the country's Army, Navy and Air Force. The legislation formalises the unified military command created by the 27th Constitutional Amendment, replacing the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee with the CDF post. Munir will exercise operational command and oversee matters involving joint military operations, strategic coordination and national security. He will also have wide powers over personnel, including retirement, discharge and retention decisions. The law establishes a Defence Forces Headquarters under Munir, who will also serve as Pakistan Prime Minister's principal military adviser on defence and security matters.
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NewsTranscript
00:04can one diplomatic visit change how the world reads a country's borders and can a war become
00:10so profitable that the world notices only when global trade is threatened today two stories
00:16reveal how power works in very different ways in the north america is sending a striking signal
00:22on kashmir and ladakh ambassador sergio gaur calls jammu and kashmir an important part of india before
00:28traveling to a region china watches very closely is washington changing its language and in sudan
00:35a brutal war funded from outside turns hunger into a weapon while the red sea becomes the next
00:41strategic battleground one story is about diplomatic signals the other is about a war the world cannot
00:48afford to ignore so who is shaping the map and who is paying the price hello and welcome you're
00:55watching statecraft with me gita mohan all that and more but first up the headlines bnp veteran
01:01mirza fakrul islam alamgir has been elected bangladesh's 23rd president defeating opposition
01:07candidate oli ahmed in the country's first contested presidential election in 35 years
01:11alamgir won 255 votes to ahmed's 88 he's set to take oath on friday a planned meeting between u.s
01:19ambassador to india sergio gore and the dalai lama in leh has been cancelled following a last minute
01:24change in gaur's schedule according to the central tibetan administration gaur arrived in leh on
01:28thursday after visiting kashmir north korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards the
01:35east sea on thursday south korea's military said the launch came amid ongoing u.s south korea military
01:40drills and heightened tensions over washington's recent decision to scale back the exercises
01:46we begin with some big news pakistan is now putting law behind one man's extraordinary military power
01:52prime minister sheba sharif's cabinet has approved the defense forces act 2026 along with amendments to
01:59the national command authority act 2010 the bills will now move to parliament for approval and at the
02:06center of this entire restructuring is field marshal asa munir the army chief of pakistan following
02:13pakistan's 27th constitutional amendment munir holds two powerful positions chief of army staff and chief of
02:20defense forces the new legislation is meant to turn that constitutional change into a detailed legal and
02:27administrative framework in simple terms pakistan is now building the machinery around munir's new top
02:34military post the chief of defense forces is positioned at the top of pakistan's tri-service command structure
02:41bringing the army the navy and air force under a common senior military framework but there's another
02:47major piece the cabinet has also approved amendments to the law governing the national command authority
02:54pakistan's strategic and nuclear command body that means the changes go beyond military administration
03:01they also touch the legal framework surrounding pakistan's most sensitive defense and nuclear decision
03:06making structures the drafts still need parliamentary approval but politically the message is already clear
03:12pakistan is not merely creating a new military post it is building a new command architecture around assamuni
03:21something has changed in the way washington is talking about kashmir and this time the signal is not
03:26coming from a think tank it is coming from none other than the u.s ambassador to india sergio gore
03:31standing in srinagar god described jamun kashmir as an important part of india just hours later
03:38he traveled to ladakh one sensitive region then another and the sequence is difficult to ignore
03:44because this is not just a diplomatic visit it is a message being watched closely in islamabad and in
03:50beijing for years washington has carefully avoided taking india's or pakistan's side on the final
03:56political status of kashmir the familiar american position was simple india and pakistan should resolve
04:01the issue through dialogue last year donald trump even offered to mediate the so-called kashmir issue
04:07between the two countries which obviously was rejected by india but now an american ambassador
04:12has publicly used language that is much closer to new delhi's position so the question is obvious
04:18is washington changing its kashmir language and if it is what does that mean for pakistan
04:25gore's words triggered an immediate reaction for pakistan islamabad summoned the u.s charles d'affaires and
04:30protested arguing that the ambassador's comments contradicted the american position on kashmir
04:36but here is the important part washington has not formally announced a policy change there has
04:42been no presidential declaration from donald trump saying that the u.s has abandoned its previous
04:47formulation on kashmir so this is not yet a policy earthquake it is a diplomatic tremor though and there
04:54is a difference an ambassador can change the tone he can open doors he can send signals but a formal
05:00change in american policy would have to come from the white house or the president himself until then
05:06new delhi can welcome gore's words but it would be a mistake to treat one ambassador's remark as a
05:12complete u.s policy reset but look at the timing god did not simply make the remark from washington or
05:19new delhi he made it during his first visit to srinagar the first visit by a sitting u.s ambassador
05:25to
05:25jamo and kashmir in more than six years he met chief minister umar abdullah and discussed the
05:30future of u.s engagement with the union territory and then came the second move ladakh and this is
05:37where the story becomes much bigger than kashmir because ladakh is not just another tourist destination
05:42it sits along india's frontier with china and pakistan it is one of the most strategically sensitive
05:49regions in the world and gore is now the first u.s ambassador to visit ladakh his presence there so
05:55close to the line of actual control with china is unlikely to go unnoticed in beijing think about
06:01the message an american ambassador arrives in srinagar he describes jammu and kashmir as an
06:06important part of india then he travels north to ladakh an area where indian and chinese troops faced off
06:12in a deadly himalayan standoff this is diplomacy with geography the map itself becomes part of the
06:19message and beijing understands maps better than most ladakh was at the center of the india china
06:25military confrontation that erupted in 2020 that standoff saw the first deaths along the lac in 45
06:32years the united states responded by providing india with real-time intelligence winter equipment
06:38and stronger diplomatic support six years later india and china have pulled troops back from several
06:44international confrontation points creating what can be described as a tactical thaw but the distrust
06:50has not disappeared and that makes gore's ladakh visit particularly interesting because india and china
06:56are simultaneously trying to stabilize their relationship trade is moving border talks continue
07:02leader level engagement has resumed but the military distrust remains so where does washington
07:08fit into this equation perhaps the answer is alongside india but not necessarily against china that distinction
07:16matters the united states does not need to formally declare ladakh to be a flashpoint for its presence
07:22there to carry strategic weight a serving u.s ambassador visiting a region that beijing considers deeply
07:28sensitive can itself be read as a recognition of india's control and strategic importance there washington is
07:36looking north india is looking north china is looking west and central asia sits in the middle the old
07:43strategic map is changing pakistan remains china's all-weather friend and partner india's deepening ties and
07:50relationship with the united states of america and washington is trying to expand its economic and
07:55strategic footprint across central asia gore's journey through india's northern union territories fits neatly
08:02into that larger contest but there is an irony here india itself is trying to manage two tracks at the
08:08same time it is engaging china while remaining deeply suspicious of chinese military intentions it is
08:14rebuilding economic ties while keeping its strategic guard up and now an american ambassador has arrived in
08:20ladakh with beijing watching so is this a message to china possibly but it is not necessarily a threat it
08:28is a
08:28reminder a reminder a reminder that india's northern frontier is no longer viewed only through the india china
08:34lens washington is paying attention and the united states sees india's geography as strategically
08:40important in the wider contest for influence across asia and then there is pakistan for islamabad
08:47gaur's kashmir remark may be even more uncomfortable than his ladakh visit pakistan has spent decades trying to
08:53internationalize the kashmir issue it wants major powers to treat kashmir as a dispute requiring
08:59international attention and mediation but if american diplomatic language increasingly describes jammu and
09:05kashmir in terms closer to india's position pakistan's diplomatic space could narrow down but india should
09:13also keep its expectations realistic india does not need washington or anyone else to certify its position on
09:20jammu and kashmir new delhi does not require foreign endorsement of its own constitutional and
09:25territorial position the real test is not what sergio gaur says in kashmir the real test is what
09:32washington says next because one ambassador's words can start a conversation only the white house can turn
09:39that conversation into policy this may not yet be an american policy reset but it certainly looks like a
09:45change in diplomatic tone and in geopolitics tone matters especially when it comes from a superpower
09:52especially when it comes from srinagar and especially when the next stop is ladakh so perhaps the biggest
09:59message from sergio gaur's two-day journey is not that america has suddenly chosen sides on kashmir or
10:05declared a new strategy against china it is something much more subtle washington is becoming more comfortable
10:12being visible in india's most sensitive northern territories and that changes the optics for pakistan
10:18it is a diplomatic warning kashmir may be becoming harder to internationalize on islamabad's terms
10:24for china it is a strategic signal that says ladakh is no longer a purely bilateral india china conversation
10:32you see diplomacy the most important messages are sometimes the ones that are never formally announced
10:37they're simply signaled and sergio gaur has just sent one what happens when bombs fail to bring iran back
10:45to the table president trump reaches for something he calls even more crushing economic warfare trump has
10:51announced what he calls the most crushing economic operation ever against iran and this time the warning
10:57goes far beyond tehran he says any country bank business airport or government entity that gives iran a
11:05financial lifeline will face tremendous economic consequences and trump has named the targets oil
11:11smuggling cash transfers exchange houses ship registries and front companies in simple terms washington
11:19wants to shut every escape route iran uses to make money why now because the military campaign has
11:25struggled to force tehran back to negotiations so washington is shifting the battlefield from missiles to money
11:32but there is a problem iran has spent years learning how to dodge sanctions using shadow tankers and
11:38networks that keep its oil moving and then there is china china remains iran's biggest economic partner
11:44and a major buyer of its oil so if washington goes after countries trading with tehran this could quickly
11:51become a u.s china confrontation too and with trump jinping meeting coming up soon this could certainly spell
11:58trouble for us china relations iran has already called the policy economic terrorism and insists sanctions
12:05will not force surrender there is a country right now where children are dying of starvation on purpose
12:13not from drought not from bad luck on purpose as strategy as a weapon there is a capital city seven
12:21million people once a thriving hub of business and government that has been reduced to a graveyard
12:27literally human skulls are surfacing out of the dirt because there are too many bodies and not
12:33enough ground to hide them in and there is a war behind all of it that has already forced 14
12:38million
12:39people from their homes more people than that live in new york city and los angeles combined and you've
12:45probably never heard a single detail about it that's not because it's small it's one of the deadliest wars on
12:52the planet right now it's because someone benefits from you not paying attention to it stick with me for
12:58the next few minutes because by the end of this you're going to understand exactly who's funding this war
13:03why it's about to spill into a crisis that touches the entire global economy and why the next few weeks
13:10might decide whether an entire nation survives or disappears into permanent chaos this is the war
13:17in sudan and it's time somebody actually told you the truth about it it's been more than three years
13:24now the war which started in april 2023 is deep into its fourth year with no end in sight here's
13:31the
13:32setup two generals general burhan of the sudanese armed forces or saf and general hamiddi of the rapid
13:39support forces or as rsf ran sudan together after a military coup for a while it worked power sharing an
13:48uneasy peace then it didn't work anymore the alliance cracked and when it cracked it didn't lead to a
13:54resignation or election it led to an overnight war in the streets of the capital on one side the
14:01sudanese armed forces the official army the de facto government of the country on the other side the
14:07rapid support forces the militia built out of fighters with a documented history of genocidal violence
14:13in dafur rich well-armed and ambitious enough to think they could rule the entire country but both
14:21sides have smaller factions and allied militias fighting alongside them these aren't two armies
14:27lined up on a battlefield it's a fractured chaotic war with dozens of armed groups all fighting for a slice
14:34of what's left and what's the cost so far un says 14 million people have been driven from their homes
14:41that is not a refugee crisis that is the forced evacuation of an entire nation hundreds of thousands
14:47of people are dead killed in combat killed by deliberate famine starvation used as a weapon of war
14:53killed in massacres that human rights investigators have called genocidal the only conflict on the
15:00african continent this century that comes close is the war in congo back in the early 2000s a war that
15:08may have killed more than 5 million people sudan is being spoken about in the same breath and most
15:14people couldn't find it on a map here's the part that should make you angry this isn't just a civil
15:21war between two sudanese generals it's a proxy war funded from the outside fought with borrowed money
15:27and other people's weapons the rapid support forces militia is being fueled by cash weapons and mercenaries
15:33being flown in from the united arab emirates according to reports the ua denies it but officials and
15:39analysts on the ground don't buy the denial on the other side the sudanese army is being armed and
15:45bankrolled by a coalition reportedly of saudi arabia egypt qatar turkey each with their own reasons for
15:52wanting their side to win translation foreign governments are paying for sudanese blood one arms
15:59shipment at a time because sudan isn't just some empty stretch of desert it has gold it has farmland
16:05and it has one of the most strategically valuable coastlines on earth right on the red sea for most
16:13of this war that's exactly why nobody with real power stepped into to stop it too many outside players
16:20were benefiting from the chaos a weak divided sudan was useful to them so the war didn't drag on by
16:27accident it dragged on because for years it was profitable for people who will never set foot in
16:32khartoum never bury a body never go a day without food that is the ugly unglamorous truth sitting
16:40underneath every casualty count you might be asking why should i care this is happening thousands of miles
16:47away here's why wars like this one never stay inside their own borders they leak they spread they drag in
16:54everyone around them sudan's war has already helped reignite a civil war in south sudan a country that
17:01had barely stopped bleeding from its own conflict it's pouring gasoline onto the fire in yemen and
17:08it's rattling ethiopia a nation that could be the next domino to fall and now there's a new front that's
17:15impossible to ignore the red sea because of the wider explosion of conflict involving iran global
17:20attention has shifted from the strait of hormuz which has been effectively shut down toward the
17:25red sea now which may be the next iran-backed militias in yemen have already launched attacks
17:31on oil tankers tied to saudi arabia choking off shipping through one of the most critical maritime
17:36corridors on the planet sudan sits directly on that strategic coast and its internal collapse is finally
17:43smashing into the broader conflict in the gulf this collision is the sole reason why world powers are
17:48suddenly looking up it took a direct menace to the international trade routes not the emergence of
17:54mass graves or the weaponization of hunger to force a single glance in sudan's direction here's the part
18:00almost nobody's reporting right now there is a real and narrow opening for peace but it might not last two
18:08things just shifted first the chaos in the gulf has actually made outside powers reconsider their bets
18:14Saudi Arabia is waking up to how much it needs sudan's coastline secured especially with the red
18:20sea getting more dangerous by the week that could make continued backing for the militia far riskier
18:26costlier bet for its sponsors second the battlefield itself just shifted in the past few weeks the
18:34sudanese army made its biggest gains since retaking the capital it recaptured a critical highway linking khartoum
18:41to a key regional hub the militia had been fighting for for months it also retook a border town that
18:48had
18:48been a strategic prize for the first time in a long while the army isn't just fighting from desperation
18:54it's negotiating from a position of relative strength and there's a seasonal window too the rainy season
19:01is slowing combat down across the country creating a natural lull there's already a proposed humanitarian
19:08truce on the table backed by american diplomats it has a real chance of actually holding precisely because the
19:15fighting has just quieted down enough to make a pause believable but here's the warning nobody wants to say out
19:22loud the
19:23longer this window stays open without anyone walking through it the more power drains away from the two main commanders
19:30and into the
19:31hands of dozens of smaller militias who have a financial interest in the war never ending which
19:36means every day of hesitation doesn't just prolong suffering it makes the eventual peace weaker messier
19:44and far less likely to hold if this window closes sudan doesn't just stay broken it fractures permanently
19:51there's already a grim nickname circulating for where this could be headed the somalia timeline decades not years
19:59of collapse no functioning central government power splintered among warlords and militias a failed state
20:06permanently unstable permanently armed sitting at the exact crossroads of africa west asia and one of the
20:13world's most important shipping lanes sudan isn't some isolated corner of africa it's the third largest
20:20country on the continent a collapsed fragmented sudan becomes a permanent source of instability
20:25that bleeds into neighbors for a generation fueling more displacement more extremism more proxy
20:33wars fought on african soil with african lives funded by outsiders who will never pay the price themselves
20:40africa cannot afford another failed state the size not one that's deeply tied into global shipping routes
20:46not one bordering as many fragile neighbors as sudan does this is the moment not next year not after the
20:55next round of battlefield gains now while there's still a ceasefire worth fighting for instead of a
21:02country worth mourning peace doesn't happen on its own it takes pressure it takes outside powers choosing
21:08profit over principle to finally lose that bet it takes the rest of the world deciding that 14 million
21:14displaced human beings is a number too large to keep ignoring silence is a choice and every single
21:20day the rest of the world chooses to look away sudan pays the price in bodies in bread and futures
21:27that
21:27will never happen so the question isn't really whether sudan's war is forgotten the question is who
21:33decided it was okay to forget that's all in this edition of statecraft before i go from geopolitics to
21:41robots throwing punches the future is getting stranger by the minute at the 2026 world robot
21:47conference in beijing a man stepped into the ring and sparred with a humanoid robot boxer who won
21:53well watch closely we leave you with the visuals goodbye and take care
22:16so
22:38hope you are
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