Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar attended a fair disguised as a watchman in Panchkula on Tuesday evening. A video showing him taking a stroll in the Sector-5 Dussehra Ground had gone viral on social media.

The Chief Minister’s media secretary later confirmed that it was indeed Mr Khattar who showed up at the mela grounds in the attire of a watchman.

There was no security cordon for the Chief Minister as he roamed freely.

He used a scarf to hide his identity and a cap that completed his watchman attire. He made rounds in the mela grounds – sometimes holding a packet of chips and sometimes engrossed into his phone.

The plan seemed successful as no one could be seen approaching him at the fair.

Chief Ministers are guarded by the state police and get central security cover based on their threat perception.

The US will provide $553 million in financing for a port terminal in Sri Lanka’s capital being developed by billionaire Gautam Adani, as New Delhi and Washington look to curtail China’s influence in South Asia.

The funding from International Development Finance Corp. underscores renewed US and Indian efforts to loosen Beijing’s sway over Sri Lanka after Colombo borrowed heavily to splurge on Chinese port and highway projects before its economic meltdown last year. For Mr Adani, US money may offer a stamp of legitimacy after allegations of fraud by short seller Hindenburg Research erased billions from the conglomerate’s market value earlier this year.

The deepwater West Container Terminal in Colombo is the US government agency’s largest infrastructure investment in Asia, and among its biggest globally. It will bolster Sri Lanka’s economic growth and “its regional economic integration, including with India, a key partner to both countries,” DFC said in a statement.

The funding is part of a global acceleration of DFC investments that totaled $9.3 billion in 2023. A US official described the Sri Lanka port financing as emblematic of the US commitment to be more engaged in development projects across the Indo-Pacific.

China had invested about $2.2 billion in the island nation as of the end of last year, its biggest foreign direct investor. US officials have publicly criticized Sri Lanka’s little-used southern Hambantota port as unsustainable and part of what it calls China’s “debt-trap diplomacy.”

DFC said it will be working with sponsors John Keells Holdings Plc and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd., relying on their “local experience and high-quality standards.”

Colombo’s port is one of the busiest in the Indian Ocean, given its proximity to the international shipping routes. Nearly half of all container ships pass through its waters. The DFC said it’s been operating at more than 90% utilization for two years and needs new capacity.

The US funding may serve as an endorsement for the short seller-stung Adani Group, as well as the controversial port project in which it holds a majority stake. The conglomerate has been fighting a raft of corporate fraud allegations leveled by Hindenburg Research and various media investigations, which it has repeatedly denied.

DFC, a development finance agency launched under the Trump administration, was established to aid developing nations while advancing US foreign policy goals. It struggled at first to stake out projects around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But funding has accelerated in recent years and the agency has helped Washington close the development spending gap with China’s much more higher-profile Belt and Road Initiative, according to a new report from the AidData institute at William & Mary in Virginia.

The DFC’s funding will create “greater prosperity for Sri Lanka – without adding to sovereign debt – while at the same time strengthening the position of our allies across the region,” said Scott Nathan, the DFC’s chief executive officer.

G7 foreign ministers sought Wednesday to hammer out a common line on the Israel-Hamas war while vowing there would be no let-up in their support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The ministers were expected to call in a joint statement to be issued later in Tokyo for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, while stopping short of urging a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, arriving for the talks from his latest whirlwind Middle East tour, called Tuesday for the G7 to speak “in one clear voice” on the conflict.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamiwaka said late Tuesday that the G7 ministers “need to call on the relevant countries to take humanitarian pauses and ensure humanitarian access, which is a pre-condition for sufficient and continued humanitarian assistance”.

A diplomatic source said after a working dinner the same day focusing on Gaza that there was “great unity that in view of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza, humanitarian care for the Palestinian civilian population needs to be urgently expanded”.

The source added that there were “constructive exchanges” about humanitarian pauses, as well as the need for discussions among the G7 and other countries in the region about the future of Gaza and how to stop the conflict from spreading.

‘Overall security’ 

The Israeli military has relentlessly bombarded Gaza since October 7, when Hamas operatives launched an attack that left 1,400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

The Hamas-run health ministry says the death number in Gaza has surpassed 10,300 people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday there would be no fuel delivered to Gaza and no ceasefire unless the more than 240 Israeli hostages seized by Hamas were freed.

He also said Israel would assume “overall security” in Gaza after the war ends while allowing for possible “tactical pauses” before then to free captives and deliver aid to the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

However, Washington said Tuesday it opposed a new long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.

“Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

“Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel.”

While agreeing Palestinian leadership was part of the “route towards a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution,” British foreign minister James Cleverly on Tuesday also conceded a military presence would remain after the fighting, at least temporarily.

“At some point after the immediate conflict and before the creation of civilian leadership, it is inevitable that the military forces on the ground would have to take over security control,” he said.

Ukraine fatigue 

On the Ukraine war, Japan said Wednesday after their talks that the G7 was “united” in their resolve to continue providing “strong support” to Kyiv and imposing “severe sanctions” on Russia.

Kamikawa added that “even as tensions increase in the Middle East, it is important for the G7 to be united in sending a clear message to the international community that our steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine will never waver”.

With the war there now in its 20th month and Ukraine’s counteroffensive struggling to gain ground, President Volodymyr Zelensky has regularly met Western leaders to try to stave off fatigue over the conflict.

Ukraine’s most senior military official, General Valery Zaluzhny, was quoted last week as saying the two sides had hit a “stalemate”, an assessment rejected by both Zelensky and the Kremlin.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier that G7 countries were working on providing help to Ukraine as the country braced for a second full winter of Russian attacks on energy facilities.

Systematic strikes by Moscow’s forces last year targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving thousands without heating or electricity in freezing temperatures for long periods.

“It is clear, particularly at this moment, that around the world some (parties) are watching very closely how we will continue to support Ukraine,” Baerbock told reporters.

“We will do that with everything we are doing.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was set to join the G7 meeting by video conference.