Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
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Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed the Russia-Ukraine war following Modi's visit to Ukraine, along with the situation in Bangladesh where protests led to the ousting of former leader Sheikh Hasina earlier this month.

Modi posted online that he discussed the situation in Ukraine with Biden over the phone and "reiterated India's full support for early return of peace and stability."

He also said the two leaders stressed "the need for early restoration of normalcy, and ensuring the safety and security of minorities, especially Hindus, in Bangladesh."

The White House issued a separate statement, saying Biden commended Modi's recent visit to Poland and Ukraine, and that both leaders expressed "support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law, on the basis of the UN Charter."

Last week, Modi visited Ukraine in the first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history. It came at a volatile juncture in the war launched by Russia in February 2022. Moscow is making slow gains in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses a cross-border incursion.

Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war and offered to help bring peace.

Modi's Ukraine visit followed a visit he made to Russia in July where he embraced President Vladimir Putin on the same day that a deadly Russian missile strike hit a children's hospital.

That visit angered Ukraine and the US State Department said it raised concerns with India about ties with Russia.

Moscow has been a large weapons supplier to India since the Soviet Union days. Washington in recent years has looked to woo New Delhi to counter China's influence.

Modi said the two leaders also discussed the situation in Bangladesh where about 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed during protests that began in July with students agitating against quotas in government jobs before the events spiraled into demonstrations to oust long-serving former Prime Minister Hasina.

An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sworn in after Hasina fled to India.



German Chancellor Vows from Solingen to Prevent Another Stabbing Attack

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
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German Chancellor Vows from Solingen to Prevent Another Stabbing Attack

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)

The German government is under pressure to draw lessons and act after a Syrian migrant from Deir Ezzor killed three people and injured eight others in a fatal knife attack in the city of Solingen, later claimed by ISIS.

During a visit to the city three days after the incident, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the attack would not be repeated.

He said his government was looking at more ways to increase the rate of deportations and also promised tougher weapons and knife laws.

A joint working group from the federal government and local authorities will be established to discuss and determine steps to accelerate the deportation of refugees whose requests were rejected, he added.

“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Scholz told reporters.

Authorities had planned to deport the suspect in Friday's attack to Bulgaria last year under European Union asylum rules, according to German media.

But officials say when they tried to deport him, they could not locate him and he remained in Germany.

After he disappeared for six months, which is the legal period for authorities to deport him, he returned and registered himself in Solingen and obtained the “right of temporary protection.”

The German opposition has been demanding an end to taking in refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and to deport migrants who have committed serious crimes.

Berlin has no diplomatic ties with the governments of both countries, which means it can't coordinate any deportations to them.

Leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, called for an immediate halt to the admission of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.

He said the Solingen attack should be a “turning point” in the policies of the socialist-led government, which also includes ministers from the Greens and Liberals.

Last June, a new citizenship law entered into force in Germany. It allowed the government to reduce the minimum period of German residence necessary for naturalization to five years (and even three years in exceptional circumstances), down from eight years.

It also allowed German citizens to hold multiple citizenships whereas currently, dual citizenship is possible only in rare circumstances.

General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Kevin Kühnert, said many of Merz's proposals stood in contrast to the country's constitution, known as the Basic Law, which upholds the individual's right to asylum, for example.

“The answer can't be that we now slam the door in the face of people who are themselves fleeing from extremists because they are being persecuted by them for their way of life,” Kühnert said.

He said as far as was known, Bulgaria had been prepared to accept the man.

“The federal states are responsible for deportations in Germany, which in this case would have been North Rhine Westphalia,” Kühnert said, referring to the western state where Solingen is located.

He called on state authorities to examine why no action had been taken in the man's case.

Amid this controversy, ISIS released a video on its Amaq news site showing a man covering his face with only his eyes visible. The man was filmed saying he is behind the stabbing in Solingen and that he was ready to carry out an operation in revenge for “Bosnia, Iraq and Palestine.”

It remains unclear whether the man himself carried out the attack in Germany.