At the Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue held in Kabul on 20 August 2025, Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached a landmark agreement to extend CPEC into Afghanistan.
The crisis is not only ecological but cultural, symbolizing the collapse of protection strategies and the fragility of coexistence in a land where these pachyderms once roamed freely.
In a significant diplomatic shift prompted by mounting climate risk, Nepal and China have agreed to begin sharing critical cross-border intelligence on glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that threaten lives and livelihoods in the fragile Himalayan region.
In one part of the world, floods inundate entire cities. In another, droughts silently wither crops. Glaciers, which took centuries to form, are disappearing in decades. Groundwater, hidden and unseen, is being depleted faster than it can be replenished.
Beyond new project approvals, the department cleared 10 share purchase or subscription agreements worth Rs 1.69 billion and 20 technology transfer agreements during the month.
The economic burden is substantial: Aedes-borne diseases alone impose an estimated average annual global cost of nearly $1.2 billion through healthcare spending, lost productivity and social disruption.