GENEVA: The United States led protests Monday as Syria took over the rotating presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) at a time when Damascus is widely accused of using chemical weapons.
“Monday, May 28 will be one of the darkest days in the history of the Conference on Disarmament with Syria beginning its four-week presidency,” tweeted US ambassador to the CD Robert Wood.
The CD chair rotates alphabetically every four weeks and Syria’s turn came round on Monday, although the conference will meet in full session only from Tuesday.
“The Damascus regime has neither the credibility nor moral authority to preside over the CD.
“The international community must not be silent,” Wood wrote.
“A regime that has used CW (chemical weapons) against its own people has no place presiding over the CD’s work.”
Britain also protested against the move.
“The UK deplores the fact that Syria will assume the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, given the regime’s consistent and flagrant disregard of international non-proliferation and disarmament norms and agreements,” British ambassador Matthew Rowland said in a statement.
But he pointed out that all CD members including Syria had to agree to change the rotating system.
After hundreds of people died in chemical attacks near Damascus in 2013, a deal with Russia was struck to rid Syria of chemical weapons, staving off US air strikes.
A suspected chlorine and sarin attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7 this year triggered punitive missile strikes against alleged chemical weapons sites in Syria by the US, Britain and France.
Some ambassadors were not expected to lead their delegations at the conference in a sign of protest.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, who put his own disarmament proposals to the CD last week, said he had “no power” over the rotation system.
Protests as Syria takes chair of world disarmament body
Protests as Syria takes chair of world disarmament body
India plans AI ‘data city’ on staggering scale
- ‘The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius’
NEW DELHI: As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says.
“The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push.
“And as a nation ... we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he said ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi.
Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15 billion investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States.
And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11 billion to develop an AI data center in the same city.
Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vizag” — is better known for its cricket ground that hosts international matches than cutting-edge technology.
But the southeastern port city is now being pitched as a landing point for submarine internet cables linking India to Singapore.
“The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius,” Lokesh said. For comparison, Taiwan is roughly 100 kilometers wide.
Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had “received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments” to India in 2025.
“It’s not just about the data centers,” he explained while outlining a sweeping vision of change, with Andhra Pradesh offering land at one US cent per acre for major investors.
