Jaishankar meets UAE’s top leadership
Dubai (PTI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday met the top leadership of the UAE and had a productive discussion on deepening economic and defence cooperation.
Jaishankar participated in the three-day Sir Bani Yas Forum 2025, which concluded on Sunday.
Following that, he co-chaired the 16th Joint Commission and 5th Strategic Dialogue with HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
"Honoured to call on Vice President HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the UAE today in Abu Dhabi. Had a productive discussion on deepening economic and defence cooperation," the External Affairs Minister posted on X.
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He also met the CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, HE Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak.
The company is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi.
"Pleased to meet HE Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, MD & Group CEO,
@Mubadala Investment Company.Exchanged views on the global geo-economic situation and the need to further strengthen relations between India-UAE. Also apprised him of emerging opportunities for economic cooperation," Jaishankar posted on X.
On Tuesday, he will pay a visit to Israel and hold bilateral consultations with his counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar.
Jaishankar will also meet President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
