• Turkish FM stresses need for broader regional cooperation, trust.
• Says issues could be resolved if nations “be sure of each other”.
• Bloomberg reports Ankara in advanced talks to join defence pact.
  

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday that talks have been held on a possible defence pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but no agreement has been signed.

Responding at a press conference in Istanbul to a question about whether there might be such an alliance, Fidan pointed to what he said was a need for broader regional cooperation and trust, and added that regional issues could be resolved if relevant countries would “be sure of each other”.

His comments follow a Bloomberg report last week that said Ankara was at an “advanced stage of discussions” to join the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The publication, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the talks were likely to conclude with a deal.

The SMDA between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia treats an attack on either nation as an act of aggression against both. It was signed on September 17, 2025, during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

The Bloomberg report stated that Turkiye was mulling joining the pact amid concerns over the reliability of the United States, and its increasingly overlapping interests with those of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in South Asia.

Pakistan and Turkiye maintain decades-long defence ties, under which Ankara is building corvette warships for the Pakistan Navy.

Turkiye has also upgraded numerous F-16 fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force, and also shares its drone technology with Islamabad.

Pakistani officials credit the country’s military success against India in the May 2025 conflict to strengthened defence agreements.

On Wednesday, PM Shehbaz said Pakistan was engaged in discussions with multiple countries on defence agreements, including the sale of its fighter jets.

“After Pakistan won the war last year, the demand for Pakistani fighter jets has increased […] many countries are actively engaged with us to acquire the jets,” the premier said while addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet.

Prior to that, Minister for Defence Production Raza Hayat Haraj told the BBC that Islamabad was in talks with several countries over potential agreements to sell JF-17 Thunder fighter jets.

Pakistan and India went to war in May last year after India launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan following the attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

New Delhi maintains that the terrorists who killed 26 tourists in IIOJK’s Pahalgam were Pakistanis — an accusation that Islamabad has denied and has also asked India to partake in a neutral investigation.

Pakistan, during the 87-hour conflict, downed its six fighter jets, including three Rafale, and dozens of drones.

The war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States.

On January 6, the National Medical Commission (NMC), India’s federal regulator for medical education, revoked the recognition of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI), located in Reasi district, a mountainous area overlooking the Pir Panjal range that separates the Jammu plains from the Kashmir Valley.

The decision came weeks after protests erupted over the religious composition of the college’s first-ever MBBS batch, launched in November.

Of the 50 students admitted, 42 were Muslims, most of them residents of Kashmir, while seven were Hindus and one was a Sikh.

The college, founded by a Hindu religious charity and partly funded by the government, had launched its first five-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme this year.

Admissions to medical colleges across India—both public and private—are conducted through a centralized system based on the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET), administered by the federal National Testing Agency (NTA).

More than two million students appear for the exam annually, competing for approximately 120,000 MBBS seats nationwide.

Students who score high typically enter public colleges, where fees are lower but cutoffs are steep. Those meeting the minimum threshold but falling short of public college cutoffs often enroll in private institutions, including SMVDMI.

One such student was Saniya Jan, an 18-year-old from Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who described her selection as a dream come true.

“It was a dream come true – to be a doctor,” she told Al Jazeera. She chose SMVDMI during counselling because it was 316 kilometers from her home, comparatively closer than other medical colleges.

Her parents drove her to Reasi when classes began in November. “My daughter has been a topper since childhood. I have three daughters, and she is the brightest. She really worked hard to get a medical seat,” her father, Gazanfar Ahmad, said.

However, soon after the academic session began, local Hindu groups launched protests, demanding that Muslim students’ admissions be scrapped.

Protesters argued that since the college was largely funded by offerings from devotees at the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a prominent Hindu shrine, Muslim students had “no business being there.”

Demonstrations continued for weeks, with protesters gathering daily outside the college gates and raising slogans.

Legislators from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrote petitions to Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor, urging that admissions be reserved exclusively for Hindu students.

The lieutenant governor serves as the federally appointed administrator of the disputed region.

As protests escalated, demands extended to the complete closure of the college.

On January 6, the NMC announced it had withdrawn the college’s authorization, citing failure to meet “minimum standard requirements” for medical education.

According to the commission, the college suffered from deficiencies in teaching faculty, hospital bed occupancy, outpatient flow, library facilities, and operating theatres. A day later, the letter of permission allowing the college to operate was formally withdrawn.

Students, however, strongly disputed these claims. “I don’t think the college lacked resources,” said Jahan, a student who gave only her second name. “Some colleges only have one cadaver per batch. This college had four, and every student got individual dissection time.”

Another student, Rafiq, said relatives studying in government medical colleges in Srinagar lacked similar facilities. “Even they don’t have the kind of facilities that we had here,” he said.

Saniya’s father echoed these views, saying that during admission everything appeared normal. “The college was good. The faculty was supportive. It looked like no one cared about religion inside the campus,” he said.

Political analyst Zafar Choudhary, based in Jammu, questioned the timing of the NMC’s decision. “Logic dictates that infrastructure would have improved since classes began. So how did these deficiencies suddenly appear?” he asked.

He also dismissed the protesters’ demands as baseless, noting that admissions are religion-neutral. “There is a system in place. Students give multiple preferences, and selections are based on merit. How is it their fault?” he said.

Al Jazeera attempted to contact SMVDMI’s executive head, Yashpal Sharma, for comment, but he did not respond.

The college has issued no public statement since losing its authorization.

Students have since packed their belongings and returned home.

Another student, Salim Manzoor, pointed out that Hindu students are enrolled under reserved quotas in a medical college in Muslim-majority Kashmir, questioning why Muslim students were now being targeted elsewhere.

The BJP has denied claims that Muslim students were unwelcome, saying concerns stemmed from “religious sentiments” tied to the shrine.

BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said the recognition was withdrawn solely due to regulatory shortcomings and not religious bias.

Last week, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, announced that affected students would be accommodated in other medical colleges through supernumerary seats, ensuring their education is not disrupted.

He strongly condemned the protests, stating: “You have played with the future of medical students. If ruining students’ futures brings you happiness, then celebrate it.”

Regional legislator Tanvir Sadiq said the university housing the medical college had received more than $13 million in government funding since 2017, making all Kashmiris stakeholders. “Anyone lawfully domiciled in Kashmir can study there,” he said.

Nasir Khuehami, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association, warned that framing education along religious lines could dangerously communalize the sector.

He noted that Muslim-run minority institutions across India do not exclude Hindu students.

Back in Baramulla, Saniya waits anxiously for her future to be decided. “I cleared one of the hardest exams in India and earned my seat on merit,” she said. “Now everything has crashed. This happened because of our identity. They turned our merit into religion.”

Russia on Thursday expelled a British diplomat who it said was an undeclared officer in Britain’s intelligence services, and warned London that Moscow would not tolerate such espionage activities on its territory.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, named the British diplomat, a second secretary at the Moscow embassy, and said he was working undercover for Britain’s spy service. Russian media carried pictures of the diplomat.

Russia said he has been given two weeks to leave Russia. Britain’s Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia’s foreign ministry summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires in Russia, Danae Dholakia, to issue a formal protest about the situation.

“It was again stressed that Moscow would not tolerate the activities of undeclared British intelligence officers in Russia,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“A warning was also issued that if London escalates the situation, the Russian side will give a decisive ‘mirror’ response,” it said.

Protesters at the foreign ministry chanted anti-British slogans in front of the British diplomatic car carrying the charge d’affaires.

Amid the war in Ukraine, Russia and the West have repeatedly accused each other of unfurling espionage campaigns of an intensity not seen since the depths of the Cold War.

Russia says that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and France’s DGSE have all stepped up attempts to steal secrets, recruit Russians, and sow discord inside Russia.

Western European spy chiefs say that the FSB, Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service and the GRU military intelligence service have mounted major cyber attacks and sabotage campaigns across the Western world, something Moscow denies.