The Indian government has lowered its foodgrain target by 2.6m tonnes,

Amid drought and rain deficit caused by El Niño, the central government has set a foodgrain production target of 373.93 million tonnes for 2026-27, which is 2.63 million tonnes lower than the estimated output in 2025-26, reported the Indian Express. The Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “Against the target of 362.60 million tonnes, the production reached 376.56 million tonnes during 2025-26. In view of the situation created by El Niño, the production target has been fixed at 373.93 million tonnes for the year 2026-27, which includes the Rabi production target of 177.72 million tonnes.” He said the aim is to replace water-intensive crops with pulses and oil seeds in areas that have received low rainfall and where reservoir levels and soil moisture are low.

US-Russia sanctions law: Modi, Trump talk, Foreign Secretary meets US delegation

Modi said in a post on X that he had productive conversation with Trump. “We reviewed our bilateral cooperation in trade, defence, energy, critical technologies and other areas,” said the PM, TOI reported. Modi is learnt to have touched upon India’s concerns related to the US’ latest Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (SRIA) that allows the president to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on India. 

Days after members of the US Congress passed a new Russia sanctions law targeting India and other oil importers of Russian crude oil, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on September 27, 2026 met with a five-member Congressional Delegation headed by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Brian Mast, the Hindu reported.

The meeting follows days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar raised India’s concerns about possible sanctions with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York, and Mr. Misri discussed the issue with US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.

According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, and foreign sexy Vikram Misri warned that the penalties could hurt bilateral ties and disrupt the international energy market.

India Highlights Connectivity, Trade and Transit as Pakistan's Year-Long SCO Presidency Gets Underway

Islamabad began its year-long presidency of  Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and  the first 3-day meeting of national coordinators under Pakistan's chairmanship concluded on September 30. Pakistan will host the SCO summit in Islamabad next year, the Wire reported.

The outlet said India’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) national coordinator and senior Indian diplomat Alok Dimri highlighted connectivity, trade and transit as key areas of cooperation.

Speaking to Pakistan Television in Islamabad Dimri said the SCO brought together countries across the Eurasian and Asian landmass and provided a platform to develop an agenda centred on their “well-being, prosperity and welfare”, the article noted. 

“Connectivity is a very important issue. Regional connectivity, trade, transit are some of the important issues which have been discussed, and progress is being made,” he said. 

Dimri also referred to the Civilisation Dialogue Forum proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying SCO leaders had agreed at the last summit in Bishkek that there should be such a forum among member states. India is scheduled to host the first edition of the forum on Nov 20.

With Trump-Xi truce, China looks to reshape Asian order 

US President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on September 23, 2026, 

In May, when Mr. Trump visited Beijing, both sides declared their commitment to build a “constructive relationship of strategic stability”, a Chinese coinage that the US President readily accepted.

Trump personally welcomed Xi at Joint Base Andrews, a courtesy he has not extended to any other leader. Optics aside, the expectations for the visit are, however, largely modest on both sides, seen an effort to put a floor on a contentious relationship rather than a grand bargain. This is regardless of Mr. Trump’s stated fondness for the idea of a “G2” which has concerned countries in the region, including India.

In the weeks after Mr. Trump’s visit to Beijing, both sides have traded blows, including the listing of Chinese companies such as Alibaba and BYD by the Pentagon for “civil military fusion”, and mutual accusations over how the other side is conducting the AI race. Other sticking points remain unresolved, such as tariffs, restrictions on semiconductors and Chinese export controls, especially on rare earths. China is also pressing the U.S. to stop arms sales to Taiwan, described by Beijing as the biggest flashpoint in the relationship.

If this has led some observers to suggest this truce is merely a tactical pause while each side works towards reducing their vulnerabilities and building leverage, others argue there are compelling reasons for both powers to pursue a future relationship of stability.

Writing in Foreign Affairs before the visit, Da Wei, a leading voice in Beijing on the China-US relationship and Director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, made the case for why despite structural challenges, there were reasons for both to pursue a detente.

“The rapid development of technologies such as AI will make it particularly difficult for either the US. or China to eliminate the other’s sources of leverage,” he said. In the lead up to the visit, the two sides held talks in New York between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, including to set up a dialogue mechanism for AI cooperation.

Li Kai, the Vice-President of the influential China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) in Beijing, argued in the lead up to Mr. Xi’s visit that “regional affairs should be led and managed by Asian countries themselves”.

US and Iran hold talks on sidelines of UN General Assembly

President Donald Trump says talks held in New York between US and Iranian officials were productive. Earlier in a speech to the UN General Assembly he threatened to annihilate Iran if a deal was not agreed. The US also introduced global sanctions that could ground most Iranian aircraft. 

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the summit, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his counterparts from India, Qatar, Turkiye, Pakistan, Ukraine and other countries.

He also met US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in a four-hour meeting mediated by Qatar, reported Al Jazeera.

Araghchi had maintained Iran's conditions, including the end of the US blockade and the release of frozen Iranian assets.

Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the UNGA despite being in the US for a summit with Trump. He sent Vice President Han Zheng who reiterated Beijing’s position that “sovereignty and security of countries in the Middle East, including the Gulf, should be respected”.

“China calls for advancing the governance of the West Bank and the post-conflict reconstruction of Gaza in accordance with the principle of the Palestinians governing Palestine. It also calls for bringing the Palestinian question back onto the right track of the two-state solution at an early date,” he said.

Fears mount that next UN chief will downgrade climate action

Climate and civil society experts say “fears are mounting that the next UN secretary general will downgrade the priority of the climate crisis”, reported the Guardian. The newspaper says the current secretary general, António Guterres, “has been the most forthright on the subject”, but will step down on 31 September at the end of his second five-year term. It continues: “Many of Guterres’s most likely successors have shown less enthusiasm for tackling the climate crisis, despite rising alarm at its impacts, and experts have told the Guardian that some of the candidates could be ‘disastrous’ yet could enjoy the support of influential countries including the US and its allies.” The newspaper highlights “three candidates in particular have raised concerns” – namely, the Argentinian diplomat Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese president Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal and Ugandan former presidential candidate Olara Otunnu. It also lists the candidates who have a “stronger climate record”.  

China’s cleantech exports avoided more CO2 than UK emitted last year

China’s cleantech exports last year “avoided 374m metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, greater than those produced by the UK”, according to new analysis from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), reported Reuters. Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the CREA, says that the new finding highlights the “growing climate impact of China’s green technology boom”, with wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles reshaping the “economics of electrification and decarbonisation, particularly in developing countries”.

Myllyvirta noted that the “current growth of solar and EVs, particularly in emerging countries, was not on anyone’s radar five years ago before China’s cleantech manufacturing boom”. 

Germany pledges to phase out fossil fuels for first time with target of 2045

Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045, despite fierce debate about its green policies.

In a roadmap published on Wednesday, the German government set out for the first time an explicit promise of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Previous pledges were only for “carbon neutrality”, the Guardian reported.

The plans include ramping up renewable energy from 55% to 80% of electricity generation by 2030, with an additional 12GW of onshore wind, and a target of 215GW of solar energy by 2030. The previously stated target of winding down coal use in the next decade, with a view to an exit from coal in 2038, was also reaffirmed, with the potential for an earlier target of 2035.

Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, will be cut by 30% by 2030, in accordance with a global methane pledge signed in 2021.