South Bloc Reports

🇮🇳🪖🇺🇳 External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar highlighted, India's 4,300 active personnel are currently deployed across 10 of the UN's active peacekeeping missions. ✍️Where Are Our Personnel Serving ? 🇸🇸 South Sudan (UNMISS) Largest Deployment 📌Over 2,000 Indian troops, including infantry battalions, engineering units and medical personnel running field hospitals. 🇨🇩Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) 📌An infantry brigade group, utility helicopter units, military observers.and Formed Police Units (FPUs) from the BSF and ITBP. 🇱🇧 Lebanon (UNIFIL) 📌 In Southern Lebanon, a highly critical deployment of an infantry battalion group and medical staff. 🇸🇩🇸🇸 Abyei Area (UNISFA) (contested border region between Sudan and South Sudan) 📌Indian troops, including India’s largest ever single unit of all-women peacekeepers. ✍️ Other Regions: 🇮🇱Golan Heights (UNDOF) 🇨🇫 Central African Republic (MINUSCA) 🐪Western Sahara (MINURSO) 🇨🇾Cyprus (UNFICYP) 🇾🇪Yemen (UNMHA) Follow: @SouthBlocReports.

🇺🇸🇵🇰 FBI Director Kash Patel host Pakistan Ministry of Interior - Mohsin Naqvi, at the FBI headquarters. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇮🇳🤝🇯🇵 8th India–Japan Defence Policy Dialogue, was held in Tokyo on July 13, 2026. Co-chaired by Indian Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Japanese Vice Minister of Defence for International Affairs Kano Koji ✍️Takeaways: - Preparing for the "2+2" Ministerial - Special Strategic Partnership Elevation Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇮🇳⛔🇮🇷 India Summons Deputy Ambassador - officially designated as the Deputy Chief of Mission of Iran to Mohammad Javad Hosseini over Killing Of Indian Seafarer from Iranian Cruise Missile. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇫🇷The French Pacific Command (CPP / FR PACOM): A unified military structure newly established by France. ✍️Previously, French military presence in the Pacific was split and operated relatively independently under two commands in France's overseas territories. The new structure acts as a centralized hub combining these regional forces under a single command. 📍 COMSUP FANC (New Caledonia) -Personnel: 1,650 permanent French armed forces -Assets: 4 aircraft/helicopters and 4 naval vessels -Responsibility: Covers New Caledonia, Melanesian islands, Australia and New Zealand. 📍 COMSUP FAPF (French Polynesia) -Personnel: 1,350 permanent French armed forces -Assets: 3 aircraft and 5 naval vessels -Responsibility: Covers French Polynesia and the wider eastern Pacific, extending up to the Clipperton Island EEZ. 🌐 Liaison: 🇯🇵Japan 🇰🇷South Korea 🇸🇬Singapore 🇦🇺Australia 🗺️Hawaii 🇺🇸USA (French Military Mission to US INDOPACOM) Follow: @SouthBlocReports

Based on current prices, a 20% transit fee issued by Trump adds approximately $16 in overhead to every single barrel of crude oil passing through the strait. That translates to $32 million extra cost per supertanker. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🛢️Expect the market to price in a total blockade, pushing Brent and WTI toward the $90–$100 range within 13 days. 💰Crude oil in the international market has increased by 8% to $81.64 per barrel. ✍️Under Trump's newly proposed 20% protection levy, a single supertanker would face roughly an additional $32 million in transport costs based on current prices. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇦🇪🇮🇳🇮🇷 On the morning of Tuesday, July 14, 2026, two UAE-flagged oil tankers, the Mombasa and the Al Bahiyah, were targeted and struck by two Iranian cruise missiles. - The strike took place within the southern shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz, inside Omani territorial waters. - One crew member, an Indian national aboard the Mombasa, was killed. Eight others were injured four of them severely, comprising six Indian nationals and two Ukrainian nationals. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇮🇳🇺🇳 India’s Campaign Priorities for the UN Security Council (2028-29) under the SHANTI Vision - Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity Key Priorities: - Championing the Global South - Reforming Multilateralism - Modernizing Peacekeeping - Governing AI Responsibly - Securing Maritime Borders - ​Combatting Terror Financing Follow: @SouthBlocReports

Note : Even though US is not a signatory to UNCLOS, U.S. Navy has used UNCLOS rules as its primary legal justification to conduct "Freedom of Navigation Operations" (FONOPs) globally. And, as per the Reagan Ocean Policy Statement of 1983 - Reagan explicitly declared that while the U.S. would not sign UNCLOS due to deep seabed mining disagreements, the U.S. accepted and would act in accordance with the provisions of the convention relating to traditional uses of the oceans, specifically navigation and overflight. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

UNCLOS Article 87 & 89 - Freedom of the High Seas & Non-Sovereignty - Article 89 states: “No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

UNCLOS Article 38 - The Right of Transit Passage - Guarantees that in straits utilized for international navigation, “all ships and aircraft enjoy the right of transit passage, which shall not be impeded.” Follow: @SouthBlocReports

Article 26 of UNCLOS states that no charge may be levied upon foreign ships by reason only of their passage through the territorial sea. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

🇺🇸🚀🇮🇷 Trump is declaring that a 20% reimbursement fee will be levied immediately on all international cargo transit passing through the waterway to cover the operational costs Follow: @SouthBlocReports

Note: The IRGC had trained thousands of battle hardened Pakistani Shia fighters in Syria and keeps them organized as a sleeper asset. Follow: @SouthBlocReports

5. Afghanistan Intelligence Factor If Iran destabilizes its relationship with Pakistan, it end's the informal intelligence sharing loop regarding Afghanistan. Iran needs a militarized, aggressive Pakistan on Afghanistan's eastern flank to keep the Taliban and Sunni extremist groups tied down. If Pakistan collapses or shifts its focus, those hostile forces will flow directly toward Iran's eastern borders. Follow: @SouthBlocReports 5/5

4. Domestic Shia Demography Iran views Pakistan’s internal social demographics as an explosive device that it cannot afford to detonate right now. Pakistan is home to the second largest Shia population in the world after Iran. Following the February 2026 strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, massive, violent pro-Iran riots happened through Karachi, Islamabad and other regions. IRGC knows that if it threatens or strikes Pakistan, Munir’s military command will be forced to launch an iron fisted domestic purge of pro-Iran networks, turning Pakistan's massive Shia population into a deeply persecuted underclass overnight. Follow: @SouthBlocReports 4/5

3. Double-Agent Role Iran knows Pakistan is leaking intelligence to the West, but they also know Pakistan is leaking the West's intentions and intelligence right back to Iran. Follow: @SouthBlocReports 3/5

2. SRO 691 Overland Corridor Iran started the massive overland transit corridor with Pakistan (under SRO 691(I)/2026) This new land corridor allows sealed third country cargo and essential supplies to land at Pakistani warm water ports Karachi/Gwadar and travel securely via land straight into Iran and Central Asia, entirely bypassing the heavily monitored maritime choke points. Follow: @SouthBlocReports 2/5

🇵🇰⚔️🇮🇷 5 Reasons Why Iran and Pakistan Avoid Open Conflict: 1. The Zainabiyoun Brigade: Over the last decade, the IRGC has recruited, trained and armed thousands of Pakistani Shia fighters under the Zainabiyoun Brigade. If Iran openly threatens or attacks Pakistan then Pakistan will launch an absolute, ruthless domestic purge, arresting or executing every single Iranian asset, asset sympathizer and Zainabiyoun returnee within its borders. Follow: @SouthBlocReports 1/5