India-Australia Interim Trade Agreement: India and Australia have announced that they are set to conclude an Interim Trade Agreement in March 2022 and a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) 12-18 months thereafter. The agreement will cover “most areas of interest for both countries” including goods, services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and […]
Category: International News
World Food Programme (WFP)
World Food Programme (WFP): India signed an agreement with the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 tonnes of wheat that it has committed to sending Afghanistan as part of humanitarian assistance Diplomatic efforts are under way to begin sending truck convoys through Pakistan by road, and the transport is […]
Quad Sharing Intelligence on Threats in the Indo-Pacific Region
Quad: Calling for justice for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai (2008) and the Pathankot airbase attack (2016) for the first time since the group was formed, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. said the Quad was already cooperating on sharing intelligence on threats in the Indo-Pacific region. The group […]
Russia – Belarus Relations
Belarus: Russia rolled its tanks across Belarus for live-fire drills that drew an ominous warning from NATO and added urgency to Western efforts to avert a feared invasion of Ukraine. The war games — set to run until February 20 — followed a gradual Russian military build-up around Ukraine that some U.S. estimates say […]
Free Trade Agreement: ASEAN
ASEAN: India is in discussion with the 10-nation bloc ASEAN for initiating the review of the FTA (free-trade agreement) in goods between the two regions to seek more market access for domestic products. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them. […]
US Relations With Indo-Pacific
US Relations With Indo-Pacific: The United States has said that it remains focused long-term on the Indo-Pacific region despite concerns over Russian aggression toward Ukraine. This highlights the importance of the region and the role that India has to play with regard to ensuring security of the region. The idea of the Indo-Pacific as […]
Unitary Digital Identity Framework: Important Points
What Is The Unitary Digital Identity Framework? In a bilateral meeting India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to implement a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’, apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card. Both sides also discussed the fishermen’s issue and India provided financial assistance of 2.4 billion USD to Sri Lanka. Earlier, […]
UN Peacekeepers in DRC
UN Peacekeepers: UN peacekeepers and troops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have increased patrols near the site of last week’s deadly raid on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeast Ituri province. The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym as MONUSCO, recently exchanged fire with members of […]
China – Russia Relation: Impact on Quad Grouping
What Is Quad grouping? With China and Russia coming closer, the US has planned to “enhance cooperation, engagement, strategic and economic ties” with its Quad partners. To further bolster ties between their countries at all levels of government while finding creative and holistic ways to manage national security risks. To facilitate better coordination on […]
Iran Nuclear Deal: Deadline for Revival
Iran Nuclear Deal: Western diplomats have set a deadline of later this month to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The deal was dismantled in 2018 by President Donald Trump. American officials are concerned about Iran’s rapid nuclear escalation after the US abandoned the deal. Iran has already said that it is enriching uranium […]
