International Relation

Answer : On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and annexed it, accusing it of grabbing Iraq’s money and land. The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jabar al Sabah fled the country. The crisis began when Baghdad accused Kuwait and U.A.E. of sabotaging its economy by overproducing oil and thus depressing oil prices, reducing Iraqi earnings. Iraq further wanted $10 billion as aid, $10 billion Kuwaiti loan to fight war with Iran, renuciation of Kuwait’s claim to Rumalia oil fields and long term lese of streategic Bubiyan island. U.N. security council in the emergency session condemned Iraqi aggression. Arab League emergency summit in Jeddah on August 2, appealed Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. On August 6th, U.N. security council imposed world wide oil embargo and trade sanctions U.S. sent several ships to Gulf for enforcing sanctions by naval blockade. On 9th Aug. security council declared Iraqi annexation as null and void. On 25th August it called for use of force to enforce economic sanctions. Soviet Union called for unconditional withdrawal. Reaction of Arab League was low key. India also expressed regrets.

The likely repercussion for India-

• Increase in foreign exchange outgo at current enhanced term and spot prices by Rs. 2000 crore.
• Crisis of an oil crunch.
• Oil import bill likely to increase by Rs. 2500 crore in 90-91.
• Trade deficit may rise to Rs. 10,000 crore.
• 172,000 Indians working in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq stranded there
• $ 3.4 billion setback to economy in terms of payment of more money for oil, loss of NRI remittance and cost of evacuation.

Answer : To give effect to the Paris peace settlements, the UN took the charge to conduct peaceful and fair elections in Cambodia. Before the elections, there was widespread pessimism in many countries about the elections. But to be fair enough, the United Nations Transitional Authority for Cambodia (UNTAC) performed a commendable job in conducting the elections with 90 per cent of the registered voter turn-out.

Main objects of the UN were as follows:

1. To fulfill the desires of the Paris peace settlement.
2. To establish a real democratic government.
3. To create popularly represented constituent assembly.
4. Lastly to have a lasting peace in Cambodia.

The UN was greatly successful in conducting elections in Cambodia, viewing the percentage of voter turn-out. It also largely remained violence-free. However, the UN’s extraordinary performance in Cambodia has been possible due to the unusually high interest shown by the international community to bring the saga of Cambodian suffering to an end.

But the role of the Khmer Rouge has been dubious, which casts a shadow on the prospects of peace in Cambodia. It also signed the Paris peace agreement in 1991 and as a signatory it should have helped in implementing the agreement. Instead, it remained a prisoner of its own past image.

Moreover, the constituent assembly would face major challenge in bringing different forces in Cambodian polity into the mainstream of democracy and peaceful public life. This challenge would be minimised, if all renegade forces form a part of national re-conciliation. Since the Cambodian economy has been in doldrums for the last 14 years, people are facing financial hardships. At this juncture there is a need to revive the shattered economy with full utilisation of natural resources and less dependence on international aid. Thus, now onwards, after the successful completion of elections, the future of Cambodia rests on the shoulders of the people of Cambodia.

Answer : The basic provisions of NPT are:

1. Article I prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons or other explosive devices to any state, whether a party to the treaty or not, whether a nuclear weapon state or not, directly or indirectly through an alliance.
2. Art II prohibits non-nuclear weapon nations from manufacturing or otherwise acquiring nuclear weapon or devices excluding peaceful nuclear devices.
3. Art III obligates the non-nuclear weapons parties to accept international safe guards specified in a special arrangement with International Atomic Energy Agency.
4. Art IV states that all parties to the treaty have the right to full exploitation of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and obligates these parties to cooperate with other countries in developing nuclear technology.
5. Art V obligates the nuclear weapon parties to make available nuclear explosive devices for peaceful purposes to non-nuclear weapons parties under international supervision.

Because of discriminatory nature of the treaty, India is unwilling to sign it. The renewal will lead to increasing pressure on India to sign the treaty. It may have adverse economic and political consequences for India.

Answer : For a solution to the South African problem, political talks were started under CODESA-the Convention for a Democrate South Africa between President de Klerk and the ANC Nelson Mandela. On democratisation of South Africa, the proposals of President de Klerk in phase I include the appointment of a multi-party transitioinal executive council and sub-council to be responsible for creating the climate for free political activity and election of a constitution making body. Phase II is to deal with the appointment of an interim government on the basis of popular election consisting of one man one vote. This govt. will be responsible for the formulation of a new post-apartheid Constitution. COSESA-II broke-off because the South African Govt. and the ANC couldn’t reach an agreement on the kind of majorities that should be introduced to enforce decisions in an elected constitution making body. The ANC wanted at least 75% majority but the Govt. refused. The ANC blames the Inkatha for the massacre with active Govt. connivance. Police brutality has also been on the rise. The UN is making every effort to resume negotiations to solve the current impasse in the troubled and violence torn South Africa.

Answer : The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade.

WTO is facing existential crisis during a time when developed economies have adopted protectionist attitude. Several countries, mainly led by USA and China, have recently resorted to precedent high tariffs on their imports leading to a situation called trade wars. China might well be the new WTO leader and China’s growing assertiveness may be the reason for the U.S.’s hard posturing. China is trying to establish herself by its assertiveness in rule-based WTO system. China, EU, and to some extent India, and a few others, is now the main supporter of multilateralism.

Global Impacts of the Trade Wars

• Damage the rules based trading system under the WTO
• Weaken investments, depress spending, and disturb financial markets and slowdown the global economy
• Fall in global currencies resulting into trade plus currency wars
• Disrupt global supply chains, raising prices for consumers worldwide
• Increases inefficiency: Tariffs create ‘deadweight’ losses, encouraging production and consumption inefficiencies—a net welfare loss to the US itself and to the global economy
• Denying market access to developing South
• Impacts on Asian and South-East Asian Economies

Role of WTO

• WTO’s mission is to facilitate free and fair trade - it does that by establishing rules, settling disputes and getting countries to talk to work out their differences. Countries that think other members are acting unfairly can use WTO councils, committees and its dispute settlement system to seek and obtain redress.
• Although requiring a long-drawn process to resolve disputes, WTO still plays an important role in ensuring fair trade: Both USA and China have previously approached the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism to resolve their disputes.

Dispute Settlement Crisis at WTO

• The U.S. has systematically blocked the appointment of new Appellate Body members (“judges”) and de facto impeded the work of the WTO appeal mechanism. Many analysts have said that Buenos Aires summit has highlighted the existential crisis faced by WTO especially during a time when emerging economies have adopted assertive and developed economies have adopted protectionist attitude.

Concerns Related to Dispute Settlement at WTO

• Over politicisation of the Appellate Body appointment and reappointment process.
• There is a trade war between US and China despite both being a member of WTO. This negates the core non-discriminatory principle of WTO. The US and China have imposed counter-productive duties, accusing each other of harming their domestic interests.
• The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is not a world trade court. The process remains political and diplomatic.
• The very existence of an appeal mechanism is now paradoxically questioned at a time the global community criticises the absence of the same mechanism in Investor-State Dispute Settlement.

Reforms Needed

• WTO needs to strengthen the dispute settlement mechanism as there are issues in appointment of judges in new appellate body.
• WTO needs to enhance discussion mechanism by introducing wider consultations. It has been a long-standing complaint by the smaller participants that the consultations or decision making is limited to the green room of DG of WTO.
• There is a need of free trade is required more by developing countries like India than developed countries.
• There is need for the structural reform in the WTO functioning as multilateral trading system. Despite WTO being a democratic organization, there is a need to make it more effective in protecting the interests of small nations against stronger countries. The process of retaliation is ineffective and too impractical for smaller players.

Answer : Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was meant to stall Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, which was finalized in 2015. The deal was concluded between Iran and the P5 (United States, Russia, France, China, and United Kingdom) plus Germany and the European Union.

New Challenges for India

Even though India was not party to the deal, India supported it. India had watched the growing tensions between Iran and the United States before the deal was reached because a war could have had multiple negative consequences for India, including threats to the very large Indian expatriate population, disruption of oil supplies, and being forced to pick sides between Iran and the United States, to name just a few.

• Oil Prices: The impact on world oil prices will be the immediately visible impact of the U.S. decision. Iran is presently India’s third biggest supplier and any increase in prices will hit both inflation levels as well as the Indian rupee. Higher inflation might prompt central banks of developed economies, particularly the US, to follow a monetary policy tighter than expected before. This can have a negative spillover on capital flows into emerging markets, including India.
• Chabahar Port: India’s move over the last few years to develop berths at the Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar is a key part of its plans to beat Pakistan’s blockade on trade with Afghanistan, and the new U.S. sanctions could slow or even bring those plans to a halt depending on how strictly they are implemented. Sanctions could affect this timeline and delay the handing over of the project further.
• Broader concern is about the general stability of the region: If the increasing tension in the region turns into a full-scale war, India may face a number of challenges. Millions of Indian expatriates live in the Arab states of the Gulf, and they would be in the direct line of fire. Politically, it will become very difficult for India to continue playing the balancing game between Iran on one side and Israel, the Arab states and the United States on the other.
• International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC): Beyond Chabahar, India has been a founder of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) since it was ratified in 2002. Plans for INSTC sped up after the JCPOA was signed in 2015 and sanctions on Iran were lifted. New U.S. sanctions will affect these plans immediately, especially if any of the countries along the route or banking and insurance companies dealing with the INSTC plan also decide to adhere to U.S. restrictions on trade with Iran.
• Rules-based order: India has long been a proponent of a rules-based order that depends on multilateral consensus and an adherence to commitments made by countries on the international stage. By walking out of the JCPOA the U.S. government has overturned the precept that such international agreements are made by States not just with prevailing governments or regimes. This could also impact all agreements India is negotiating both bilaterally and multilaterally with the U.S.

India’s Response to this Situation

Trade between India and Iran is unlikely to suffer on account of re-imposition of US sanctions as these have been in place for long and India has maintained good trade relations with Iran. Re-imposition of the sanctions might actually give India better bargaining power when trading with Iran.

Non-oil trade with Iran which stood at about $2.69 billion of the total trade figures of $12.89 billion in 2016-17 may not be impacted as much, as New Delhi and Tehran have instituted several measures in the past few months, including allowing Indian investment in rupees, and initiating new banking channels, between them. India needs to have private discussions with U.S. counterparts for a more effective way of safeguarding its Iran related interests.

Thus, Oil and fertilizers are key strategic import items, and India should try to diversify its trading partners to shield itself from any adverse consequences.

Answer : Although India publicly kept a distance from Israel until the late 1980’s, there was in fact a great deal of bilateral activities between the two countries in the preceding years.

Since the upgrade of relations in 1992, defence and agriculture have been the main pillars of bilateral engagement. The two countries recently completed 25 years of diplomatic ties and an Israeli prime minister visited India after a gap of 15 years since Ariel Sharon in 2003.

India-Israel Relations: Grounds of Cooperation

• Bilateral Trade: It increased from $200 million to more than $4 billion (excluding defence) in last 25 years making India Israel’s 10th largest trading partner.
• Agriculture: Both have a bilateral agreement for cooperation in agriculture (India-Israel Agriculture Project). Bilateral action plan (2015-18) aims to expand cooperation into new sectors such as dairy and water. India has benefited from Israeli expertise and technologies in horticulture mechanization, protected cultivation, orchard and canopy management, nursery management, micro-irrigation and post-harvest management particularly in Haryana and Maharashtra. Israeli drip irrigation technologies and products are now widely used in India.
• Defence & Security: Israel is the third largest supplier of arms to India after Russia and the U.S. India imports critical defence technologies from Israel. There are regular exchanges between the armed forces and defence personnel.
• Science & Technology: MoUs between the two in various fields of Science and Tech (e.g., space technology). Israel’s technological prowess remains unmatched in areas as diverse as waste management and reprocessing, desalination, agriculture, waste water recycling, health, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.
• Further, Cyber security fund, energy cooperation, medicine MoU, Air transport agreement, space science MoU, and film co production are other areas of cooperation. In January 2014, India and Israel held extensive discussions to establish an India-Israel Cooperation Fund aimed at promoting innovations through joint scientific and technological collaborations.
• With Russian economy and its defence industry in shambles and US and Europe’s skepticism to supply India with defence weapons (given India’s refusal to sign NPT), Israel has gained importance since both are nuclear powers who have not signed the NPT.

Differences

• Difference in terms of Iran relations: Where on one hand Israel considers Iran an existential threat, India, on the other, has a historical relationship, and finds the cooperation useful for energy supplies, and an alternative route through Chabahar port to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
• Different approach towards Arab world: While Israel has inherent differences with Arab countries, India has significant stakes there and India’s recent vote at the UN against America’s move on Jerusalem was a reflection of that underlying reality.
• Stand on China: China is Israel’s largest trading partner in Asia they have strong technology and investment linkages.
• In terms of Pakistan: Israel’s interest lies in keeping open the possibility of relations, while there are serious tensions among India and Pakistan.
• Differences in terms of technology transfer: There exist differences between India and Israel over issues related to technology transfer, end-user agreements and a proposed free trade agreement, more so given India’s policy of ‘Make in India’.
• The free trade agreement (FTA): It is stuck because of the concerns from the Indian domestic industry.

Conclusion

Indo-Israeli bilateral ties will increasingly be shaped by the rapidly evolving geopolitical realities in Asia and the Middle East. Israel will have to figure out its own response to this Asian flux.

Further though the breadth and depth of India-Israel ties is no match as of now for the Sino-Israeli one, which is largely driven by trade and commerce, New Delhi should be aware that Chinese influence will only grow in the coming years. Prioritizing economic and trade ties in India-Israel ties should be viewed as a priority.

Answer : India and the region of Central Asia have very long historical, cultural and economic connections. The famous Silk Route not only connected the people and businesses, but also let the thoughts, culture and beliefs flow freely from one region to the other.

• Traditionally, Central Asia has been an arena of ‘’great game’’. The modern version is being played out even today. Russia, China, US, Turkey, Iran, Europe, EU, Japan, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan have substantial security and economic stakes in the region.
• India was among the first countries to recognize the five Central Asian states and established diplomatic relations with them. India now considers the Central Asian countries as part of its ‘extended and strategic neighbourhood”.
• In 2012, India announced the ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy, and also announced to hold an India-Central Asia Dialogue at Track II annually in one of the republics.

Importance of Central Asia

• Energy Security: It has significant hydrocarbon and mineral resources; Kazakhstan is the largest producer of uranium and has huge gas and oil reserves; Tajikistan has vast hydropower potential.
• Strategic Location: These countries make them a bridge between different regions of Asia and between Europe and Asia. India’s only foreign military airbase is in Farkhor (Tajikistan), which is operated by IAF and Tajik Air Force.
• Trade and Investment Potential: It increased with the construction boom and development of sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals and tourism. India has expertise in these sectors and deeper cooperation will give a fresh impetus to trade relations with these countries and great demand for Indian pharmaceutical products.
• Security: To tackle the challenge of terrorism, narcotics trafficking and arms smuggling, Central Asia is neighboring ‘Golden Crescent’ of opium production (Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan) and is also a victim of terrorism, illegal arms trade. India is also not new to these problems on its western front.
• To counter Terrorism and Radicalization: Keeping a check on the rise of radical Islamist groups that may pose a threat to India’s security.
• Stabilization of Afghanistan: Central Asian nations and India can play an effective role in bringing normalcy to Afghanistan.
• Regional Cooperation: Four Central Asian nations are part of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).

Ashgabat Agreement

India has recently joined the Ashgabat Agreement.

• It is an agreement between the Governments of Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan, aiming to establish international transport and transit corridor linking central Asia with the Persian Gulf, came into force in 2016.
• Kazakhstan and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2016. India had deposited the Instrument of Accession in April 2016.
• The Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan (ITK) railway line will be the major route under the Ashgabat Agreement which became operational in December 2014 and has also been included as part of INSTC.

Significance

• Ashgabat Agreement also aims to synchronize with the Eurasian railway connectivity project and International North–South Transport Corridor (NSTC) encompassing ship, rail and road route for moving freight between India, Russia, Iran, Europe and Central Asia.
• India’s trade with Afghanistan is likely to touch $5 billion after Ashgabat projects and INSTC comes into operation because Afghanistan is diverting its trade from Karachi to Chahbahar and Bandar Abbas port in Iran.
• Joining the Ashgabat Agreement would make it easier for India to reach out to Central Asia’s strategic and high-value minerals including uranium, copper, titanium, ferroalloys, yellow phosphorus, iron ore, etc.

Answer : Indian official foreign policy to China is engaging with China at all levels but remaining alert to Chinese aggression. This shows the impact of aggressive policy of China on India. But, China is showing aggression to many countries especially in South China Sea. Even with India, Doklam was similar development. In this background, the Chinese effort to develop potential military power status on the basis of economic relation generates caution.

India is a very peaceful country. But it is not its weakness rather strength. Impact on India as its neighbour was guided through peace. India had shown a very firm stand on Doklam in a peaceful manner.

Other impacts of China using economic relations for military status include recently concluded OBOR Summit, and part of the OBOR passing through Pakistani-occupied Kashmir. This is clearly an attempt by China to meddle in the bilateral affair of India and Pakistan. In response to China’s OBOR, India is now a part of the Japan-led Asia-Pacific Corridor. To counter Chinese influence, India is negotiating with Sri Lanka to build an airport at Hambantota. Chabahar Project, which India is a part of, is very near to Chinese project of Gwadar in Pakistan.

The impact is not limited to the economic field only. It touches defence and security as well. India is a part of trilateral military exercise, i.e Malabar Exercise. India, Australia, Japan and USA are moving forward to form Quad.

Answer : UNECOSOC is one of the 6 principal organs of United Nations responsible for coordinating the economic social and related work of 15 UN specialised agencies, their functional commissions and five regional commissions.

Main Functions

Basically its function is to coordinate among various organs of UN, governments and NGOs to achieve the objectives of UN. Their functions can be summarised as:

• Promoting sustainable development
• Advancing policy integration
• Development cooperation forum to enhance coherence
• Financing for sustainable development
• Coordinating humanitarian action
• Guiding operational activities for development
• Providing coordination and oversight
• Building partnerships
• Engaging youth
• Raising awareness on emerging issues
• Advising on Haiti’s long term development
• Working with civil society
  Apart from coordination it also prepares study reports in many sectors.

Various different functional commissions attached to it are

• Commission on Social Development
• Commission on the Status of Women
• Commission on Population and Development
• Statistical Commission
• Commission on Narcotic Drugs
• Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
• Commission on Science and Technology for Development
• United nations Forum on Forests

These functional commissions assist ECOSOC and UN to achieve all-round human development in the world. ECOSOC has 54 members and holds four week session each year in July, and since 1998, it has also held annual meeting in April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and the IMF.

ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and United Nations system. A number of NGOs has been granted consultative status to the Council to participate in the work of United Nations.

Answer : India is highly energy deficient country while West Asia has many countries with surplus oil and gas. India’s energy policy cooperation is evolving from mere buyer towards becoming partner in production and refining. Indian energy policy cooperation with West Asian countries should be analysed in light of the above.

India’s policy of Look West is relevant in this context. Yes, it is true that India needs energy, but at the same, it also true that West Asian countries are also in need of big buyers like India to neutralize the effect of volatile petroleum prices. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, UAE are some of the West Asian countries on which India relies heavily for its energy security. India has been strengthening its cooperation with all of these countries.

India is not simply importing oil and gas from West Asian countries. Various production and refinery projects have been set up by the Indian companies like ONGC, OVL, etc. in the West Asia.

Apart from above, there is another area of cooperation between India and West Asian countries. The pipeline for energy sector from Iran to India is proposed through sea excluding Pakistani waters. So it will provide a secured source for Indian energy demands. Further, negotiations are going on and some parts are being implemented. Building strategic reserve of petroleum in India is one such project. West Asian countries will also contribute to it.

International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) will also play its role in developing Indian energy channels with the West Asia.

Answer : Indian connection to South-East Asia was from ancient period of Srivijaya Empire. Indians also went there as labourers during the British period. This connection became vibrant with the diaspora contributing in literature, culture, trade and politics.

Indian origin people form the significant part of South-East Asian countries. About 8% of Malaysia, 7.4% of Singapore, 4% of Myanmar, 0.5% of Indonesian are of Indian origin. They are contributing immensely to the development of languages and literature in these countries. Tamil is one of the official language of Singapore.

Indian diaspora have also contributed to the development of religion and culture in many South-East Asian countries.

They are contributing to the base of economy also. Punjabis, Sindhis, Chettiyars are controlling important businesses. Chettiyars are contributing in money-lending. Singapore’s IT industry draws its sustenance from Indian diaspora. Indians have made significant contributions in the establishment of textile and real estate industry in Thailand.

Not only Indian Diaspora but Indian companies are also present in South East Asia.

Indian diaspora plays so important role in their society that many prominent political positions were held by them. For example, the longest serving president of Singapore was Indian origin S.R. Nathan, former opposition leader was J.B. Jeyaretnam. The present finance minister of Singapore is also of Indian origin who is known as Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Important political positions can not be held by Indian diaspora without them making significant contribution to the society. Earlier we saw that how significant population of these countries are of Indian origin. This shows their importance.

So, Indian diaspora has become the part and parcel of South-East Asian economy and society and they are also important part of Indian policy of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman initiative.

Answer : World Trade Organization (WTO), an international organization established to supervise and liberalize world trade.

Doha Development Round is the trade-negotiation round of the WTO, which commenced in November 2001. Its objective was to lower trade barriers around the world, and thus facilitates increased global trade.

Conflicts in Doha Round:

• Allegations were hurled on developed countries for ignoring developmental challenges of developing and least developed countries.
• Major Issues:
• Agriculture & subsidy issues are of vital importance for both developed and developing countries.
• Compulsory licensing of medicines and patent protection.
• Provisions giving special and differential treatment to developing countries.
• Problems that developing country are having in implementing current trade obligations to be addressed.

India’s perspective:

• India poses as a leader of developing and under-developed countries in WTO negotiations.

Agriculture & Subsidy Issues:

• Developing countries asking for more generous offer for reducing trade-distorting domestic support for agriculture.
• Countries like India have stood for it’s right to provide subsidies to it’s farmers because of food-security issues, marginal land-holdings, livelihood considerations, rural distress due to years of drought.

Patent & Medicines Issues:

• Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
• Issue involves the balance of interests between the pharmaceutical companies in developed countries that held patents on medicines and the public health needs in developing countries.
• An agreement has been reached, which offered an interim waiver under the TRIPS Agreement allowing a member country to export pharmaceutical products made under compulsory licenses to least-developed and certain other members. It also allows members to not to allow ever-greening of patents.

Special and differential treatment (SDT)

• Members agreed that Developing and Least developed countries will continue to be eligible for a favorable treatment.
• With large scale poverty and inequality, countries like India, Brazil should not be treated as par with western developed countries.

Traditional Knowledge:

• Agreement was on prevention of appropriation of Traditional Knowledge of developing world by Corporations in west.
• It’ll benefit India in realizing it’s traditional knowledge potential and benefit from it.
• Example: Yoga, Traditional knowledge digital library
• Implementation issue:
• Earlier Uruguay Round agreements were not implemented properly by developing countries, because of limited capacity or lack of technical assistance.

Way forward:

• Course of multilateral ism, regional trade agreements are evolving alongside WTO, and hence India needs to balance it’s interests, so as to meet it’s domestic challenges and attain it’s goal of export-led growth (Economic Survey 2017).

Answer : India’s Look East policy is an effort to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia in order to bolster its standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of China.

Significance (post-cold war):

• Initiated in the early 1990s against the backdrop of a struggling economy and the sudden disappearance of the Cold War framework.
• The Look East policy was a multifaceted and multi-pronged approach to establish strategic links with many individual countries, evolve closer political links with ASEAN, and develop strong economic bonds with the region.
• An attempt to carve a place for India in the larger Asia-Pacific.
• To showcase India’s economic potential for investments and trade.

Economic Dimensions:

• Commerce with South and East Asian nations accounts for almost 45% of India’s foreign trade.
• Rise of FTAs and India’s ambitions of export-led growth (Economic Survey 2017).
• RCEP agreement would complement India’s existing free trade agreements with the Association of South-East Asian Nations and some of its member countries.
• RECP would cover a broad spectrum of issues such as trade in goods, services, investment, competition, intellectual property rights, and other areas of economic and technical cooperation.
• RECP will help India tackle it’s economic fear of trade-loss due to TPP.
• ASEAN-India Free Trade Area (AIFTA) is a free trade area along with ASEAN members, from which India will derive benefits.
• Will help in inclusive growth of north eastern states due to their close proxity to region.

Strategic Dimensions:

• India enjoys a geographical proximity with this region.
• Cooperation on cross cutting security issues, handling cross border terrorism
• Safeguarding Indian Borders, especially in NE states
• Rise of China in region and it’s String of Pearls approach in Indian Ocean.
• Tension in South China sea is major challenge for India.
• Pursuit of maritime security and enhanced cooperation in combating terrorism and piracy.
• Example: Malabar joint naval exercise with Japan, US.
• South east Asian countries are situated in the main inter-continental routes between Europe, America, East Asia and Australia thus providing scope to act as important stopovers for Indian exporters.
• Changing global order and United States ‘Pivot to Asia’, India needs to pose as regional leader.

Way forward:

Due to changing global order and shift of focus towards Asia, India needs to have a more proactive role in the region, to meet it’s strategic and economic interests, while providing much needed leadership and voice (WTO negotiations etc.) to nations of east-Asia.

Answer : South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia. India not willing to attend 19th SAARC summit along with Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh have brought question mark on future of SAARC.

Key Developments:

• India didn’t want to attend because of Pakistan’s role in cross-border terrorist attacks and growing interference in internal affairs of member states.
• Afganistan has pointed that terrorist activities have increased.
• Bhutan is willing to join member states in on issue of the deterioration of regional peace and security due to terrorism.
• Bangladesh cited the lack of a congenial atmosphere and interference in its internal affairs by others as the reason.

Pakistan’s Role:

• Cross border terrorist attacks
• Pakistan-sponsored terrorism against its neighbors is faced more intensely by two member countries-Afghanistan and India. Example: Uri attack, Pathankot attack
• Direct involvement of Pakistan based terrorist groups in Pathankot attack and Mumbai attack.
• Afganistan has been very vocal on the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, as a strategic instrument against Afghanistan.

Internal Interference

• Pakistan’s growing interference in its internal affairs of member states is a major concern.
• uncalled for reactions after the execution of war criminals in Bangladesh that amount to direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.
• Pakistan through China is increasing interference in domestic matters.
• Example: CPEC through PoK and Indian sovereignty issue.

Other Issues:

• Historical mistrust, fear of Indian hegemony, growing Chinese influence, exclusion of bilateral and contentious issues from SAARC.

Way forward:

• Stability of region is of at most importance of India.
• Member states coming together on terrorism and internal interference issue of Pakistan, will put pressure on isolated Pak.
• To realize full potential of SAARC, member states have to take balanced approach in dealing with contentious regional issues, without which stability is not possible.

Answer : Many Voices One World, also known as the MacBride report, was a 1981 UNESCO publication written by the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems.

Aim:

To analyze communication problems in modern societies, particularly relating to mass media and news, consider the emergence of new technologies, and to suggest a kind of communication order (New World Information and Communication Order) to diminish these problems to further peace and human development.

Problems the report identified are:

• Concentration of the media
• Commercialization of the media
• Unequal access to information and communication

The commission called for democratization of communication and strengthening of national media to avoid dependence on external sources, among others. Subsequently, Internet-based technologies considered in the work of the Commission, served as a means for furthering MacBride’s visions.

The International Program for the Development of Communication exists to strengthen the means of mass communication in developing countries, by increasing technical and human resources for the media, by developing community media and by modernizing news agencies and broadcasting organizations.

India’s positions:

• In an post-truth era, it is of extreme importance to give due weight age to facts and policies.
• Social media’s growing role and it’s often binary stands is a cause of concern for democratic polity.
• Example: Nationalist vs Anti-National debate.
• India’s e-governance ambitions demands for multi stakeholder approach.
• In NAMEDIA conference in New Delhi, Former PM of India, Mrs. Gandhi declared that Not only opinion but news has become a weapon to project images, laudatory or condemnatory, according to predetermined strategy.
• There is growing demand of reviving existing communications media like Parasar Bharti, AIR etc strengthen national media for accessible and transparent communication.

Answer : The accelerated rate of growth witnessed by India during last two decades, have raised certain challenges. These challenges includes: resources security, in particular energy security, has become a prime concern of national interest. Secondly, economic and financial reforms have increased the global competitiveness of both the public and private sector, and a number of Indian firms have established themselves globally; thirdly, a renewed engagement with the Indian diaspora through the expansion of Indian political, economic, financial and social institutions globally; andlastly, emergence of contemporary security challenges. India’s engagement in African continent may address these problems to a significant extent.

India, in order to diversify its sources of supply, has to concentrate on African continent, as it has emerged as a crucial region for oil supply diversification due to fragile nature of hydrocarbon supply in West Asia, India’s traditional oil supplier. While oil and gas dominates the India’s resource interests in Africa, India also imports coal, copper, iron as well as agricultural raw materials. Further, India’s trade with Africa is in many sectors and is rising rapidly. This increasing economic engagement has been a driving factor for the Indian government to proactively engage with the African nations to promote and support the expanding interests of its citizens and corporations.

Certain regions of the African continent serve as the hotbed for the spread of the fundamentalist Islamic terrorism movements and another issue is concerned with the security of sea lines of communication (SLOC) and the threat of maritime piracy. Both these issues makes it imperative and advantageous for India to enter into positive engage with Africa to garner her support and cooperation.

As Indian diaspora has established itself as an economically successful community, so, there lies a space for the convergence of the economic interest of the Indian Diaspora and the Indian national economic interest.

In addition to these, entire African continent have whole heartedly supported India’s bid for the permanent seat on the United Nations Security council.

But, these advantages will accrue only at some cost and therefore they are not absolute. Major powers of the world such as US, UK, China etc. are already engaged in Africa. In fact they are far ahead of India in most of the areas of bilateral relation. Now, India’s ever increasing engagement in Africa is seen as a competition to these powers which would definitely impact India’s bilateral relations with these powers. Therefore, India may attract trade rivalry with Africa’s largest trade partner’s viz. US and UK respectively.

Another area of concern is that, India is giving resources to the Africa, to develop a soft corner for herself, at a subsidized rate which may not be sustainable in the longer term. Though India’s foreign policy with respect to Africa is formulated by the Indian government but it is guided by the corporate. This is also perceived as encroachment of private sector in the government business.

Further, India may also be subjected to the dilemma currently faced by China, in the South Sudan’s case. The Dilemma involves the balance between sovereignty and the concerns for human rights, Such a situation, if at once arises, then it may tarnish the image of India in international relations and every country would start seeing as the interventionist. This situation is also widely perceived as Neo colonialism and may become a cause of discontent amongst the Africans against India. Increasingly, African people are feeling that these big powers including India are extracting resources for their benefits only, and no substantial development takes place which would take them to the path of development so, this become a cause of discontent and may affect India long term strategic interests including security and international relations.

Answer : India has been actively pursuing its quest for permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC). It has pushed for text based negotiations in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as a step to move forward the agenda of UNSC reform and expansion stuck fruitlessly in the Open-Ended Working Group all these years. Many would rightly say that the start of text based negotiations does not mean that India is anywhere near obtaining permanent membership.

Impediments that India faces encompasses several issues. The long impending Kashmir issue with the neighbor Pakistan is one of the major obstacle. The repeated false complaints of Pakistan on India’s violation makes her a weak candidate for a permanent seat. In fact Pakistan is not at all interested in the expansion of the security council and continuously oppose the reforms process.Previous violations by India on many resolution of theUnited nations and subsequent indifferent attitude towards it on issues such as Kashmir issue, 1971 crisis born out Indo-Pak war, Nuclear weapons test in 1974 and 1998, have made her a weak applicant. In addition to this, India has not signed the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons despite being a nuclear state, also make her demand shallow. Also, India is one of the 9 countries to have not signed Comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT).

Further, the border dispute between India and China persisting for the past 25 years awaits settlement, and also prevent china’s support. Being member of the P5 having veto power, without China’s support India can get a seat in the UNSC. Internal law and order situation of India is grappling with insurgencies and left-wing extremism. This showcases India’s inability to tackle internal issues and therefore, a bigger role in international arena gets undermined. The economic strength of India is yet to show its muscles to the world, as it is still smaller in terms GDP with respect to other three in the group of G4. Also, India is struggling with weak currency making her economy vulnerable to external as well internal economic shocks.

Apart from these domestic impediments, there are certain transnational impediments as well. These are beyond India’s control. These includes lack of consensus amongst the members of the security council. Whereas some supports reforms aiming at the expansion of the Security Council, thus India’s inclusion in the security council. But other does not favor it and changes their stance on these reforms most often. In fact, the veto power enjoyed by the current members is the biggest impediment in India’s pursuit of Security Council’s membership. Because, even if one members exercising veto, the entire progress on reforms comes to a halt. Lastly, rigidity in United Nations Security Council law for the expansion serves as another obstacle.

All these factors combined; act as impediment in India’s pursuit of a permanent seat in United Nations Security Council.

Answer : The unique idea of this project to showcase a Transnational Mixed Route (including Natural and Cultural Heritage) on the World Heritage List.

Focusing on monsoon patterns, cultural routes and maritime landscapes, Project ‘Mausam’ is examining key processes and phenomena that link different parts of the Indian Ocean littoral as well as those that connect the coastal centres to their hinterlands. Broadly, Project ‘Mausam’ aims to understand how the knowledge and manipulation of the monsoon winds has shaped interactions across the Indian Ocean and led to the spread of shared knowledge systems, traditions, technologies and ideas along maritime routes. These exchanges were facilitated by different coastal centres and their surrounding environs in their respective chronological and spatial contexts, and simultaneously had an effect on them.

The endeavour of Project ‘Mausam’is to position itself at two levels:

• At the macro level, it aims to re-connect and re-establish communications between countries of the Indian Ocean world, which would lead to an enhanced understanding of cultural values and concerns;
• At the micro level, the focus is on understanding national cultures in their regional maritime milieu.

China’s premier, Xi Jinping is pushing China’s MSR in India’s backyard with the eager support of countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Even India is interested in potentially joining the MSR as the plan is a boon to the economies of the entire region.

However, India has to look out for its own strategic interests as well. India is uniquely placed to play a major role in Indian Ocean security and trade. India’s location and power can serve to organize the states of the Indian Ocean littoral. The project is considered the Modi government’s most significant foreign policy initiative designed to counter China. It is inspired by India’s historical role as the focal point for trade in the Indian Ocean.

Project Mausam would allow India to reestablish its ties with its ancient trade partners and re-establish an “Indian Ocean world” along the littoral of the Indian Ocean. This world would stretch from east Africa, along the Arabian Peninsula, past southern Iran to the major countries of South Asia and thence to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Answer : It is well acknowledged fact that both the nations have wasted too many years in animosity fuelled by terrorist activities and mutual distrust due to historical developments. But, despite all the political differences, the citizens of both the nations remains strongly interconnected and interrelated through same culture, language, sartorial way, geographic conditions, socio-cultural traditions etc. these are some of the threads that are still bonding the people of these not so friendly nations. In addition to these, Arts, music and sports too form certain amount of mutual linkages between India and Pakistan.

In fact, civil society at both ends want peaceful resolution to all the conflicts because peace is the road to progression and not tussles or war. It can be forged through utilizing soft power such as sports and cultural exchanges. The Soft power diplomacy is an effective tool to build astonishing relations in international relations. India and Pakistan are also the two countries that have been doing best to restore the trust and harmony in their relationship by capitalizing on soft powers like sports and cultural exchanges but with certain caveats.

Cultural exchanges such as TV shows, pilgrimage visits, have the potential to facilitate greater communication and understanding between the people of both nations. Such exchanges can transform the bilateral relations by building trust amongst the people of both the sides. Non-governmental organizations plays important role to facilitate exchange of ideas, information and people. People to people contact includes students exchange as well that surely creates an everlasting love of friendship and love. Despite the political jingoism and historical propaganda between two nations, the dialogue initiated through such exchanges is not just possible but sustainable too.

Further, Indian film industry have also emerged as the agent of friendship many Indian artists have voiced towards helping “Lollywood” Pakistani film industry, through training in acting, direction and etc. Bollywood movies are flooded in Pakistani movie shops, as well as film stars are known from street to street. A general perception watching through television reports Pakistani children recognize Indian films stars more than their own. Musicians at both sides have been very enthusiastic over different decades for organizing musical festivals, as Indians and Pakistan both love classical, pop. Respected Pakistani singers in India are Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Late Noor Jehan, Adnan Sami Khan, Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam and same is in Pakistan many Indian singers as Pankaj Udaas, Udat Narayan, Lata Manghaster, Ayesha Boslay and etc are well-known.

Sports as a tool of soft power can bridge many differences and find people a common ground to unite. In Indo-Pak relation Cricket is the main sport, which helps enhance dialogue. Cricket could be used to create congenial atmosphere between people of two nations and the leadership must show respect and tolerance towards the defeated side of the country to promote peace in the region. The Indian Premier league (IPL) has not only caught the imagination of cricket fans in India but has also from cricket playing nations across the globe including Pakistan (although Pakistani players no more participate in IPL due to cold response by Franchisee owners). The game of cricket has really helped in laying strong foundation for a peaceful relationship between the two acrimonious and bitter neighbours.

Recent cancellation of cricket match and the concert of Ghulam Ali in one of Indian states (later on organized in other states) due to terror attack led domestic agitation have for temporary period cast shadow on these positive events.

But in the longer term, it would be in the interest of both the countries, to not let the cultural and sports diplomacy become ineffective due to security reasons or domestic consideration of the respective countries. Of course, Political and security regulatory authorities would have their concerns, but cultural empowerment would lead to better phases of developing a relation by generating goodwill between two countries to a greater extent. As it is the aspiration of the peoples that is reflected in the political and military actions. Once people aspires peaceful and prosperous relations, then no democratic government can go against their wish.

Answer : India China relations face numerous problems ranging from border disputes on Line of Control in Leh- Ladakh and Tibetan region dispute over Arunachal Pradesh to China’s influence on Indian Ocean on “string of pearls” strategy on encircling Indian nation by constructing naval bases and ports in neighbouring countries. Above all, the 21st century’s most serious problem that affects India China relation is over maritime security and maritime territorial disputes like South China Sea.

China’s Dominance in the South China and east China seas gets more attention from international observers with the intention of its domination over Indian ocean affects not only India but also major players like Japan, U.S. and Australia too.

Indian ocean plays a significant role in Asian economies where it helps in carrying 80% of China’s oil, 65% of India’s and 60% of Japan’s oil transport making those water crucially important to these Asia’s great powers. If there is any significant slowdown in tanker traffic whether from diplomatic standoff, piracy or war would affect those countries and send shockwaves around the world. China is aiming to become a major player in Indian Ocean alongside of India and U.S, for this it is building ports and forging alliances in coastal nation from Myanmar to Pakistan. It also initiated most ambitious project of reviving the ancient Maritime Silk route (MSR) by linking Asia with Europe via Indian Ocean. For this China needs India’s help and support in achieving the 21st century MSR but on the sidelines it is gaining confidence from Maldives Srilanka and other coastal nations in Indian Ocean.

In order to take India China relations to next level there is need of strong co-operation among these nations, instead of involving in cut-throat competition. India need to address the growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean region, or else it would affect the India’s domination over the mighty Indian Ocean. Though, India is not equipped as China with naval superiority or New Delhi didn’t have the political capital to resist the China’s dominance over maritime in Asian region.

Thus, in recent foreign policy framing, New Delhi firmly reacts to China by countering it with U.S and Japan on trilateral Collaboration on maritime security by conducting naval exercises. Further, India initiating projects like Mausam to counter China’s MSR on Indian Ocean initiatives.

So, with growing tension on maritime disputes and dominance over Indian ocean region, experts opine that 21st century cold war is being developed over maritime disputes, where Europe acted as a centre for post WWII Cold war era. Now, it is been shifted to Indo-pacific region, where US frames ‘Asia Pivot’ policy in balancing the Asian power, China’s rise and influence on Asian region, Japan’s maritime dispute over China and new players like Australia and other Asian countries are involving in maritime security issues.

Therefore, from Indian stand point, resolution of border issues and establishment of a co-operative security mechanism involving both regional and extra regional players is an option that could retain the ‘peaceful’ element in the Indian Ocean region.

Answer : The ITA is an agreement that provides for duty-free treatment of certain “information technology” (IT) products. The original agreement was negotiated by 29 participants and concluded in December 1996. The number of participants has now grown to 52, representing 80 World Trade Organization (WTO) members, accounting for approximately 97 percent of world trade in IT products.

In joining the ITA, participants commit to eliminating tariffs on all products covered under the agreement, including computers and peripheral equipment, electrical components such as semiconductors, computer software, telecommunications equipment and analytical instruments among other products. The tariff commitments undertaken in the Agreement are made on a most-favoured nation (MFN) basis, meaning participants must extend their commitments to all WTO Members. The agreement also provides for a work programme to review non-tariff barriers (NTBs) which impact upon trade in IT products.

Eliminating Barriers to High-Tech Trade: Since the ITA went into force in 1997, global trade covered by the ITA has more than tripled, rising to more than $4 trillion in annual trade. Despite extensive advances in technology, however, the product scope of the agreement has never been expanded.

• More than 200 tariff lines will be reduced to zero under an expanded ITA.
• Medical equipment, GPS devices, video game consoles, computer software and next generation semiconductors are among the high-tech products that will see tariff elimination.

India’s experience with the ITA is not been encouraging as it has almost wiped out the IT industry and had a devastating impact on the domestic electronics hardware sector. Further, there is growing negotiations in WTO by member nations US, China, European nations and other member countries to expand the list of items in ITA to develop new agreement of ITA-2. But Indiais not willing to join the negotiations and not accepting the WTO’s initiative of widening the ITA, which have negative impact on electronic manufacturing sector in India.

• Impact of ITA on electronics hardware manufacturing in India
• Sharp decline in investments in manufacturing of components, raw materials, parts and even electronic sub-assemblies
• High value added manufacturing requiring high investment suffered the most
• Share of domestically manufactured electronic components has declined from over 50% to around 20-22% over past 10 years
• Substantial dependence on imports, which is growing at a fast pace
• Exports from India face huge Non-Tariff Barriers

Answer : Developing nations like India often lack economic wealth for promoting regional growth and developing infrastructure facilities in the country. For monetary aid it needs some international funding from agencies like World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank etc. to infuse fund in economy for nation’s development, while accepting such aid it imposes certain conditions for providing those aids to country. Those who accept those conditions it grants fund only to them, which has both positive and negative impacts on a receiving nation.

India is one of the largest aid receivers from Bretton Woods Institution, while accepting certain conditions it has some merits involved in it. For example, in 1991 economic crisis IMF has imposed certain conditions for granting fund to recover India from Balance of Payment crisis, like devaluation of Indian currency, reduction in the government expenditure, reduction in import tariff etc.

The conditions imposed by IMF has benefitted Indian economy, closed economy of India got liberalized, strict license raj was abolished for improvement of industries, brought more foreign investments to India for development, private sector get encouraged and so on. Because of these conditions Indian economy got interlinked with world economy. Such conditions also brought some socio-economic benefits to Indian society by way of large employment opportunities. Further, it streamlined Indian budgetary system, changed political attitude on economy front and offered scope of development.

If India decides not to accept such conditions, it means it is not ready to compromise its sovereignty to external agencies. Most of the international agencies are driven by developed country political heads, whose aim is to impose their political ideology to under-developed and developing economies like India, since India has its own political ideology it may not accept such conditions. Finally, Country like India may reject such conditions protect Indian national from external control.

• New Development Bank: The NDB has given $50 billion in initial capital. The BRICS bank appears to work on an equal-share voting basis, with each of the five signatories contributing $10 billion. The capital base is to be used to finance infrastructure and “sustainable development” projects in the BRICS countries initially, but other low- and middle-income countries will be able to buy in and apply for funding.
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is backed by at least 21 countries in the region. The new multilateral institution’s main lending thrust is in the area of infrastructure financing across Asia, backed by an initial paid-up capital of $50 billion and with authorized capital of $100 billion.
• Role of AIIB and NDB: The role and functioning of BRICS New Development Bank and Asia’s AIIB have certain differences. Firstly, the voting pattern of the NDB is equal for all member nations of the group but in 22 nations AIIB is derived on the basis of GDP. Secondly, in NDB there is equal share of capital from BRICS nations but in AIIB it is mostly led by China’s Contribution. Thirdly, NDB focuses on loan for infrastructure development in member countries, sustainable development and address BOP crisis using separate contingency reserve fund, on the contrary, AIIB is focused mainly on infrastructure development project alone.
• Significance of NDB and AIIB to India: The proposed AIIB and NDB would have positive impact on Indian Economy by transforming it into the world’s next manufacturing hub. In a way it addresses the infrastructure bottlenecks that India is facing in recent times with the lack of investments, alongside it also addresses structural and regulatory reforms. For India, by setting up of NDB and AIIB would ease its ability to secure funding for developments needs. India with limiting voting rights in Breton Woods Institution (IMF and World Bank) and it is primarily dominated by US and other Western countries affect Asian economies. So, by this new institution, India could access more funds for developments needs.

Answer : The WTO’s main functions are to do with trade negotiations and the enforcement of negotiated multilateral trade rules (including dispute settlement). Special focus is given to four particular policies supporting these functions:

Assisting developing and transition economies: Developing countries make up about three quarters of the total WTO membership. Together with countries currently in the process of “transition” to market-based economies, they play an increasingly important role in the WTO.

Specialized help for exporting: The International Trade Centre: The centre responds to requests from developing countries for assistance in formulating and implementing export promotion programmes as well as import operations and techniques. It provides information and advice on export markets and marketing techniques.

The WTO in global economic policy-making: An important aspect of the WTO’s mandate is to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral institutions to achieve greater coherence in global economic policy-making.

The trade negotiations and rules framed for better multilateral trade facilitation under WTO is binding on member countries, if a country wants to change the binding rules can do it after consulting with the trading partner. If trading partner accepts the changed rules than changed rule would prevails in bilateral set-up, if not the complaining country may invoke WTO dispute settlement procedure. In the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, all the member countries are agreed to bind on the rules and judgements delivered by WTO dispute settlement mechanism. So, in WTO trade negotiation rules are allowed to change in bilateral mechanism but when country raises issues on dispute settlement its judgement and decision are binding on the member countries.

India’s Stand on Food Security issue: India has made its stance clear that it will not easily give in to pressure from the western world over trade protocols of the WTO, as was also discussed during the talks in Bali in December 2013. India fears that agreeing to the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) could compromise its own food security.

India’s Food Security Act, which is binding on the government by law now, implies that the government will provide very cheap food to the most vulnerable part of the population at extremely low prices. Apart from providing subsidies to the consumers, through the public distribution system, it also provides subsidies to the producers of food grains. So it buys food grains from farmers at a minimum support price, and subsidises inputs like electricity and fertiliser.

India now wants a permanent solution to the issue of public stock holding of food grains. G33 members including China have supported India’s stand on the ability to subsidise agricultural production and distribute it to the poor at low cost. Recently, India and US resolved differences on the public stockholding issue for food security purposes in WTO. Since, US made clear that WTO members would not challenge food security programs under WTO dispute settlement procedures until a permanent solution had been agreed and adopted.

Answer : Japan is currently India’s third largest source of foreign direct investment; Japanese companies have made cumulative investments of around $2.6 billion in India since 1991. The 2007 annual survey conducted by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation ranked India as the most promising overseas investment destination for Japanese companies over the long term. In recent years, Japan has assisted India in infrastructure development projects such as the Delhi Metro Rail Project. Both sides are discussing the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project and Dedicated Freight Corridor Projects on the Mumbai-Delhi and the Delhi-Howrah routes. The Japanese government has also expressed interest to help establish a Chennai-Bangalore Industrial corridor and a Dedicated Freight project in the south, connecting the cities of Bangalore and Chennai.

While India has become the largest recipient of Japanese ODA since 2003-04, both bilateral trade in goods and Japan’s FDI into India have almost stagnated during the past decade. With major Indian exports to Japan being dominated by products of mineral oils, gems & jewels, marine products (mainly shrimps) and iron ore, India and Japan have not yet formed such a dynamic international division of labour as can be seen among the East Asian countries. Japan’s cumulative FDI into India is so far larger than that of Korea, but as far as electronics appliances are concerned, Japanese companies have been overwhelmed by Korean companies in the Indian market.

India and Japan are highly complementary economies, but their mutual complementarities remained underexploited hitherto. Recently, however, a new tide has been observed in Japan to expand Indo-Japan relations based on mutual complementarities. Japan has abundant capital and is highly advanced in technological skills and product development while India is endowed with a huge market and abundant human resources. Japan is outstanding in terms of manufacturing abilities, whereas India has advantages in IT services and bioinformatics.

Answer : The 2013 Shahbag protests, associated with a central neighbourhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh, began on February 5, 2013 and later spread to other parts of Bangladesh, as people demanded capital punishment for Abdul Quader Mollah, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, and for others convicted of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal.

If Islamic fundamental forces become stronger then it will impact India- Bangladesh relationship. Islamic forces do not support secular character. Fundamentalist will target India’s interests. Infiltration in north-east states may increase. Secessionist forces in N-E states will get support from fundamentalist in Bangladesh. Overall development of the region may get hampered.

Answer : In a surprising turn of events, even for many of Maldivians, Mohamad Nasheed, the first democratically-elected head of the state of Maldives, resigned on 07 February 2012 in the wake of anti-government protests and police mutiny.

Given the strategic location of the Maldives, its peace and stability is crucial not only for India, but also for the entire region. India needs to ensure that Maldives does not become a haven either for Islamic militant groups or for sea pirates. There are already concerns about Lashkar-e-Toiba’s foothold in the southern parts of the archipelago through its charitable front organisation, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq ever since 2004 tsunami.

Making use of the volatile situation, forces inimical to Indian interests may try to gain foothold in the archipelago. Keeping these into consideration, India should exert enough economic, diplomatic and political leverage behind the scenes to bring all contending parties of the country to negotiating table to thrash out a consensus political formula. Peace and stability in Maldives remains the core concern.

Answer : The competitive populism in Tamil Nadu over the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka has generated a great deal of alarm in New Delhi over the manner in which political issues relating to a State have begun impinging on India’s foreign and security policies. Though somewhat over the top, the Dravidian parties have a point, but a general one rather than the specific case they are advocating.

The general point is that in any country, the people have a right to advocate and push for a particular foreign and security policy. Given our linguistic, ethnic, religious and ideological divisions, these views often come across as those belonging to this or that section.

The government structure as such does not cater to these sectional interests; in other words, there are no constitutional or institutional mechanisms to relay those interests. So, with Union governments taking the form of coalitions, they have become vulnerable to party or sectional pressure which often takes the form of pure blackmail.

Answer : The Gujral doctrine was a five-point roadmap which sought to build trust between India and neighbours, of solution to bilateral issues through bilateral talks and to remove immediate quid pro quos in diplomatic relationship between India and her neighbours. The ‘Doctrine’ emphasized on the importance of unilateral accommodation for friendly and warm relations with India’s neighbours.

The five principles are:

1. With neighbours like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, India does not ask for reciprocity, but gives and accommodates what it can in good faith and trust.
2. No South Asian country should allow its territory to be used against the interest of another country of the region.
3. No country should interfere in the internal affairs of another.
4. All South Asian countries must respect each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
5. They should settle all their disputes through peaceful bilateral negotiations.

Relevance of Gujral doctrine: The Gujral doctrine postulates that reciprocity among asymmetrical partners in South Asia needs to ensure equity rather than absolute equality in terms of any quid pro quo. India’s sheer physical size and weight of numbers and its economic and military power in relation to its smaller SAARC neighbours, not excluding Pakistan, can be intimidating. Hence, it may not pay to insist on strict parity on all things and at all times. The smaller partner must feel emboldened to accept a fuller relationship at a pace and level at comfort that it may be allowed to determine.

If India follows such a path, it will be serving, not abandoning, its best interests. What matters is the end result. Confidence-building may take a while but is worth the political investment. One can give today to get tomorrow or trade a ‘concession’ in one sector to make a gain in another area. The process is as important as the event and, at the start, perhaps even more important to get things moving.

The Gujral doctrine implies a process, not an objective. It aims at confidence-building, changing mindsets, placing procedures and even issues against a larger and longer perspective of national interest.

Answer : Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are products of the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1945. The Bretton Woods Agreement’s primary purpose was to raise and distribute funds for the objective of reconstructing war-torn Europe, and both organizations, the World Bank and the International Monetary fund were created for that purpose.

World Bank’s objective was to provide both financial and technical assistance to developing nations to build infrastructure such as bridges, roads, and social structures such as schools. The loans of World Bank was meant to reduce poverty in these nations, and to help bring them up with speed in the 20th century, and also to help rebuilding.

The International Monetary fund was created in order to stabilize foreign exchange rates and facilitate development. The goals are to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment, sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.The International Monetary Fund will also advise and make recommendations to member countries to improve their economies.

Answer : An Afghanistan without ISAF will be prey to the machinations of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which created, trained, financed, and directed the Afghan Taliban in the 1990s. This would be a proven security threat to India: the Taliban regime of the day, functioning as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ISI, was complicit in the hijacking of an Indian airliner in 1999. As a result, America’s interest in reconciliation with the Taliban is viewed with concern in India. After long rejecting this approach (on the reasonable grounds that there can be no such thing as a good terrorist), India has come around to accepting dialogue with those Taliban elements that are prepared to renounce violence.

This is why India stresses the importance of improving the Afghan government’s capacity to fight and overcome terrorism. Without this capacity, the government will again be vulnerable to an extremist takeover. The role of Pakistan - whose over-ambitious military has made no secret of its desire to control the government in Kabul in order to gain “strategic depth” - remains of serious concern, particularly given China’s recent progress in making Pakistan its own zone of “strategic depth,” with access from the Karakoram Mountains to the Arabian Sea

Answer : China has established a number of port relationships in the Indian Ocean that make it possible for them to support increased navy operations. All these ports are commercial operations, where Chinese firms have upgraded or built commercial ports and run them. This makes it easy for the Chinese Navy to visit (for repairs, supplies, or shore leave for the crews). So far this “string of pearls” includes Bangladesh (Chittagong), Burma (Sittwe and Coco Island), Sri Lanka (Hambantota), Pakistan (Gwadar), and Tanzania (Bagamoyo). The Indian Ocean has become a major trade route for China and this makes the security of this route a major concern. This, however, upsets India a great deal because of active claims China has on India (especially along the Tibet border).

There’s not much India can do about the String of Pearls, as China has become a major economic force in the Indian Ocean and offers all the nations hosting a “pearl” very attractive economic incentives to accept Chinese port building and management efforts. In 2007, India opened its second oversees military listening post in northern Madagascar, with the aim of better overseeing shipping movements through the Mozambique Channel. The Indian government has, with the same intentions, hosted negotiations with Mauritania regarding the construction of an airstrip for Indian surveillance aircraft, as well as organized the construction of radar stations in the Maldives. In 2011, the Indian government further announced that the government-financed deep-water port in Sittwe, Burma is to be functional by June 2013, with an additional highway connecting the port to India to be completed by 2014. The construction of the Sittwe port is often cited as evidence of a concerted strategy on the part of India to counterbalance growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.

Answer : Border disputes between India and China have taken violent turns several times after India's Independence leading to wars in 1962, 1967 and 1987. In contemporary times even though no serious wars have occurred, but border disputes still are a straining factor on diplomatic relations. Despite these issues the two countries have made conscious efforts to strengthen economic ties and isolate them from border issues.

However, India is placed unfavourably in the economic balance of trade with China. India's trade deficit with China is quite alarming. It indicates towards growing dependence of India on China. This may lead to decrease of India's negotiating power with China on border issues.

India shares a long border with China. On the far eastern border, China has been making claims that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China and there are frequent reports of intrusion of Chinese army in that area. Not issuing of visa to diplomats from Arunachal Pradesh has also created problems in diplomatic relations. The northern border dispute covering the Aksai Chin is even more complex as it involves Pakistan as well.

India-China trade is predicted to hit $100 billion soon. Growing economic relations have also brought about some stability in diplomatic relations between the two countries. Neither side wants to get into too much confrontation with each other as it may harm the growing economic ties. But India must not keep the border disputes aside at the cost of keeping the economic relations in the forefront.

Answer : The monarchial rule in Nepal was overthrown in 2007 by a Maoist uprising. Simultaneously an interim constitution of Nepal was drafted and adopted in 2007. The Interim Constitution was drafted to facilitate and manage, writing Nepal's permanent constitution.

Under the terms of the Interim Constitution, the new constitution was to be promulgated by May 28, 2010 but due to disagreements among political parties the Constituent Assembly kept on extending the Interim Constitution by a few months at a time. In May 2012, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai dissolved the Constituent Assembly after it failed to finish the constitution in its last time extension, ending four years of constitution drafting and leaving the country in a legal vacuum.

The disagreement between Nepali political parties has been on multiple fronts. One of the primary causes of disagreement is whether states in the new federal system should be along ethnic lines. Nepal has multiple ethnicities and decision of what the federal structure should be very contentious. The other reason plaguing the formation of consensus is the future of Maoist rebel fighters who were confined to camps after they gave up arms in 2006. There has been disagreement, whether they should be integrated with the Nepali Army or not.

International bodies such as the United Nations are also overseeing the process. India has also been helping Nepal in reaching a consensus and drafting the constitution. Despite this a consensus is still far from sight.

Answer : Backwardness is a subjective term. Backwardness is usually seen mostly in economic terms. With the development of the concept of Human Development Index, it can also be referred to as inability of a society to ensure a good quality of life for its people. Despite being rich in natural resources, Africa and South Asia have remained backward. There are many factors which have led to persistence of backwardness in these countries.

Historically, almost all African and south Asian countries have been colonies of European countries. They exploited these countries resources without bringing about any development in them. Some African countries have only recently got independence.

Even after independence political instability has persisted. Militarization of the society, rule by monarchs has been a major obstacle in development of these nations

Moreover, a lot of these nations have been at war among themselves due to several issues such as ethnic disputes, communal disputes, boundary disputes etc.

Further the economy of a lot of these countries is still based on primary sector such as agriculture. Industrial and services sector have been slow to develop. Technological backwardness has also persisted.

The social culture rooted in traditional issues such as caste, gender inequalities etc have also led to persistence of backwardness.

However, these countries are now coming out of the shadows and showing various improvements indicated by its falling levels of poverty, maternal mortality, infant mortality etc. The Arab spring has promoted democracy in many countries. It is said that the 21st century would belong to Asia and Africa. Yet these countries have to walk a long road before they can really come out of their backwardness.

Answer : The return of Russian strongman Putin may usher in a frostier relationship with the west.Putin has been openly critical of foreign policies of the U.S. He has also been critical of the U.S's continued hyper use of force in international relations

During the Iraq crisis of 2003, Putin opposed Washington's move to invade Iraq. During recent times as well, the relations between the two countries have been strained due to opposition of view points over Syria. Russia has been the lifeline for President Bashar al-Assad throughout the conflict, providing weapons and diplomatic support to help keep his government afloat. In turn, Putin has openly castigated the United States for its support of opposition forces.

He also has brought about resurgence of Russian nationalism by consolidating support of east European pre cold war Soviet nations. However both sides deny the idea of a new Cold War.

Answer : The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed on by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000, set specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and a 'Global Partnership for Development.

There have been concerns that the MDG may not be achieved by 2015 because of squeeze of world spending to achieve MDGs due to economic recession and some countries lagging behind in achieving their individual goals.

However, such concerns are misfounded. Recently Mr. Ban, General Secretary of United Nations, had reported major progress in achieving the MDGs, with several important targets - on poverty, water, slums and on parity between girls and boys in primary education-having been met. Moreover, despite the economic crisis, overseas development assistance by developed countries to developing ones has not gone down. Developing countries are much better placed in the face of recession and are taking appropriate measures to achieve the goals. Even African countries are doing well on progressing on the indicators.

However, the progress is not alike on all indicators. While some goals have already been achieved, some are lagging far behind. The U.N must focus on these indicators.

Answer : BRICS the acronym coined by Goldman Sachs formed in 2009 in Yekaterinburg with brazil, Russia, India,china and later joined by south Africa accounts for 26% of the worlds area, 40 % of its population and 22% of the global GDP.

• IBSA is a grouping of democracies, all from the south (South Asia, South America and South Africa) formed in 2003 through Brasilia declaration. IBSA focuses on tackling the socio economic development issues social aspects of globalization internally like managing development projects in the least developed countries etc. marginalization of the poor etc.
• BRICS focuses moreon political and economic issues like monetary reform including the redrafting of the special drawing rights ,reform of the world financial institutions, un security council reformas two of the members - Russia and China are permanent UNSC members.
• The significance of these multilateral groupings lies in the fact that India succeeded in evolving broad consensus of views not only on key international financial issues but also on political issues.

Answer : The U.S. oil sanctions are designed to crimp Tehran's oil revenues by stopping financial institutions from conducting oil transactions with Iran's central bank, which handles most of the Iran's oil payments. India presently imports 12% of its consumed oil from Iran. US sanctions are affecting the payment of money for imported the Iranian crude oil and India has to resort to partial payment through Indian rupees and barter system to finance its oil import from Iran.

As Iran is the only viable corridor through which India can access the energy rich central Asian region and Afghanistan in which India has commercial interests and security interests respectively (India helped finance the Chabahar port and constructed the Zaranj-Delaram highway, which connects the port to Afghanistan's western provinces, allowing the transportation of goods to different parts of Afghanistan and from thereon to Central Asia). Iran also serves as a counter balance to Pakistan's policy of maneuvering allies among the Muslim countries on Kashmir issue .If India allows to jeopardize its ties with Iran by siding with United States. It has to sacrifice its security and commercial interest in central Asia. Recently America exempted India regarding Iran sanctions and gave it time to reduce its oil imports gradually.

• G8+5 are a group, consisting of Heads of Government of G8 countries (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the EU) and five leading emerging economies i.e. Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
• The group was formed in 2005 at 31st G8 Summit held in Gleneagles, Scotland and was institutionalized in 2007 at 33rd G8 Summit at Heiligendamm.

Answer : The South China Sea is south of mainland China and a part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area of around 35,00,000 sq km. It's bordered by some of the world's most rapidly developing countries and one third of the world's shipping transits through its waters, more than half the tonnage of oil transported by sea passes through it. The region has reserves of 7.7 trillion barrels of oil and 266 trillion cubic feet gas. It has also a valuable repository for natural resources beneath its seabed. Hence, the Chinese claim on the South China Sea has been rejected by its neighbours like India, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.

The recent dispute was on oil blocks in the South China Sea between China and its neighbours. India reiterated that the region was key to its energy security, foreign trade and national security. Hence, India supports freedom of navigation and access to resources in the region in accordance with principles of international law.

Answer : Central Asian Republics, comprising Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, has geopolitical significance for the post-cold war international system due to its geographical location, with Russia to the north; China and Mongolia to the east; India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan to the south; Turkey and Georgia to the west abundance of oil and natural reserves and vast mineral and natural resources, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual population, but predominantly Muslims population.Its nation/state-building and modernization process, which provide vast opportunities for infrastructure building by external sources.

India and Central Asia have ancient links. The archeological and historical evidences points to their close cultural, trade and political links. Central Asia provided the 'silk route' for China, India, and Europe. In the post-Cold War period of globalization and multi-polarity, there is enormous scope for a convergence of interests between India and the Central Asian republics. This could emerge on a variety of issues such as:

• coping with global economic changes ;
• dealing with the multi-polar world dominated by few powerful states;
• tackling ethnic and cultural diversity associated with ethno-nationalism;
• tackling the menace of religious fundamentalism and trans-border terrorism;
• nation/state building and related establishment of institutions; the common thread binding India and Central Asian states is that both are 'plural societies', which need build a liberal, secular and democratic model.

The geo-strategic importance of the Central Asian states requires India to have good relations with them. Currently their relationship is only lukewarm. Close relations could benefit them in several ways:

• It would counter balance Pakistan from using the Islamic card against India in Islamic fora.
• It would provide opportunities for constructing oil and natural gas pipelines in the future.
• India and the Central Asian states are affected by narco-religious terrorism arising instigated by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, so there is scope for India to work out a common strategy with them.

Managing plural states despite proximity to aberrant states is tough. India and Central Asian states face a common threat from cross-border terrorism from Islamic extremists abetted by the Taliban and Pakistan. This is the biggest threat to the South, Central and the West Asian region. The recently held Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Central Asia (CICA) at Almaty, Kazakhstan was significant in this regard. India and Central Asia can cooperate in evolving common mechanisms and measures to jointly combat terrorism.

In the economic sphere, there is enormous scope. New Delhi is making economic and political contact with each of the Central Asian states. Earlier New Delhi had signed a treaty on ' Principles of Inter State Cooperation' with Uzbekistan and a 'Declaration on Principles and Direction of Co-operation with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Immediately after their independence, the Uzbek and Kazakh Presidents made their respective first official visit to India. New Delhi has extended a credit of US $20 million each to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; US $15 million to Turkmenistan, and US $5 million each to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

However direct access to the central Asia is difficult as the routes pass through the restive Af-Pak region. China's growing influence in the region will be quite a task to counter. India will have to carve its own niche in ensuring the power game among Russia, China and US in the region.

Answer : Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1993, India and South Africa relations have travelled a long distance. Now it covers diverse area ranging from economic and commercial cooperation, defense, culture, health, human settlements, public administration, science and technology and education. India and South Africa have a common approach on many global issues, including UNSC reforms, the future of multilateralism, climate change, South-South Cooperation and multilateral trade negotiations.

• On the trade front, value of bilateral trade has trebled from US$ 2.5 billion in 2003-2004 to US$ 7.5 billion in 2008-2009. The trade target to be achieved has been US$ 15 billion by 2014. An important initiative under negotiation is the India-SACU Preferential Trade Agreement. Commercial interaction has been aided by an India-South Africa CEOs' Forum. An India Business Forum (IBF) was launched in March 2007 in South Africa.
• South Africa's shared history with India started in 1860, when indentured labourers were brought to the then Natal colony from India. Between 1860 and 1866, some 6000 of these Indian labourers arrived from Madras (now Chennai) and 300 from Calcutta (now Kolkata), of which about 75% were men and 25% women. They were the key factor in the development of the sugar industry in Natal. In 1893, a young barrister (advocate in modern South African terminology) named Mohandas Gandhi arrived in South Africa. In 1894, in response to anti-Indian agitation by whites in Natal (the colony had gained self-government the year before), he founded the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), in emulation of the Indian National Congress (today usually referred to as the Congress Party), which had been set up in 1885 (the African National Congress - ANC - was formed in 1912).
• Although not yet independent, India was a founder member of the United Nations (UN) and raised the question of South Africa's racial policies (not yet apartheid) in the UN General Assembly in 1946 - the first country to do so. The country also imposed a trade embargo on South Africa. India became independent on August 15, 1947. That same year, in South Africa, the NIC and TIC became formal allies of the ANC.
• In 1948, the National Party was elected to power in South Africa and introduced its policy of apartheid. India was to play a major international diplomatic and political role in the struggle against this policy, cutting diplomatic relations and adding sports and cultural embargoes to the trade boycott. On the other hand, when a number of ANC leaders went into exile in 1960, they were provided with travel documents by India and, in 1967, the ANC was allowed to open an office in New Delhi.
• South Africa has changed a lot since 1993. So has India in 1991, in response to a fiscal and balance of payments crisis, the country started a process of economic reform, which has been sustained despite several changes in administration.
• South Africa has gold, and India have an insatiable appetite for gold. Even during the economic recession, the imports of gold into India increased by 50%. India has also the world's largest diamond cutting and polishing industry. 'India is one of the largest importers of coal from South Africa. South Africa is also rich in Gold, Diamond, Coal, Manganese ore, etc., which are of utmost interst for India.
• Investment is a key element in India's twenty-first-century relationship with South Africa. It is led by big companies, such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Ranbaxy, Reliance and Tata. Indian investments in South Africa are very diversified - mining, automotive, hotel and leisure, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and real estate,' etc.
• South African companies have also been investing in India, including First Rand, Sanlam and SABMiller. Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and the Bidvest group are members of the consortium which is upgrading Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
• India will spend some $1.7-trillion on infrastructure over the next decade. 'This is a massive opportunity for South African companies-look at the success of ACSA and Bidvest at Mumbai Airport. The Indian government's high-level interest and engagement with South Africa has created an enabling environment for South African companies in India. South African companies need to be gutsier in taking advantage of opportunities in India.
• There remains an obstacle to the further development of bilateral relations-there is still no trade agreement between the two sides. As South Africa is a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), it is SACU (the other member States-Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland) that has to negotiate such deals. SACU and India started negotiations for a preferential trade agreement (PTA) in February 2008.
• There is also an unusual aspect to relations between South Africa and India. In addition to the normal bilateral ties, the countries are also two of the three members of the Ibsa group, the third member being Brazil. So South Africa has bilateral and trilateral relations with India. The Ibsa framework has been very, very important.

Answer : A newly formed economic cooperation region between Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal, is gathering attention. Better known as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the initiative for this economic cooperation, was undertaken during 1997. BIMSTEC was formed with the idea of imparting greater socio-economic cooperation among the member nations in the areas of technology, transport and communication, energy, tourism, agriculture, fisheries and human resources development. In addition to sectoral cooperation, BIMSTEC also wanted to strengthen cooperation in the areas of trade and investment. All seven BIMSTEC members have openly agreed to set up a free trade area (FTA).

• Negotiations on FTA regarding services and investment have begun during January 2006. BIMSTEC member countries agreed to establish the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement in order to stimulate trade and investment in the parties, and attract outsiders to trade with and invest in BIMSTEC at a higher level. The Framework Agreement on the BIMSTEC FTA was signed on 8th February, 2004 in Phuket, Thailand. The Framework Agreement includes provisions for negotiations on FTA in goods, services and investment. A Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) has been constituted to carry forward the programme of negotiations. The TNC had its 1st Meeting in Bangkok on 7-8 September 2004. TNC's negotiation area covers trade in goods and services, investment, economic cooperation, as well as trade facilitations and also technical assistance for LDCs in BIMSTEC. It was agreed that once negotiation on trade in goods is completed, the TNC would then proceed with negotiation on trade in services and investment. Cooperation were proposed in Technology (Sri Lanka);Energy (Myanmar); Transport & Communication (India); Tourism (India); Fisheries (Thailand); Agriculture (Myanmar); Cultural Co-operation (Bhutan); Environment and Disaster Management (India); Public Health (Thailand); People-to-People Contact (Thailand); Poverty Alleviation (Nepal); Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (India).
• Before BIMSTEC, the establishment of the SAARC was an attempt to bring about convergence in the region and reverse the conflicting tendencies that arose in the post-Independence period in the region. The move was initiated by Ziaur Rahman in Bangladesh and taken forward by young leaders like Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Rajiv Gandhi in India and their counterparts in other South Asian countries. However, in retrospect it was pre-mature and a top-down attempt at promoting regional cooperation, since ground realities in terms of trade and investment flows, and political will were not really in place to support such an effort.
• The progress of cooperative efforts among the South Asian nations has been slow due to geo-political challenges. In South Asia, however, intra-regional trade failed to pick up pace under the SAFTA due to limited product coverage and tariff preferences (limitations which were built into the agreement), and hence there has been little scope of welfare effects, whether trade-creating or trade diverting. Even the implementation of SAFTA has faced political hurdles.
• For instance, the denial of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status by Pakistan to India when both are WTO members (representing a clear violation of the WTO charter) is the result of the political divide between India and Pakistan.
• Consequently, political issues have overshadowed economic interests in the official corridors, although cultural linkages between the nations remain strong. Thus apprehensions abound as to how effectively the schedules of the SAFTA agreement would actually be implemented. Yet the potential strategic significance of a unified South Asian region is obvious from the keen interest shown by China, Japan, South Korea and US in the SAARC. On the other hand, BIMSTEC holds greater promises for India. BIMSTEC along with the Mekong-Ganga cooperation can act as a gateway to greater access to the large ASEAN services market of 560 million service buyers. Therefore in this direction India has been actively signing more and more FTAs bilaterally with the ASEAN members like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
• However, it should not be lost sight by the Indian strategists that Indian security interest lies more in enhancing the ties with the neighbouring countries and hence as a large country India should try to bring all the smaller countries in the SAARC region to the board so as to chalk out a speedier implementation of the SAFTA.

Answer : The concept of the balance of power is one of the oldest known theories in the study of international relations. For many analysts it comes closer to any other single idea in explaining the patterns of war and peace that have prevailed among nation-states for many millennia. As a practical phrase it has been used more than any other as a guiding principle in both explaining and predicting the workings of the international system since the formation of Greek city-states. However, despite its durability, the term balance of power has been subject to considerable criticisms, in part because of its lack of definitional precision. "In different epochs historians, political scientists, and statesmen have used the concept in different ways and oftentimes with important differences in meaning." And just as frequently the apparent contradictions, or at best confusion in usage, arises because of the lack of uniformity with reference to contemporary notions of power. Some power has usually meant the application of military force, but sometimes also to economic superiority or diplomatic persuasion to bring about an outcome desired by a specific nation, or group of nations.

• Changes in the nature and the alignment of forces in the world, which in the final count reflect the deep-going processes in social production, largely determine both the principal trends in international affairs and the specific course of events. Shifts in the international balance of power are expressed in contradictions, conflicts and wars, and ultimately predetermine their outcome. The peace which puts an end to a war, as Lenin said, "can be nothing but a consideration and a record of the actual changes brought about in the relation of forces in the course of and as a result of the war".
• The balance of power between the two systems and between states representing these systems, and the change in this balance objectively determine the alignment of all other forces in the world, the foreign policy of individual states and international political development as a whole.
• At the present time, the course and outcome of international events in any corner of the world are determined ultimately not so much by local and internal forces as by the correlation of world forces, primarily the balance of power between capitalism and socialism. Conversely, events that might appear to be local or confined to a small scale frequently acquire international importance. This circumstance is directly connected with the consequences which one or another relatively local event may cause for the balance of power between the two world systems. Post cold war due to rise in US hegemony has again gained importance. The defunct superpower and other rising power are again debating the need for new multi polar world order. At regional level also balance of power is important to prevent arms race and maintain peace e.g. in south Asia balance between India and Pakistan is key to regional peace and stability.

Answer : Cam Ranh Bay is an important port of Vietnam. It was recently opened for foreign navies for upgradation of the port. The new ship repair facility is being set up by the Russian navy and it will be commissioned to repair war ships and submarines. This will help Vietnam to counter growing Chinese influence in South China Sea. If the port would have developed as commercial port then it would have provided better commercial benefits as this port lies in one of the busiest trade route of western pacific.

• Increasingly concerned about Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, Vietnam is at an advanced stage of talks aimed at opening foreign military access to its deep-water port at Cam Ranh Bay. The key options involve Russia and the United States, with Hanoi seeming to favour Washington's bid.
• Vietnam was previously trying to privatise Cam Ranh Bay but two or three months ago stopped all commercial development and intends to reverse the work done to establish shrimp farms and other projects. They want a continuous foreign military presence there.
• The security initiative is not new, as Vietnam has previously acknowledged that port development would reopen access to foreign navies. The proposed scale of any foreign military presence now appears more ambitious than previously indicated. At the same time, strategic interests have overshadowed the commercial imperatives that once dominated Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay planning.
• Cam Ranh Bay may well be the best natural harbour in South-east Asia. It was used extensively by Russian and US military forces and others before them, but Moscow ended its presence there in 2002 due to an increased leasing cost.
• Vietnam and China have a long-standing dispute over the Paracel and Spratly island chains and related exclusive economic zones spanning much of the South China Sea, with four other claimants less vigorously involved in whole or in part. Beijing has grown ever more belligerent in supporting its position.
• The United States and Vietnam continue to develop a robust bilateral defense relationship, rooted in mutual trust and respect. Vietnam decided to open Cam Ranh Bay as an international logistics hub, and hope to continue to engage Vietnam to learn how this decision will potentially enhance bilateral cooperation.
• The US Navy's most recent visit was to Danang, with a seven-day programme of activities undertaken involving two guided missile destroyers and a rescue/salvage ship. Three Russian warships called on the same port in May, stopping over on their way back to Vladivostok following an anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa.
• Vietnam, with its sorry history, has for some time followed a strategic policy centered on 'three nays': no foreign bases, no formal military alliances and no use of Vietnamese soil to attack another country. Now, China's posture on the South China Sea could tamper with this thinking.

Answer : Somalia has had no effective government since 1991. Years of fighting between rival warlords, disease and famine have left over a million dead and arguably Africa's worst humanitarian crisis and also a third of the population is dependent on food aid.

• The Somali insurgents, al Shabaab, who have been fighting to topple the transitional federal government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, have announced they are withdrawing from Mogadishu. Key strategic positions like Bakara Market and the National Stadium which the insurgents were using as logistical and tactical bases are now under the control of the peacekeepers.
• The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, described the withdrawal "as good news" to Somalis and the peacekeeping mission as "The first phase of Ramadan has been defeated. The insurgents have suffered heavy causalities and they are now withdrawing," he said.
• The spokesperson of Al Shabaab, Sheikh Mohamoud Raghe, however, told that the withdrawal was aimed at enabling a counter-attack, saying there would be no pull out from other regions of southern Somalia. Al Shabaab has never previously entirely abandoned Mogadishu. The decision could mean a change in the nature of the fight and could also see relative peace return to the war tore country. Doubts as to whether or not government officials can dispense with self interest and get their collective act together to capitalize on the Al Shabaab withdrawal from Mogadishu albeit that some armed militants are still active there.
• As government forces and African Union peacekeepers spread through Mogadishu to take over positions left empty by the abrupt departure of militant Islamist group al-Shabaab from its bases, thoughts are turning to whether the government will be able to hold the city and what exactly the insurgents now have in mind.
• While Al-Shabaab called the swift and well-organized pull-out a "tactical decision", there is no doubt that leaving Mogadishu is a major blow to the insurgents and a shot in the arm for a government that has long been seen as incapable of governing. However, Al-Shabaab still controls much of the rest of southern Somalia, and if its tactics in the border regions are anything to go by, its fighters will launch regular suicide blasts and counter-attacks.
• However winning over the local population with strong security and good governance will be key for the Transitional Federal Government to hold onto the capital, as Al-Shabaab has not been routed: they have their weapons and fighters and may have a chance to rule Mogadishu again if the government does not come in with wisdom by maintaining security. In short, Al-Shabaab's decision to leave Mogadishu does not necessarily signal the beginning of the end to the conflict. If anything, Somalia could enter a period of even greater stalemate

Answer : Japan’s “Hikaku San Gensoku” or Three Non-Nuclear principles are parliamentary resolutions which have guided Japanese nuclear policy since their inception in the late 1960s. The basic tenets of these principles are that Japan shall neither possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor shall it permit their introduction into Japanese territory. These principles were outlined by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 and became the cornerstone of Japan’s national policy after the World War II.

• In recent years Japan and India are seriously engaged in trying to forge a nuclear cooperation agreement which has been particularly driven by Japan’s entrepreneurial needs and the Kan administration’s economic growth strategy that includes increasing export of infrastructure technology including nuclear technology. As part of this growth strategy the Japanese government has set up the International Atomic Energy Development Company with an aim to form a centralized platform to increase Japan’s competitiveness in winning contracts for nuclear power projects overseas. The newly formed enterprise is eyeing the nuclear energy potentials of UAE, Jordan and India.
• The pressure on Japan to conclude a nuclear cooperation also stems from the fact that US and French companies have won contracts from India to set up nuclear power plants. A civilian nuclear pact between Japan and India is also vital given that Japanese companies have stakes in all US and French firms which would be setting up nuclear power plants in India.
• The process was started with a Joint statement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2006, under which Japan made a commitment to India to enhance civil nuclear energy cooperation under appropriate IAEA safeguards. However because of the “Hikaku San Gensoku” principles and strong public sentiment against nuclear cooperation with non-NPT signatory countries like India Japan’s approach in this area is quite slow. Japan took almost five years to move from commitment to negotiation stage which has started in August 2010.
• The challenges to the civil nuclear deal also come from the Japanese anti-nuclear lobbies and the media which has openly expressed concerns about the deal. They criticized government for promoting negotiations on a nuclear agreement with India, a non-NPT member country with nuclear weapons. Japan’s slow and steady approach in this regard suggests that the nuclear allergic nation has still to do major home work to clear obstacles in reaching an accord. It may find it difficult to generate a consensus at home and convince its anti-nuclear lobby which is against extending nuclear cooperation to India.

Answer : Indian Diaspora in Caribbean countries are mostly descendants of the original indentured workers brought by the British, the Dutch and the French during colonial times. At present there is more than 2 millions of Indian Diaspora living in various Caribbean countries. In due course of time they have left their imprint in several sphere in Caribbean nations be it politics, art, culture or business.

• Indian origin writers in Caribbean such as Sir V. S. Naipaul and Samuel Selvon have been the best known names in literature. Among women writer of Indian origin who have won laurels for their works are Mahadai Das, Ramabai Espinet and Niala Maharaj.
• In politics there are several Indian origin persons who have earned name and fame by occupying high posts in Caribbean countries. Bharrat Jagdeo has been the President of Guyana since 11 August 1999. Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the current Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Basdeo Panday was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001. In diplomacy and international relations, Sridath Ramphal distinguished himself as a two-term Commonwealth Secretary General.
• Cricket is another area where Indian diaspora contributed a lot in the Caribbean countries. Some of the noted players are Alvin Kalicharan, Shivnarain Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dinesh Ramdin.
• There are also many noted doctors of Indian origin in the Caribbean countries. Among them Dr. Anne Dipchand, a heart surgeon and Dr. Budhendra Doobay are noted figures

Answer : The Israeli daily Ha’aretz recently characterized the relationship between India and Israel as “strong but low key,” and for once, it seems fairly accurate. Cursory observation shows that the countries share two crucial features — both are democracies and both are surrounded by Muslim enemies. In addition, Islamic terrorism has been visited upon both Israel and India, and should nuclear Pakistan crumble and be taken over by jihadi Islamists, the consequences would be dire for both nations.

• India and Israel’s relationship has been rather adversarial for most of Israel’s existence. During pre-independence period, the ruling Indian National Congress Party opposed the creation of a Jewish national home and voted in opposition to the 1947 recommendation by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to partition of Palestine. Moreover, India voted against the admission of Israel into the United Nations in May 1949.
• In the aftermath of the Pakistan inspired uprising against Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1989, military escalation with Pakistan, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ending of the Cold War, India decided to chart a pro-Western and pro-American course. This eventuated in India’s decision to formalize relations with Israel.
• The 1993 Oslo Peace Accord between Israel and the Palestinians freed up India to fully embrace Israel as a partner. India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. In February 1992, Israel opened its embassy in New Delhi, and in May of that same year, India opened its embassy in Tel Aviv.
• Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2003 trip to India was a pivotal moment. At the end of Sharon’s visit, the two nations issued the Delhi Statement on Friendship and Cooperation. Since 1999, India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Israel’s Foreign Ministry have held annual bilateral consultations in Jerusalem and New Delhi, in addition to having periodic discussions on counterterrorism.
• Israel offers a valuable autonomous source for purchase of sophisticated weapons and military equipment. Israel’s technological advances in the fields of satellites, satellite imagery, missiles, rockets and nuclear fields are appreciable. Most of them being indigenous developments, they can be a source of advanced technology for India.
• Israel can benefit from the Indian expertise in Information Technology and Software. At the same time India can take help of Israel’s technological advancements in reviving its agricultural sector.
• The Israeli-Indian connection in commercial military and space intelligence fields is good for both countries and for the United States. In less than two decades since diplomatic ties were upgraded, New Delhi and Jerusalem have come a long way. The cooperation between Israel and India provides important security to two democratic countries in very unstable parts of the world and hence makes them “Natural Allies”.

Answer : The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was established by the United Nations Security Council in resolutions 1279 (1999) and 1291 (2000) of the United Nations Security Council to monitor the peace process of the Second Congo War, though much of its focus subsequently turned to the Ituri conflict, the Kivu conflict and the Dongo conflict.

• The initial UN presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, before the passing of Resolution 1291, was a force of military observers to observe and report on the compliance on factions with the peace accords, a deployment authorised by the earlier Resolution 1258 (1999). In May 2010, the Security Council, adopting Resolution 1925, announced that MONUC would renamed from July 1, 2010 to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
• With over 3,500 soldiers deployed under the 301 Infantry Brigade Group, India has the largest contingent of troops as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force MONUSCO in Congo.

Answer : The ‘Riyadh Declaration’ - A New Era of Strategic Partnership’ was signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz on March 1, 2010 in Riyadh. Both leaders reviewed the status of implementation of the historic Delhi Declaration signed in 2006, and expressed their satisfaction at the steady expansion of Saudi-India relations since the signing of the Delhi Declaration.

• According to the new declaration, keeping in view the development of relations between the two countries, and the potential for their further growth, the two leaders decided to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, defence and political areas.
• Both reiterated their mutual desire to develop as knowledge-based economies based on advances in the areas of information technology, space science and other frontier technologies.
• Both agreed to enhance cooperation in exchange of information relating to terrorist activities, money laundering, narcotics, arms and human trafficking and develop joint strategies to combat these threats.

Answer : The continuous war between the Government of Sudan backed Janjaweeds and the four rebel tribal groups-The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the National Movement for Reform and Development, the National Redemption Front (NRF) and the Popular Forces Army (PFA)-has led the country into a total turmoil.

• After many delays and missed deadlines, the slow negotiations between the Government of Sudan and the largest rebel movement active in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement, struck a deal in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on May 5th, 2006. Despite the optimistic deal, two other significant rebel groups refused to sign Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA).
• While not all the parties agreed, the agreement affords a political breach which made it possible for the UN to send stronger, better-armed peacekeeping forces into Darfur, to support and replace the existing AU forces. Additionally the agreement called for the disarming of the Janjaweed.
• Despite this agreement, atrocities continued, the Janjaweed was not disarmed, and at the end of 2006 the DPA appeared to be largely ignored by both sides. In addition, further splits between factions of the SLM/A resulted in inter-group violence. Throughout the year the government of Khartoum repeatedly affirmed that it would not allow a UN peacekeeping force in the Darfur region, despite the inadequacy of the AU Mission.
• However, in December 2006, Khartoum agreed to allow the UN to provide a Light Intelligence Force composed mainly of logistics personnel to reinforce the AU mission. Tensions along the Chad and Central African Republic borders continued to fuel fears that conflict in Darfur could de-stabilize the entire region.
• Thus, peace in Darfur has been thought to be illusive and impossible after countless ‘peace’ agreements have dissolved, sometimes within the same week after an official agreement is inked. Attempts to resolve the crisis between Sudan’s government and the multiple armed factions in Darfur have been plentiful but all failed.
• The Doha agreement signed in February, 2010 is a basic framework agreement that has the potential to become more comprehensive as the two parties continue discussions. The final agreement is to incorporate elements of power-sharing, prisoner amnesty, and the integration of rebel forces in the Sudanese army.
• However, many are skeptical the agreement will remain binding for long. The doubts are justified. Finding peace in Darfur has historically been fraught with complications. But it seems that the proposals might be taken in the right sense by other rebel groups and a consensus might be achieved through continual negotiations under the broad framework of the agreement.

Answer : Significance of the Kampala declaration of the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Kampala declaration was issued by the high level representatives of states parties to the Rome statute of the ICC in Kampala Uganda on 1st June 2010. The Rome statute of ICC refers to the crime of aggression as one of the “most serious crimes of concern to the international community” and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC and also stipulated the conditions under which the court could exercise jurisdiction. The actual exercise of jurisdiction is subject to a decision to be taken after 1 January 2017. It has based the definition of aggression on the basis of UN general Assembly resolution 3314 which deems only states could be actors liable for acts of aggression, thus excluding non state actors from it. The definition of state also does not include international organizations like NATO, Warsaw pact etc. Moreover, it does not deal with the responsibilities of individuals for acts of aggression. Thus the narrow definition of state dilutes the significance of the declaration up to a certain extent.

Answer : Bangladesh and Myanmar maritime boundary dispute started in 2008 when Bangladesh protested Myanmar’s move for lifting mineral resources from a disputed block in Bay of Bengal. Relations between the two countries reached a low with forces of both countries faces each other in Bay of Bengal. However, the tension was defused through diplomatic efforts initiated by Dhaka as both sides agreed that neither of the sides would pursue oil and gas exploration in the disputed areas of the mineral-rich bay until their boundaries are demarcated according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

• Both countries resumed talks on maritime boundary demarcation in 2008 after a gap of 22 years, but failed to resolve the dispute. Later, Bangladesh formally raised the issue at the Arbitration Tribunal of the United Nations in October, 2009, for a solution.
• In January 2010, Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to settle the longstanding maritime dispute over the natural gas and mineral-rich zone of the Bay of Bengal by demarcating the sea boundary following the principles of equidistance and equity of resources. Both countries also reached the consensus to formulate the coordinated policy in this regard in April 2010.
• This amicable solution of maritime boundary dispute over mineral oil and natural gas rich region is definitely a boost to India’s concern for energy security. To bridge its growing energy demands India is keen on forging close cooperation with oil and gas rich nations across the globe. Hence in future both Bangladesh and Myanmar could be cheap and easy source of energy for India because of their geographical and diplomatic proximity. In the border sense, the principle of equidistance and equity of resources principles can be served as benchmark for all long-standing boundaries disputes between nations in South Asia. So India must come forward to resolve its pending boundary dispute with China, Bangladesh and Pakistan more or less in the same manner.

Answer : West Asia peace process got a major boost when leaders from both Israel and Palestine started direct peace talks hosted by the United States in Washington in September 2010. This breakthrough came after more than 20 months of stalled dialogue between the two parties. The talks were intended to resolve all final status issues between the two parties with the goal of a settlement negotiated between the parties that would end the occupation which began in 1967. United States President Barack Obama underscored that the talks should result in the emergence of “an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish state of Israel and its other neighbours.”

With this direct talk between the two hostile countries, the chances of a durable peace in this region have increased, at least a bit. The outlines of a deal—adjusting the border, sharing Jerusalem, resolving the question of Palestinian refugees and guaranteeing Israel’s security—have been clear for years, harking back at least to the parameters laid out by President Bill Clinton in 2000. They were nearly agreed two years ago by a previous Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and his Palestinian interlocutor, Mahmoud Abbas, who is still Israel’s main negotiating partner.

Nevertheless, lasting peace in this region requires certain fundamental issues to be resolved first. Firstly the ongoing hostility between Israel and Palestine need to be stopped which has killed thousands of innocent civilians from both sides. Secondly, Israel must extend the partial moratorium on construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank as Palestinian officials threatened to walk out of the talks if settlement construction begins anew. Thirdly, Hamas should keep restraint on its aggressive policies against Israel. Fourthly, involvement of Hamas in the peace process is very necessary as no lasting peace in the region can be expected without the involvement of Hamas in the peace process.

Answer : India is a nation that is increasingly becoming more sensitive to the needs and duties of its regional realm that is South Asia. There are strategic Sea-routes, mineral reserves and natural resources that the growing appetite of India needs. If India needs road links through Bangladesh for their 'look east policy', Bhutan and Nepal for Hydro-electricity and minerals, Sri Lanka for developing fishing lines and Pakistan for terrorism control then it is also true that all these nations of South Asia should "ideally" 'rely' on India as their regional security guarantee. The international terrorism also makes it imperative on the part of India to go for strategic co-operation with all the nations of this region. India's foreign policy has assimilated this aspect that only in a peaceful environment there can be growth. When the defense bill is reduced then only the social and infrastructure bill will increase. On the another hand the growing dragon power of China also makes it imperative for India to go for strategic consolidation in her region so that the geopolitical repercussion of this aspect can be neutralized.

Answer : The most oft-quoted statement that is prevailing in the international arena is that "the dragon is rising but this time it is not exhaling fire". This is basically to denote the 'peaceful rise' of China in the international canvass. Now China has realized that the only currency that speaks in the world geopolitics is the forex reserve. If it "tweaks" Yuan so that whole of the international market gets flooded with Chinese goods, then at the same time it plays the peaceful cards of Beijing Olympics. Peacefully solving the island territorial disputes with Japan and Russia and standing in the international arena as the impartial and 'the' only arbitrator that can control rogue States like North Korea and Myanmar is also one of its planks to play that 'peaceful rise' doctrine theory. But paradoxically this 'peaceful rise' also has the undercurrent of the nation's internal desire to take the vacuum created by Japan as the Asian master. In this context being competed by India it always plays the territorial dispute card regarding the McMohan line coupled with the assistance that it gives to Pakistan.

Answer : India and Russia had been friends for ages but now with the ground root realities changing this friendship has realistically evolved as the friends between two equals. Earlier due to cold war realities it was like two nation sharing common threats making them come together. In this context the defense ties that has developed in the recent times between the two nations already buttresses the notion that India and Russia are friends for ages. If earlier Russia was the elder of the two partners now both the nations are developing supersonic missiles that have MACH III capabilities called BrahMos (named as a short form for the two rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva). India is also to buy Fighter planes carrier Submarine- the only of its kind after INS Vikrant was decommissioned. The said carrier to be called INS Vikramaditya and is basically Admiral Gorshkov that Russia had used for the last two decades and is now selling it to India with all the latest facilities attached to it. Everyone knows including an average layman that MIG Series of fighter planes has been the backbone of the Indian air power.

Answer : All the international diplomacy can either be 'soft' or 'hard' but with newer realities of pragmatism that has overshadowed whole of the international diplomacy has also made India to shun-off its ideological bent of mind in its foreign policy. If 'soft' version of this approach makes “India to go for economic diplomacy, natural “resource nationalization, cultural diplomacy to tell what She wants to convey to the concerned “nation in a peaceful manner. At the same time; India also goes for the 'hard' version of foreign policy when it lands its carrier air-power in the frontlines of the Aksai-Chin area to make it clear to China that as a nation she is always ready for any and every eventuality. On the Western front also it plans domestic warfare games. If India signs nuclear collaboration deal with USA with its core principle attached. At the same time it also takes more than what they intended to give by making the business lobby realise about the huge business opportunity that India can provide to them, if they advocate for India regarding this deal. Applying 'soft' and 'hard' policy at the same time in the quiver of foreign policy is a sign of the nation's growing confidence.

Answer : Nuclear Supplier Group is a multinational body that controls the export and re-transfer of nuclear materials through safeguards and protection on existing materials. NSG has been one of the key players in Indo-US nuke deal regarding clearing the exemptions given to India under it. After many rounds of discussions, in September 2008, the NSG members finally agreed to grant India a "clean waiver" from its existing rules, which forbid nuclear trade with a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The approval was based on a formal pledge by India stating that it would not share sensitive nuclear technology or material with others and will uphold its voluntary moratorium on testing nuclear weapons.

Answer : (a) India - USA as strategic partners: Moving towards third and transformative phase as strategic partners that will enhance global prosperity and stability in the 21st century, ongoing cooperation can be mentioned among others:

1. Common security interests: intelligence sharing and terrorism.
2. Defence co-operation: joint military exercises and hardware.
3. Disarmament: CTBT, NPT, and FMCT.
4. WTO, Bilateral Investment Treaty, CEO forum etc.
5. Global institutions: UNSC, G-8, G-20.
6. Space, science and technology: Science and Technology Endowment Agreement, Technology Safeguards Agreement, FutureGen Project Integrated Ocean Development Project
7. High technology co-operation: nano-technology, civil nuclear technology, civil aviation and licensing issues in defence, strategic and civil nuclear trade.
8. Dialogue on Energy security, environment and climate change.

(b) Ethnic conflict in South Asia: Ethnic conflicts in south Asia can be equated to identity conflicts in where the definition or construction of threats, enemies and friends plays a pivotal role. Three main countries can be identified broadly, where such conflicts are present.

(c) 'NEPAD' and its objectives: New Partnership for Africa's Development, a vision and Strategic framework for Africa's renewal arising from a mandate given to the five initiating Heads of State (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) by OAU to develop an integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa. The main objectives are:

1. To eradicate poverty.
2. To place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development.
3. To halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalization process and enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy.
4. To accelerate the empowerment of women.

Answer : (a) Indo-Bhutan trade relations: India is the leading trade partner of Bhutan and a free trade regime exists between two countries. Broadly India-Bhutan trade relation is managed by the overall framework of India-Bhutan Trade and Commerce Agreement, which has been renewed in 2005 for next 10 years. In 2008, exports from India were Rs.1734 crores and constituted 73.8% of Bhutan's total imports. Bhutan's exports to India in 2008 amounted to Rs. 2148 crores and constituted 99.4% of its total exports. Major items of exports from Bhutan to India are electricity, cement, timber and wood products, minerals, fruit products, raw silk and alcoholic beverages. Major exports from India to Bhutan are petroleum products, rice, automobiles & spares, machinery and fabrics.

(b) Sino-Myanmar relations: Bilateral relations of Myanmar with China are the strongest and are grossly enjoyed by the largely-isolated military-ruled Myanmar. China is the most important supplier of military aid and maintains extensive strategic and military cooperation. It also provides extensive economic aid and vital diplomatic support to Myanmar. Besides China is the third-largest trading partner of Myanmar. Bilateral trade between China and Myanmar exceeds $1.4 billion. China also has access to Myanmar's ports and naval installations that facilitates its strategic influence in the Indian Ocean region and in Southeast Asia. Also China had assisted in constructing a naval base in Sittwe, a strategically important sea port close to India's eastern border. In the wake of Kokang incident in August 2009 in Myanmar, Sino-Myanmar relations were little bit strained because of refugee problem.

(c) Geopolitics and Geostrategy: Geopolitics and Geostrategy are products of scientific revolution in international politics. Both the term signifies that international politics is more or less determined by geographical factors. Geopolitics is the art and practice of using political power over a given territory. Traditionally, the term has applied primarily to the impact of geography on politics. The term was coined by Rudolf Kjellén, a Swedish political scientist, at the beginning of the 20th century. Geostrategy, a subfield of geopolitics, is a type of foreign policy guided principally by geographical factors as they inform, constrain, or affect political and military planning. As with all strategies, geostrategy is concerned with matching means to ends-in this case, a country's resources with its geopolitical objectives.

Answer : The KIA was formalised through a joint declaration in November 2005, which stated that its objective was to promote teaching, research, service and commercial linkages to address contemporary challenges. Thus, it envisioned, would be carried out through "public-private partnerships" that will "facilitate technology transfer, bolster agricultural research, education and extension and strengthen trade and regulatory capacity building."

1. Under education, learning resources, curriculum development and training, the proposals on building, human and institutional capacity are included. Mechanisms include establishing a standing Indo - US Joint Working Group, sharing the US experience in curriculum development to benefit the ongoing curriculum revision exercise in India, identifying the number of slots for training and faculty exchange during 2006 with consideration of additional slots in the coming years, organizing workshops for review and planning in certain identified areas, etc. With regard to building institutional capacity, the focus is on extension and outreach activities, library resources, networking and leadership development through sharing of experiences to take the Knowledge initiative forward.
2. Under Food-processing and Marketing, the Work Plan targets training, capacity building and joint research, including quality assurance and food safety, reduction of post harvest losses, market information systems, value addition, strengthening grades and standards, facilitation of agro-business investment, advanced processing technologies, byproduct utilization and bio-fuels from bio-mass.
3. Under Biotechnology, a strategic alliance has been envisaged for training and research on development of transgenic crops with resistance to economically important viruses, tolerance to drought, heat and salinity and micro-nutrient utilization efficiency; molecular breeding and genomics in crops and animals, molecular approaches in plants and animal health protection have been agreed.
4. Under Water Management, research and training proposals on sustainable use of water resources, water quality management and remediation, use of modern tools in water management, integrated nutrient management and precision agriculture have been decided.

Answer : China-India relations have been on a new upward track in the recent years. The relationship also developed a new model, which is characterised by expanding bilateral cooperation while properly handling differences. This model has become an example of relations among countries under new international situations.

• China has shown its significance of India and it is ready to join hands with India to deepen strategic trust, properly handle differences, promote cooperation in various fields and strengthen communication and coordination on international and regional issues.
• 2014 year marks 60th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence or the Panchsheel. On the bilateral-level, firstly, the two countries needs to maintain high-level exchanges, strengthen strategic and political communication and enhance mutual understanding through political dialogue and consultation at various levels. Secondly, both countries need to use of exiting mechanisms like Strategic Economic Dialogue and Joint Economic Group to intensify their pragmatic cooperation to expand economic cooperation. Thirdly, need to expand defense exchanges and cooperation to jointly maintain peace in border areas.
• Global and regional issues: As the world's two largest developing countries, China and India have identical views on many international issues. China and India have established bilateral consultation with Afghanistan. Both the countries recognise the importance of maintaining peace and security in Afghanistan post 2014. It is in line with the common interests of China and India and regional countries as well.
• Both countries should also establish dialogue mechanism on maritime cooperation in fighting pirates. India's 'Look East' strategy needs to expand to Pacific affair while China's initiative 'Maritime Silk Road in the 21stCentury' also requires tranquility in Indian Ocean.

Answer : China ranks second in terms of economy while India is at the tenth position. China has nearly US$ 4 trillion foreign exchange reserves, and is speeding up its implementation of the 'going out' strategy. India also has ambitious development schemes and huge demand for foreign investment. So both countries have mutual economic and trade cooperation is highly complementary with extensive potential and bright future.

Bilateral trade relation between India and China for a period there was decline in the influx of Chinese imports in the Indian markets, the scenario seems to changed-India is enjoying a positive balance of trade with China. The India China trade relations are regulated by the India China Joint Business Council, which ensures a free exchange of products and services between the two nations.

Until the end of 2013, the accumulated foreign direct investment from China to India had amounted to US$ 0.94 billion. With the joint development of industrial parks which is helpful way of providing better infrastructure and more investment-friendly environment, that will attract more Chinese enterprises to invest in India. Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Corridor will act as good platform for enhancing trade and economic relations between two countries and among others in the region. China showed its willingness to offer financial support to both public and private banking projects in India through various arrangements. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has set up its branch in Mumbai and is now considering a second one in Gurgaon. Bank of China is also coming to India.

Moreover, it is believed the two countries to have comparative advantages within certain sectors in which overall the two might be competitors. These include chemicals, machinery equipment and textiles. However, as things stand, there are scant channels available for pushing the Indian agenda forward with the Chinese government.

Answer : In conformity with India's Look east policy, India and ASEAN FTA has been finally signed in 2009, as per the commitment of two parties on 2003 which will come in to force on 1st jan 2010. Under the agreement important following commitments have been made:

As Many as 4185 items would be opened for FTA comprising of agricultural processing food items, garments and iron and steel, host of items. There would also be sensitive list of 489 articles, on which concessional tariff will not apply and 590 articles comprising of plantation on which tariffs will not be eliminated.

As a result of this agreement trade between the two countries is estimated to increase from 40 billion dollars to 60 billion in immediate term. This region is India's 4th largest partner, so that it will meet 170 crores of consumers benefit from the treaty.

It is only Comprehensive treaty comes into force that the total impact of agreement and its benefits accruing to India can be assessed in balanced perspective because India enjoys an edge in large no. of services.

As the services agreement gets underway, it will through major opportunity for India to get temporary visas to skilled and unskilled workers.

There is also provision of Mutual Recognition Agreement under which plenty of opportunities for professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Architects, CAs to seek job.

More importantly service agreement in CECA and would go beyond the WTO and GATT agreements.

Laying down investment rules, transparency of Investments and protection of Investments would be comprehensively covered so that investment opportunities made free for Indian investors.

As the treaty becomes operative I will also have to sort out some of the thorny issues like protectionism by India's frontiers sector. The issue of rules of origin pertaining to Chinese goods passing through' ASEAN markets and their status in overall treaty is taken care of by a clause which emphasis that those goods in which more than 35% of value addition done at the country of origin.

Answer : World Bank with its multilateral funding agencies like IBRD, IDA, IFC providing development funds to developing and under developed countries for their social and economic reconstruction. India as a developing Country is one of the major fund receiver for its development programmes like health, education infrastructure projects.

India joined the World Bank in 1944 and is among its oldest members. It is the World Bank's largest single borrower, with cumulative lending of more than US$47 billion.

From 1949 to June 2000, the Bank has extended about 215 loans and 292 development credits to India, totaling approximately US$26.2 billion from the IBRD and US$27.2 billion equivalent from IDA. As of June 30, 2000, the Bank's lending portfolio of ongoing projects for India comprised 79 projects amounting to about US$11.5 billion.

India is also among the Bank's top annual borrowers.

The sectoral allocation of the existing portfolio is concentrated in rural development (23 percent of total commitments), education and health (23 percent combined) and infrastructure, including energy (20 percent).

As the reform agenda has shifted to the states over the past few years, the Bank Group has reoriented its strategy to focus mainly on those states that have chosen to embark on a comprehensive program of economic reforms. These include some of the poorer states with the worst social indicators.

The Bank is now developing comprehensive assistance programs for reforming states. All Bank loans to the states will continue to be channeled through the central government, and then on-lent to the states. In support of this strategy, the Bank is undertaking fiscal studies of the major states in collaboration with local research institutions. Various states in India are directly receiving funds for the developmental projects from World Bank specifically in the areas of AIDS control programmes, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Swajaldhara programme and health promotion programmes.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) was the first state to benefit from this new type of state-focused lending. A loan of US$543.2 million loan was approved in June 1998 for the multisectoral development. Andhra Pradesh Economic Restructuring Project, which provides urgently needed resources to the state for health, education, nutrition, rural development, and civil service reforms, while supporting ongoing reforms intended to redirect spending towards priority areas by restructuring the state's public expenditure.

Thus, World Bank is the part of India's Reconstruction efforts and is definitely needed as a cooperative endeavor to raise the HD indicators of India and to achieve the Millenium developmental goals.

Answer : (a) Look-East Policy and North-East India: Look-East policy which was launched in 1992, helped to connect the land locked North-East-India with the outer world. This policy helped to improve the economic condition of the North-Eastern states.

(b) India’s role in Afghanistan Today: India has undertaken partnership with the Afghan government projects in a wide range of sector like, hydro-electricity, road, agriculture, industry, telecommunication etc. Biscuits are distributed to 1.4 million school children every day under the school feeding programme, administered through the World Food Programme (VSD 100 million).

1. Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas: Celebrated on January 9 of every year (to commemorate the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi to India from South Africa). It is organized to renew the bondage between PIOS+NRIS towards the nation.
2. I.C.R.C: International Committee on Red-Cross (I.C.R.C) is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence. In recent years, the ICRC has been confronted with and has responded to a growing variety of crisis situation.
3. MERCOSUR: A Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asuncion, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people and currency.
4. INTERPOL: The International Criminal Police Organization, also known by its telegraphic address Interpol, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its name in 1956. The organization’s headquarters are in Lyon, France.

Answer : India and Russia have a long history of strategic and defence cooperation. During the cold war era also, when India adopted a policy of non-alignment, Russia (hitherto USSR) had supported India in strategic matters. The relationship in terms of defence cooperation improved further between the two countries when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. Since then, India has been a major buyer of Russian defence equipments. Russia has also supported India in the transfer of defence technology.

During the recent years, Prime Ministers from India and Presidents from Russia have visited each other’s countries and finalised many defence cooperation agreements. Under those defence cooperation treaties, India and Russia produced jointly the supersonic cruise missile – Brahmos; India obtained the ultra-modern Sukhoi and MIG fighter planes from Russia, and other weapons in large amount besides the Admiral Gorschkov warship. The latest in this series is Defence Relationship Agreement between India and Russia in January 2007, under which India has to procure ultra-modern aircraft and other weapons from Russia. Joint production of ultra-modern fighter aircraft of 5th generation is also included in the Agreement. Though, India has diversified its purchase of weapons of late, and instead of being dependent on only Russia, has been buying from USA, UK, Israel and France, still Russia has remained the main source of weapon-purchasing and joint defence exercises.

• Bangladesh has been facing a period of political crisis since the end of the tenure of former Prime Minister Khalida Jia in October 2006. In January 2007, emergency was declared in Bangladesh and elections were postponed. Violence and lawlessness have been rampant since the arrest of former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Jia under corruption charges. Military has an indirect hold over political power and even the extremists have become active.
• India’s concern is natural under such circumstances. India has advocated for a democratic system at the earliest, reacting in a balanced way. Anti-India terrorist organisations have been actively working in Bangladesh, and problems like that of refugees are yet to be solved. Under such circumstances India would never conceive a government under the influence of anti-India or extremist elements. On the other hand, India would not even wish to convey a message to the Bangladesh people that India is intruding in the internal matters of Bangladesh. Thus, India supports a peaceful solution of the ongoing political crisis in Bangladesh. India has appealed for a solution through dialogue between political parties and other related elements, so that a democratic system and normal conditions are established at the earliest.

Answer : India had joined the nuclear weapons group (NWG) after the nuclear tests of 1974 and 1988. However, India has always been a responsible nuclear power. The nuclear policy or doctrine of India includes the following aspects:

• Formation and maintenance of a minimum deterrence.
• No first use of nuclear weapons and also no use of nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear weapons country.
• The option of use of nuclear weapons is open if India or Indian armed forces are attacked anywhere through biological or chemical weapons.
• Only the political representative will have the right to order a nuclear attack in return, through the nuclear command authority.
• India shall remain committed to making the world nuclear weapons free through impartial nuclear disarmament.
• India shall maintain a strict control over nuclear and missile-related products and technology.
• India shall continue dialogue on treaty for reduction of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and maintain its decision not to conduct nuclear tests in future.

India’s nuclear doctrine is completely in favour of other countries. The decision of no further nuclear tests and no export of nuclear technology is a commitment towards being a responsible nuclear weapons country. India has always followed its nuclear doctrine and is committed toward International powers and everybody's safety.

Answer : South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's (SAARC's) annual summit was held in the capital of India, New Delhi in April 2007. For the first time delegates from Japan, China and South Korea took part in SAARC summit.

In this summit, harsh words were used by the member countries to condemn terrorism, however, much was not achieved regarding India's interest for the treaty regarding international terrorism. In this summit, the main achievement was that adding new members to SAFTA. For the first time it was declared that they would introduce a proper scheme within six months regarding the problems related to common peoples' life like water problem, cooperation in food and environment and the things which are the basics in everyday life. In SAARC sumit 2007, removal of poverty was discussed in the usual way, but for the first time an important step was taken, and "Southern Food Bank" was established by all its member countries. The declaration included the establishment of Southern University, South Development Fund, etc. Indian Prime Minister declared to introduce an easier way for rise for the countries' students, teachers and journalists etc. Along with this he put importance on economic cooperation. As a whole, SAARC summit 2007 was satisfactory and decision was taken regarding certain new fields in the summit.

Answer : (a) SAFTA

• South Asian Free Trade Agreement includes a unanimous free-trade among all South Asian countries improving the trade among SAARC countries.

(b) India and East Asia Summit (EAS)

• East Asia Summit (at Cebu, 2007) comprises of six countries including India except the ASEAN nations. India can improve its economic and trade relation through EAS.

(c) Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (S.C.O.)

• Established in 2001 it is an organisation of six nations – Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for mutual cooperation in economic, cultural and defence sectors.

Answer : India and US signed an agreement inaugurating the implementation of the next steps in ‘strategic partnership’ (NSSP), announced by President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee. The NSSP provides a roadmap for increased US-Indian cooperation over time on a quarter of issues, civilian nuclear energy, Civilian space programmes, high technology trade, and missile defense. Under the first phase, the US agreed to loosen controls over space and dual use technologies while India tightens its regulations on the transfer of sensitive items to third parties, The conclusion of the first phase marks a major milestone in the Indian effort over the last three decades to break out of the isolation from international high technology commerce after the first nuclear test in may 1974. The implications of ‘Strategic partnership’ are as follows:

1. The American administration feels that the greatest achievement of the deal would be to lend greater effectiveness and credibility to the international non-proliferation regime. Without the deal, India with its large and sophisticated nuclear capabilities would have remained outside the international export control regimes governing commerce in sensitive nuclear-related technologies.
2. Bringing India into the fold is not only a gain for international non-proliferation in response to current challenges. Any objective assessment of effort to counter WMD proliferation would surely put a high value of Indian participation.
3. One major implication is end of India’s isolation in the field of nuclear commerce.
4. The implication of India’s Nuclear weapons programme is a matter of debate. There is an overlap between civilian and military aspects of N-programme. A strict differentiation will increase for cost of N-separation, the India side has only promised to ‘work’ with the US for the conclusion of a multilateral Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). Thus India has enough time to build up a ‘minimum credible deterrence’.
5. S.K. Jain, chairman and M.D. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) predicts that India could become a global player in the nuclear market. India was the only country that built Small-Sized PHWRs with a capacity of 220 MWe or Medium-Sized PHWRs that generated 540 MWe. These reactors were the right choice for Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam.
6. There are certain implications whose degree of co-relation with the Indo-US nuclear deal is debated. First, what would be the implications of this deal on India-Iran gas pipeline? This could have significantly affected the pace and nature of détente between India and Pakistan. However the Indo-US nuclear deal may see the start of a process of dehyphenation of India and Pakistan with US. India ‘being a unique case’ is an obvious response to Pakistan. This is a process marked by a short term reverses but definite forward movement.

Answer : President Bush's speech to U.N. General Assembly showed how much that diplomatic calculation has changed in Bush's second term. With the United States ensnarled in an increasingly difficult campaign in Iraq, war is no longer a viable option. Instead, the administration is struggling with the difficult and messy business of diplomacy. That often means accommodating the interests and demands of other countries, even backtracking on what had been firm positions. Slowly but surely, the White House has muddied what were once clear lines in pursuit of diplomacy. As recently as a month ago, the administration firmly demanded that Iran must first suspend its nuclear activities before the United States would join negotiations on the nuclear programs, but now U.S. officials have quietly acquiesced in European-led effort to find a face-saving way for the talks to begin.

U.S. officials are still pursuing the possibility of sanctions, and in fact they have drafted a sanctions resolution to be offered at the U.N. Security Council. But with allies balking, negotiations appear more likely than punishment. Bush, in his speech, used notably mild language when he discussed Iran, suggesting that the two countries one day will "be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace."

Bush, in his speech, also emphasized that U.S. officials "have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program." This is a reversal from the policy in the first term, when U.S. officials loudly proclaimed that a country with such vast oil and gas reserves had no need for a nuclear program. Under pressure from Europeans, the administration dropped that argument late last year.

Answer : Nepal's king is losing its power gradually since the restoration of democracy. Nepal's parliament unanimously passed a landmark resolution calling for the monarchy's powers to be slashed, and reducing the king to a ceremonial figurehead. The move comes nearly a month after a massive pro-democracy campaign forced. King Gyanendra to give up the governmental powers he had seized, and reinstate parliament.

• The historic resolution approved by Nepal's parliament is a first step towards taking control of the army from the king and stripping him of the authority to make final decisions on major national issues. It sets the stage for scrapping the King's principal advisory body, allowing his actions to be challenged in court, and forcing the monarchy to pay taxes. The resolution also envisions removing the royal titles from the government and the army. It will no longer be "His Majesty's Administration," but simply the Nepal government, and the Nepalese Army will no longer be "Royal."
• The resolution was passed unanimously by the 205-member House. Presenting the resolution, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said it represents the aspirations of the people. There is strong popular demand for clipping the powers of the king, who became highly unpopular after he took control of the government last year. He reinstated parliament after weeks of violent anti-monarchy protests. In Nepal it is seen, as a transformation from a feudal or semi-feudal society, towards a more people's oriented and representative kind of set-up.
• Although the constitution also stipulates that no parliamentary bill can become law until the king signs it. But Nepal's political parties insist the resolution reflects the will of the people, and cannot be challenged. For now, the king only faces a diminished role, but the future of the monarchy itself hangs in the balance. Nepal will hold elections in the coming months to choose a body that will draft a new constitution which will redefine the king's status.

Answer : The 32nd Summit of the G-8 group of industrialized countries took place from July 15 to July 17, 2006 of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The major summit theme was the three major pressing issues of the world today viz. Energy Security, Education and Health. Apart from these the leaders of the G-8 caused for an end to hostilities in West Asia and urged the UN Security Council to deploy peacekeeping forces in Lebron.

In the wake of the Mumbai blasts the G-8 countries expressed solidarity with India to fight terrorism tooth and nail. This was the rare instance of a major international summit speaking out so clearly on an issue offering India.

Answer : Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.

Post 2000, Amnesty International's agenda turned to the challenges arising from globalization and the effects of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. The issue of globalization provided a major shift in Amnesty International policy, as the scope of its work was widened to include economic, social and cultural rights, an area that it had declined to work on in the past. Amnesty International felt this shift was important, not just to give credence to its principle of the indivisibility of rights, but because of the growing power of companies and the undermining of many nation states as a result of globalization. During the first half of the new decade Amnesty International turned its attention to violence against women, controls on the world arms trade and concerns surrounding the effectiveness of the UN. Its membership, close to two million by 2005, continued to work for prisoners of conscience.

Answer : European Parliament plays a role in the EU's legislative and budgeting processes, and exercises general supervision over the work of the two other main EU bodies, the Council of the European Union (Csouncil of Ministers) and the European Commission. However, the EP is not a legislative body in the traditional sense. The EP cannot initiate legislation; that right rests solely with the Commission, which functions as the EU's executive and guarantor of the EU treaties. The Council, the EU's main decision-making body comprised of ministers from the national governments, enacts legislation based on Commission proposals, after it consults with the Parliament. The role of the European Parliament in the legislative process has expanded steadily over time as the scope of EU policy has grown. As more decisions within the Council of Ministers have become subject to qualified majority voting rather than unanimity to allow for greater speed and efficiency of decision-making, the Parliament has come to be viewed as an increasingly important democratic. The EP and the Council exercise joint powers in determining the EU's annual budget of roughly $138 billion. The budgetary procedure begins with the Comission proposing a preliminary draft budget to the Council.

Answer : (a) Simla Agreement:

• The Simla Treaty, popularly known as the Simla Pact or the Simla Agreement, was signed between India and Pakistan on July 2, 1972. The treaty followed from the war between the two nations in the previous year that had led to the independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh.

(b) Indo-Israel Cooperation in the field of agriculture:

• India-Israel cooperation in the field of agriculture has been extensive. Israeli side has completed a Demonstration Farm project in PUSA at a cost of US$ 2 million. During PM Sharon's visit it was agreed to establish a Joint Committee on Agriculture. India also accepted the Israeli offer to do another joint agriculture project.

(c) Indo-US military cooperation:

• Indo-US military collaboration began in January 1992 during the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. The Indo-US Military Cooperation Agreement was signed in 1995. This agreement, the first of its kind, provided for officers of the Indian armed forces being sent to the United States for training programmes, staff exchanges and joint exercises.

Answer : Pakistan's influence on Sri Lanka's counter-insurgency operations is growing. Pakistani air force personnel are deeply involved in directing Colombo's air strikes on Tamil areas. The Pakistan air force officers have reportedly been guiding the SLAF officers in effectively carrying out air-mounted operations against the LTTE.

Answer : (a) ICJ: International Court of Justice: Its main functions are to settle disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by the General Assembly or Security Council, or by such specialised agencies as may be authorized to do so by the General Assembly in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

(b) INTELSAT: International Telecomm-unications Satellite Organization: An intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites to provide international broadcast services.

(c) IBRD: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Its primary purpose is to provide technical assistance and loans at market-related rates of interest to developing countries at more advanced stages of development.

(d) WMO: World Meteorological Organization: It is a UN specialized agency promoting scientific research on the Earth's atmosphere and on climate change, and facilitating the global exchange of meteorological data.

(e) WHO: World Health Organization: It is a United Nations agency to coordinate international health activities and to help governments improve health services.

Answer : The UN needs to be restructured to present the geopolitical realities of the 21st century. India being the largest democracy, home to one sixth of mankind, fourth largest economy, one of the largest peace-keeping contributor to the UN and given its credentials world peace and interests of the developing countries, rightly deserves a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

As a result, India has been campaigning for last few years at different world forums and bilateral meeting with the different countries to bring the issue to centre stage in which she has largely succeeded. The world at large has accepted to expand UN Security council. India, along with Japan, Germany and Brazil has formed a group of Four Nations to push ahead this agenda. In May 2005, G-4 has put forward a draft resolution calling for an expansion of UNSC. The African Union has also introduced as separate resolution in this regard and talks are still going on between G-4 and AU to present a combine front, through much has not come out of it as yet.

Apart from this, India has received a lot of support from a majority of countries, mostly developing, who have pledged individual support to India's candidature. However, few countries like Pakistan, Argentina, South Korea, and Italy have also formed a coffee club to oppose G-4 resolution. Talks are going on with these countries too on an individual level.

Answer : The recent Indo-Iran Gas Pipeline (proposed) agreement has already been showing its political and economic implication. The most important is India's move towards energy security which will be transformed into sustained economic growth. On the part of Iran, it will open its markets to a satisfying neighbourhood which will integrate its economy with India's one of the fastest growing world economy. As it passes through Pakistan, it will gain with charging transit and maintenance costs worth billions of dollars-good for Pakistan's economy.

Politically, it is proving one more confidence building measures (CBM) between India and Pakistan to diffuse political tensions in the sub-continent. Recent nuclear standoff of Iran with western powers has also proved Iran coming closer to India to use its contacts to diffuse the crisis while western powers have also approached India to use its good offices to bring Iran to the talking table. It is also a direct implication of growing contacts between Iran & India due to the gas pipeline project.

Answer : Political instability, lack of democratic institutions and rise of military and dictatorial form of rule (not government) coupled with low level of economic and social development (primarily a legacy of colonial rule) can be enumerated as the major causes for hunger in Africa. Independence from colonial rule in the second half of 20th century saw the rise of individual dictators and consequent civil wars in most parts of Africa. The division of boundaries according to the convenience of colonial powers led to power struggle between major tribal and ethnic groups in most of the African nations. Power was grabbed by a few using undemocratic means which was to be held by force.

In the process, the common people were left unattended and lack of democratic rights made them vulnerable to poverty, unemployment, malnutrition illiteracy-all of which led to the creation of a vicious circle where hunger was the cause as well as effect of political instability and lack of good governance. Examples can be seen in Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi, Tongo, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Nigeria-just to name a few.

The ramification of hunger can be seen in following ways.

1. It has led to mass migration of people from drought and strife hit areas to neighbouring countries.
2. More tribal clashes have occurred over garnering of resources to end hunger.
3. International intervention, though belated in some areas has led to mitigating the hunger problems to some extent. Red Cross, UNICEF, WHO, and other organisations are rendering help.
4. Hunger has also become a political weapon where western nations are projecting their agendas in affected countries as many African countries have huge minerals and energy resources.
5. African nations have come together and are trying to tackle this issue through programmes like NEPAD.
6. Recently G-6 countries have decided to increase aid to Africa and waive-off loans to heavily indebted nations.
7. Hunger has led to international community forcing African leadership to introduce democracy and more rights to the people.
8. Hunger has aggravated AIDS problem in Africa which needs to tackle immediately.

Answer : Afghanistan is slowly moving towards a democratic form of governance in the post-Taliban period. After the fall of Taliban in 2001, the UN sponsored Bonn Conference led to a creation of a 30-member interim administration and an international security force was deployed under UN mandate. Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun tribal leader was chosen the head of this interim administration.

• In December 2003, Loya Jirga (grand assembly) of Afghanistan was held to discuss draft constitution and it became a law in January 2004. It made Afghanistan a democratic state under a presidential system with two-chambered Parliament. Equal citizenship is granted to men and women and 25% of lower House seats are reserved for women.
• The first direct presidential elections were held in October 2004 which Hamid Karzai won.
• Since 2001, development and reconstruction work is going on to bring peace and prosperity in Afghanistan. Major countries including India are providing technical and financial assistance. G-6 plus two (six neighbours of Afghanistan plus USA and Russia) are officially leading reconstruction work in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, international forces are providing security and efforts to flush Taliban remnants are also going on.

Answer : (a) India-US Nuclear Pact:

• Full civil nuclear energy cooperation has been worked out where the USA will supply fuel for Indian reactors while India will place its civilian nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards and inspections.

(b) Mckong-Ganga Cooperation:

• It is a grouping of six nations (India, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) of the Rivers Ganga and Mckong region for economic cooperation, launched in 2000 in Vientiane, Laos.

(c) Structural Unemployment:

• Here demand for labour falls short to the supply of labour as also the capital formation falls down limiting employment opportunities.

Answer : As far as the role of United States of America in promoting or hindering the Indo-Pak relation is concerned, it can be reasonably concluded that it is playing the horse-rider’s role or what in Mahabharat called “Sarthi”. American pressures on both the sides especially on Kashmir issue one of paramount importance. After resisting any American involvement in its conflict with Islamabad with decade India is now deliberately drawing Washington in Islamabad, believes that the fear of a “nuclear flashpoint” could be used to draw the American in to put pressure on India to negotiate on Kashmir has been shattered. The USA now insists that the LOC must remain inviolable not just from conventional Pakistani military aggression but also terrorist’s infiltration. It has also made it clear that any Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir would only follow rather than precede an end to cross border terrorism. India’s coercive diplomacy since December 13 has succeeded in mobilising the American power to force Pakistan into new commitment on giving up cross border terrorism. For the final settlement of Kashmir issue and promises made by Musharraf, India must have conducive diplomatic dialogue with USA.

Answer : The strategic partnership between India and Russia was signed during the visit of president Putin to India in October 2000. It lays down the broad contours of bilateral relations between India and Russian federation in the 21st century. The military and technical cooperation are the core areas of strategic dialogue. An agreement was signed during the visit of president Putin to India in October 2000 which consists of the establishment of Inter-Governmental Commission for Military Technical Cooperation (IGCMTC). In November 2001, the Indian Prime Minister visited Russia and the latter agreed to lease two projects related to nuclear powered multi-role submarine. The strategic cooperation was further boosted up with Putin’s visit in 2002 and Indian PM’s visit to Russia in 2003. There is also an unspoken determination between Russia-India-Beijing to counter USA’s unilateralism in central Asia. India and Russia also took steps towards re-establishing multi-polarity in international politics and ten agreement were signed during Vajpayee’s visit which are related to science and technology, space, earthquake research as well as a number of bilateral banking accords and to review their defence relationship at the highest level. The strategic partnership also supported the steps taken by India in Jammu and Kashmir in combating international terrorism while India affirmed support for Russia in Chechnya to protect its territorial integrity and constitutional order.

Answer : The entire south-east Asian region and its growing economy are of worth importance for India because this region is occupying a leading position in a number of sunrise industries. Viewing the emerging economy of south-east Asian region, Narsimha Rao Government adopted the “Look East Policy” to strength the bilateral or multilateral ties. India’s framework agreement with Asian is complemented by bilateral and sub-regional attempts towards economic cooperation. These include the bilateral free trade agreement with Thailand and Singapore. India, Thailand and Singapore along with a couple of south Asian countries are partners in BIMSTEC, a sub-regional grouping that is becoming active with a adoption of free trade area plan and summit level meeting in February 2004. The Mekong-Ganga project is also of worth importance for India and China. The volume of trade between India and Asian countries is also rapidly growing since 1991. It grew by 30 percent in over 1999-2007. The India-Myanmar-Thailand highway would be important steps in the fields of transport. India is also conscious of the concern of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) nation-the less developed section of ASEAN-as it negotiated the free trade regime India is also offering unilateral tariff concessions only items of export interest to the CLMV countries. It is also seeking to incorporate an Early Harvest Scheme to provide the incentive for a long term engagement. If it proceeds along this course we can target trade turnover up to $30 by 2007 and a free trade area within 10 years. Thus, India’s increasing involvement in the South-East Asian countries is chiefly concerned with economy or bilateral trade.

Answer : The intelligence, vigilance, diplomatic and political knowledge are the core areas of consideration when the foreign policy of any country is formulated. The various intelligence sources such as Research and Analysis wing (RAW), foreign embassies, news agencies etc. provides crucial clues related to socio-economic and political spheres of life. Since foreign policy of a country is directly or indirectly related to the realization of its socio-economic and political goals, it formulation must requires the knowledge of pros and cons of these spheres, which is provided by the intelligence sources. With the help of intelligence sources or diplomatic ties the strategy and ethos of the policy are meticulously framed. Nehruvian foreign policy is still relevant because he was the witty, intelligent and tactful person and thus intelligently framed his policy. Thus, along with intelligence, vision and knowledge are also counted. The things of strategic importance are not easily revealed by a nation and with the intelligence sources we are able to known it and accordingly formulate our own policy. Whether it may be the Panchsheel of Nehru, Rao-Manmohan formula or Gujral doctrine—all reflects visions and intelligence.

Answer : Pandit Nehru is considered as the architect of India’s foreign policy. His doctrine of ‘Panchsheel’ especially in the context of China and ‘Non-aligned movement’ in the context of US-Russian leadership paved the way for the future foreign policy and ethos of India’s international relations. Nehru presented an ideal foreign policy which consisted of both the rigidity and flexibility. Inspired by Nehru’s vision, the Govt. of India remained normal during the US and Iraq war. Our goodwill and friendship with Russia are still following the Nehruvian way of dealing with bilateral and multilateral issues. Today, we have entered the world of global socio-economic and political order which requires some new dimensions and change, especially in the context of USA. The disintegration of Russia has proved Nehruvian vision wrong. Nehru avoided mediation on Indo-Pak relation, but we cannot ignore the American pressure on both sides. Democratic and secular values of Nehru gained world-wide acclamation and at present, besides a few one, most of the nations of the world following the path of democratic and secular values.

Answer : Over five decades, the relationship between the world’s two largest democracies has witnessed periods of ups and downs. However the event of September 11, has introduced new complexities into the Indo-US relations. India, which eagerly supported the American war on terrorism, found the U.S. moving towards a renewed partnership with Pakistan. The Bush Administration had, indeed worked hard to limit the fallout from the rediscovery of Pakistan on the relationship with India. And after the attack on Parliament on December 13, the U.S. has pressed Pervez Musharraf to end cross-border terrorism against India. U.S. policy towards Indo-Pak relations and the Kashmir question has begun to alter visibly and US in increasingly taking milder view of Pak’s misdeeds in Kashmir.

India-U.S. cooperation in defence and security has been one of the ‘fastest’ sectors in the overall bilateral relationship and one of the significant aspects of this is that US is willing to look at India beyond a South Asia context. A multi-tier structure of defence cooperation has been put in place including training exercises, specific groups on the two sides dealing with technical and technology issues, including transfer of technology. India and the United States have decided to work together in building a missile shield to counter the threat of a missile attack by Pakistan.

India’s economic potential is also one of the factors which are guiding U.S. to have close relationship with India.

Answer : Collapse of the Soviet Union severally affected India on a number of fronts such as supply of military spare parts, export of Indian goods and all the cultural contacts between India and Soviet Union broken off. At that time India was looking for a partner who would fulfill her needs. Russia, at the moment of crisis forwarded the hand of friendship which gave a new Phillip to the cooperation between India and Russia. Russia filled the vacuum created by the disintegration of Soviet Union. A number of agreements were signed between two countries in the field of science and technology, nuclear science, defence and in other sectors also. The ruble debt payment was amicably solved between India and Russia. Now, the relation between two is on the upswing. Each one of them is understand the complexity of the situation and making moves to defeat every nefarious design. Putin’s visit to India on December 12 and signing of Delhi declaration is testimony of the relation between India and Russia. Now, they are partners in the field of production of Brahmos missile and a number of similar agreements were signed between them in the field of high-tech areas and in joint fight against terrorism.

Answer : India’s relation with China has recently been improving with the high level contact between two countries. On a number of contentious issues joint working group has been set up. Now, both the neighbouring countries want to utilise the full potential of each other in every field like trade, defence, information technology, science and technology and nuclear field. In 2003, after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China has brought a sea change in the policy of China towards Sikkim. Now, China no longer recognises Sikkim as independent country. Each one of them wants to solve the contentious issues through dialogue.

Now the U.S. factor has become important in chequered history of the India-China relationship; as discussions centre on changing global equations. The changing Indo-US relations at a time when American ties with China show strains are a cause of concern for China. There are frequent hints of Washington’s interest in building India as a counterweight to China or of using New Delhi as part of its policy to contain Beijing has brought a changed approach towards India in recent times.

Answer : In the UN-System, the Security Council consists of 15 members, 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members. The 5 permanent members of the Security Council have got the power of veto. So, veto of a proposal by one of the permanent members of the council amounts to total rejection of the proposal. So, there have been calls to abolish the veto power altogether or introduce a ‘double veto’ (at least two nations must veto for the veto to take effect). An Italian plan is for limiting the veto’s area of application. The recently announced report of the independent working group on the future of the United Nations has argued that the veto power of the permanent members must be used restrictively and should be applicable only to peacekeeping and enforcement measures and not in any other matters as is the present case.

Answer : Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO had begun to be considered a redundant organisation which should have died with the end of the cold war. However, NATO has suddenly taken a new life under the leadership of it’s the then Secretary-General Mr. Javier Solana, it has been elevated to play a new role in European and North Atlantic affairs.

A historical decision was made when the US agreed to let European members of the NATO play a greater role in organising future NATO operations. For the first time, the US conceded that the US’s European allies in NATO should enjoy “political control and strategic direction” of the military missions they run. European nations will have flexibility to launch military operations without the United States. All this, in turn gave fresh dimensions to the Atlantic Alliance, which emerges as more flexible and less focused on East-West confrontations.

For the first time in NATO history, NATO has embarked on an epoch making mission, first operation outside Europe to Afghanistan has widened the role of NATO after the end, of the cold war.

Answer : After the Agra Summit, both the Nations came closer and Delhi to Lahore bus service was started between the two.

Answer : As part of track II diplomacy non-government representatives from India visited Islamabad. In response, Pakistani representatives visited India.

Answer : Under the non-resident bank account/deposit schemes, especially while opening the account, NRI are permitted to remit deposits in India in any currency of their choice.

Answer : NRIs should be offered higher interest rates on such deposits as compared with the international market rates and the exchange risk provision to the banks concerned.

Answer : Moving away of intellectuals from a country to another one is termed as “Brain-drain”. Scientists, doctors and technology experts generally go to other prominent countries for better life and earn huge sums of money. This Brain-drain deprives a country of its genius and capabilities.

Answer : Indonesian President Ms Megawati, visited India in April, 2002 on the last leg of a four nation tour. During her visit India and Indonesia, sharing common strategic perception, sought to define a durable partnership in the fields of energy, security and counter-terrorism.

• She expressed concern at the possibility of India extending support to the rebels in Indonesia Aceh province from nearby Nicobar Island. She reiterated her stand that terrorism cannot be justified on any basis including freedom struggle.
• She sought cooperation in the field of energy and for a gas pipeline from Aceh to Nicobar. And also undertake a joint patrolling of the Malacca straits with US and India.
• She also underlined her nation’s commitment to uphold principles of democracy, tolerance and pluralism.

Answer : India and China are the two largest developing countries who share one of the longest demarcated boundaries. The dispute with China mainly revolves around 1, 25,000 sq. of boundary in Western, Eastern and Central Sectors.

• In the Western sector China leased 34,000 km. Area in Aksai Chin, the central sector involves Nepal (the Kalapani area) and Barahoti area. In eastern sector China does not recognise McMahon line and contests the ownership of Sumdurong Chu in Mishmi hills.
• In recent years there have been official visit and talks between the two countries. During Mr. Jaswant Singh’s visit both countries agreed to complete the delineation of the LAC within a reasonable time frame. To combat terrorism was a follow up of a promise that Jhu Rongji made during his India’s visit. They also decided to aggressively pursue the full potential of economic relation. The Joint Economic Group is to be activated. Cooperation in tourism and use of outer space, exchange of hydrological information etc. are other points of convergence.

Answer : In a brutal attack on Army personnel’s and their families on May 14, 2002, thirty four people were killed. This could be seen as an extension of 11 Sep. and attack on Indian Parliament.

• The US has talked in tough words against this terrorist attack; asking Pakistan to deter itself from the terrorist activity and harshness its stance on the terrorist group in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
• Mr. Armitage visited India and paid his condolences to the killed. He advised India to maintain patience and criticised the attack.

Answer : India’s objection to CTBT has been on five grounds. It does not link itself to the total nuclear disarmament in the time bound manner.

• CTBT is not comprehensive in the true sense of the term since it allows sub critical tests and computer simulations of tests.
• The treaty does not take into account India’s security consideration.
• CTBT’s verification system does not provide a genuinely impartial international mechanism but national verification system of the countries like the US will determine whether a party to the CTBT is adopting the restraints or not.
• Its entry into force clause is unprecedented since it is an international treaty whose validity would come only if India, a non party, accepts it.

Answer : According to this treaty, it will limit Russia and US within 10 years to between 1700 and 2200 deployed strategic nuclear warheads down from about 6000 a piece now-a two third cut in their nuclear assets.

• They agreed to exchange information on missile defence programme and tests and have reciprocal visits to observe missile defence test. Also to explore opportunities for intensified practical cooperation on missile defence. They also agreed to institutionalise the dialogue on strategic stability through the establishment of a consultative group for strategic security at the levels of foreign minister and defence minister.
• The US agreed to limit its controversial star wars anti-missile defence projects to levels that would not threaten Russia’s nuclear deterrence.

Answer : West Asia peace proposal was floated by Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz. He proposed that:

• lArab world would make peace with Israeli’s if it agreed to withdraw from lands captured in 1967 Mid East War which includes Arab East Jerusalem, the West bank and Golan heights.
• Grant of recognition to Israel
• Fully normalise relation with Israel.
• Offering security guarantees and permitting free trade.

This proposal holds great importance as it has shown some light of hope for the peace in the region. The rest of the Arab world would normalise relationship with Israel once it improves relationship with the directly affected states of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

Answer : With fall of USSR as superpower the world has become unipolar revolving around US. During the cold war era NAM had helped in easing the tension due to increase in its membership, giving moral check on superpower overwhelming strength in UN assembly.

• NAM is committed to the universal problem of peace and freedom, equality and fraternity. As long as it supports the cause of socio-economic uplift of the developing country it will remain relevant. As long as there is exploitation, injustice, war, destruction, hunger and poverty, NAM will not lose its importance. New International economic order needs its strengthening so that it can fight for the cause of the poor. To consider NAM as a byproduct of bipolar world is in itself a wrong premise. To eliminate the US hegemony, NAM can act as a safety valve to the developing nation.

Answer : Gujral doctrine comprehensively meant improvement in relation with the small neighbours and countries of S.E. Asia both strategically and economically with preferences to them.

Answer : NRIs may face the infrastructural bottlenecks, cultural dilemma, bureaucratic hazards and work-culture difference in India.

Answer : A non-resident Indian is one who does not qualify for stay in India for a period of 182 days or more or for a period of sixty days or more and has also been in India within the preceding four years for a period of 365 days or more.

A person is called PIO if he at anytime held an Indian passport or he or either of his parents or any of his grandparents was an Indian and a permanent resident in undivided Indian at anytime.

Answer : It is a 17 membered non-aligned countries who seek mutual cooperation in economic field by investment technology transfer, trade and commerce for development.

Answer : Pinaka is a multibarrel rocket launcher. It is a mobile system with 12 solid propellent rockets capable of delivering saturation fire. Range of 39 km.

Answer : It is a kind of informal diplomacy of people to people level of contacts, Journalists, NGO’s access and efforts create Track II diplomacy

Answer : When the mutually rising interest in various fields may lead countries, to form groups in the world, Non-alignment has been proved to be greater need to maintain the world free of block and Groups.

Answer : Deterrence is a policy of international politics. Fear of attack or economic ban is created over other nations to prevent those taking adverse decisions to the country’s national interest.

Answer : Strategic defence initiative. When a country feels any threat or wants to raise its influence in defense, it takes some strategic initiative.

Answer : SALT: Strategic Arms Limit Talks conducted between USA and USSR.

START: Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty conducted between USA and Russia.

Answer : Under UNCTAD, G-77 was established in 1967 with its headquarters at Geneva. It had 77 members especially developing countries.

Answer : America has always attempted to create tension in the South Asian Block by giving more importance to Taiwan. Taiwan is considered to be a part of China by Chinese Government.

Recently the Taiwan President announced on the German radio in his interview that Taiwan is a separate nation and it should be given recognition in that way. This turned the Chinese attitude quickly turned offensive.

American favour to Taiwan, as always is the case, created same confrontation as was the situation in 1996. Chinese president announced that Taiwan is only a part of China and it can never be considered as a separately country.

China warned America of using its Armed forces it continues to interfere in this matter.

USA had to take some active measures to defuse this tension. Itashed Taiwan to remove forces from border and sea. It stopped giving statements having effect to encourage Taiwan to revolt against China. The USA in APEC conference expressly accepted Taiwan as a part of China and suggested to solve these political disputes by mutual agreements.

Answer : Disputes between Israel and Palestine in west Asia has been the issue of debate since decades and has continued to grow over one or another point of time.

Israel's occupation of West Bengal, Jerusalem, and Mountain areas has been in dispute from starting since 1967.

Israel government recently approved an Expansion plan in June 1998. This plan was opposed by Palestine as it envisagesto expand the territory of Jerusalem by merger of many Jews cities near it, to add about thirty thousand Jews in its population.

One thing should be taken into consideration here that Israel considers Jerusalem its capital and it is significant to its hold, while Palestine considers it a holy place for them and claims Jerusalem's east part as a territory of Palestine.

Thus it is being seen that both greatly attaches to the significant of Jerusalem due to political and religious reasons.

In 1993, both countries signed an agreement known as "OS/O treaty" according to which Israel had agreed to vacate its. Occupation of Jerusalem. The treaty was ratified as land for peace but Israeli Government is not reluctant to leave the city.

This treaty has been violated by Israel, by the expansion plan. This has been criticised by western major powers.

It was criticised by major power like France, America and others.

Due to large pressure, Israel agreed to maintain the 'Land for peace' treaty and abandon the expansion plan in September 1998.

Answer : South Asian preferencial Agreements (SAPTA) was constituted for economic and trade cooperation among members states.

But it has not achieved the desired results due to various political, economical, geographical and strategic reasons.

Two main members of the SAPTA, India and Pakistan have bitter relations and its impact hurdles trade and commerce in SAPTA.

All countries produces almost same type of products to export and therefore less scope for trade increase exist.

Number of products for performance are also not more to boost the trade.

International politics create strategic concern on bordering nations to make than susceptible towards each other.

Answer : KOSOVO is the South-East Part of Serbia. It was given autonomy to be the constitution of Yugoslavia in 1975 but in 1989, that autonomy was taken away, and thus, Kosovo again became Subordinate to the Serbia. It made the majority of Albanians reduced to minority to serbs. Due to all the reasons, revolts and militant and activities have activities disturbed the Kosovo region. Thus, violent Struggle against Serbia's rule is gaining acceleration.

Answer : The Association of south east Asian Nations with nine members nations of the region and its II dialogue partners from all over the world, is collectively called ASEAN PLUS.

This is an eco-political group to boost trade and commerce among them. It discusses the measures for cooperation in economical fields, like, trade, commerce, industry etc.

The main duty is to increase solidarity among member nations with mutual cooperation in economical and security matters.

Answer : Taiwan is, as China claims, a part of Republic of China with Democratic type of government. But it is the issue of its possible defection from China that has caused always a non-democratic set up towering over Taiwan. Therefore, there was martial law in Taiwan for about 38 years which was lifted only in 1991 and 41 year old emergency was lifted only in May 1996 when the election was held in Taiwan.

The presidential election in Taiwan, its campaign and the result was the main issue between US-China relations getting dominating position in last one year. Because the Presidential elections in Taiwan was over head in Taiwan and the result came in May 1996, which show that Lee Jeng Idui was victorious in the island’s first Presidential election. American President Bill Clinton is always interested, as China alleges, in creating differences between China and Taiwan. Chinese authority fears Taiwan’s separation due to American interference and so has warned expressly or impliedly not to interfere in this domestic matter and has cleared that force may be used by China to keep Taiwan under control.

Though officially Taiwan has also declared, yet it wants unity with China, but it is fear of the China that the new elected President Lee is ambitious to get autonomy and independence if possible, which China is not reluctant to provide, while America is blowing winds in this fire. Therefore, China has to declare its hardcore policy in express words.

A part from trade, strategic and political matters, Taiwan issue is dominating the sinous relations in last one year. It is believed by experts that US wants its supremacy intact by causing and thus keeping involved other potential super powers into their own problems and so, it has acquired the policy of interfering Taiwan issue with China.

Answer : Taliban, a militant force of Islamic student, backed and equipped by Pakistan changed the political scenario recently in Afghanistan. It has pledged to throw out the leadership and convert Afghanistan into an Islamic state. They even succeeded, by using force according to the nature of their group, to capture seven-provinces in Afghanistan. They were convinced to enter into an agreement with Afghan leadership, by the U.N. special envoy Mohamood Mestri. They were agreed to form a multi-party governing council. But later on, President Mr. Rabbani refused to step down as he asked to include the Taliban, as a party to the governing council.

Yet, U.N. continued to pledge seace and limited cease-fire. But Taliban rejected. In May 1996, President Rabbani and former PM Hekmatyar signed an agreement to establish peace. They constituted an interim government in which Rabbani was the President and Hekmatyar was the PM. They declared an election and according to the result of the elections. In June, 1996 Hekmatyar was sworn in the PM and Rabbani as the President. But the election was rejected by Taliban and in September 1996, the Taliban forces captured Kabul, deposing the elected government.

Answer : The Habitat II conference was held in Istanbul of Turkey. It was organised by the United Nations to discuss and find out solutions of the problems relating to shelter and other basic facilities for mankind.

This conference from 3 to 14th June 1996 adopted. Istanbul Declaration on Human settlements.

It was the second United Nations conference on Human Settlements (Habitat-II) which apart from Istanbul. Declaration, adopted the Habitat Agenda which gives a global call to action at all levels.

It has two themes to be addressed: “Adequate shelter for all” and “Sustainable human settlements development in an urbanising world”. It has ensured full conformity with the United Nations charter’s purposes and principles and the International Law.