Forwarded from INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
🔆Ties across the sea
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to the UAE underscores the deepening bilateral ties, marked by his seventh trip to the country since 2014. This visit emphasizes the importance India places on its relationship with the UAE within the Gulf region.
A total of 10 bilateral agreements were signed during the visit, including the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), showcasing the advanced economic and investment relations between India and the UAE.
The UAE is now India's third-largest trading partner, second-largest export destination, and fourth-largest source of FDI. Initiatives like the inauguration of Bharat Mart for Indian MSMEs further strengthen these trade ties
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to the UAE underscores the deepening bilateral ties, marked by his seventh trip to the country since 2014. This visit emphasizes the importance India places on its relationship with the UAE within the Gulf region.
A total of 10 bilateral agreements were signed during the visit, including the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), showcasing the advanced economic and investment relations between India and the UAE.
The UAE is now India's third-largest trading partner, second-largest export destination, and fourth-largest source of FDI. Initiatives like the inauguration of Bharat Mart for Indian MSMEs further strengthen these trade ties
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🔆Act East Policy :
✅ The Act East Policy was introduced in 2014 to replace the previous Look East Policy of the 1990s.
✅ Key Focus: The policy aims to promote economic, cultural, and strategic relations between India and Southeast Asian nations.
✅ Areas of Cooperation: Connectivity, trade, maritime security, people-to-people ties, development partnerships with ASEAN are key areas.
✅ Institutional Mechanisms: India participates in forums like the East Asia Summit, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, BIMSTEC etc. under this policy.
Limitations of Act East Policy :
✅ Slow Progress on Connectivity Projects: Projects like India-Myanmar-Thailand
trilateral highway and Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project have seen slow progress due to governance issues, lack of capacities and regulatory hurdles on the ground.
✅ Trade Deficit Persists: Despite trade agreements, India's trade deficit with ASEAN and other East Asian countries remains high. Domestic impediments hamper greater economic integration.
✅ Security Partnerships Yet to Mature: While India conducts naval exercises like SIMBEX with Singapore, defense partnerships are still evolving with most ASEAN states barring Vietnam.
✅ Overland Connectivity Deficits: Lack of direct overland connectivity with ASEAN hampers seamless physical connectivity. Progress on India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway can address this gap.
✅ Competition with China's Influence: China's deep economic ties and initiatives like Belt and Road Initiative appear to have greater traction in Southeast Asia relative to India's efforts.
✅ Domestic Reform Lag: Slow pace of port development, tax/tariff reforms, easing business regulations in India affects functioning of Act East Policy.
✅ Funding Constraints: India lacks financial capacity to match China's largescale investments in Southeast Asia.
This restricts India's development partnerships in the region.
✅Accelerate infrastructure and connectivity projects with ASEAN countries through dedicated project monitoring and financial commitment.
✅ Leverage India's software prowess to digitally integrate with Southeast Asian markets through cross-border digital economy partnerships.
✅ Diversify trade relations beyond China by concluding RCEP or bilateral FTAs with Southeast Asian nations.
✅ Expand security cooperation with ASEAN through intelligence sharing, coordinated patrols, transfer of defense technology and joint military exercises.
✅ Resolve regulatory and capacity issues hindering seamless overland connectivity with Myanmar and Thailand.
✅ Promote greater tourism, academic exchanges and cultural linkages between
India and Southeast Asia through scholarships, events and visa facilitation.
✅ Collaborate with Japan, Australia and other Indo-Pacific nations to provide alternatives to BRI for infrastructure development in Southeast Asia.
✅ Deepen energy ties with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia by attracting investments in India's oil and gas sector.
✅ Project India's software prowess, pharmaceutical industry and healthcare capacity for greater economic influence in Southeast Asia.
✅ Coordinate India's Act East Policy with Neighbourhood First policy to develop cross-cutting connectivity and development projects.
✅ Reform domestic regulations, taxation and business ecosystem to attract Southeast Asian companies to invest and manufacture in India.
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✅ The Act East Policy was introduced in 2014 to replace the previous Look East Policy of the 1990s.
✅ Key Focus: The policy aims to promote economic, cultural, and strategic relations between India and Southeast Asian nations.
✅ Areas of Cooperation: Connectivity, trade, maritime security, people-to-people ties, development partnerships with ASEAN are key areas.
✅ Institutional Mechanisms: India participates in forums like the East Asia Summit, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, BIMSTEC etc. under this policy.
Limitations of Act East Policy :
✅ Slow Progress on Connectivity Projects: Projects like India-Myanmar-Thailand
trilateral highway and Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project have seen slow progress due to governance issues, lack of capacities and regulatory hurdles on the ground.
✅ Trade Deficit Persists: Despite trade agreements, India's trade deficit with ASEAN and other East Asian countries remains high. Domestic impediments hamper greater economic integration.
✅ Security Partnerships Yet to Mature: While India conducts naval exercises like SIMBEX with Singapore, defense partnerships are still evolving with most ASEAN states barring Vietnam.
✅ Overland Connectivity Deficits: Lack of direct overland connectivity with ASEAN hampers seamless physical connectivity. Progress on India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway can address this gap.
✅ Competition with China's Influence: China's deep economic ties and initiatives like Belt and Road Initiative appear to have greater traction in Southeast Asia relative to India's efforts.
✅ Domestic Reform Lag: Slow pace of port development, tax/tariff reforms, easing business regulations in India affects functioning of Act East Policy.
✅ Funding Constraints: India lacks financial capacity to match China's largescale investments in Southeast Asia.
This restricts India's development partnerships in the region.
✅Accelerate infrastructure and connectivity projects with ASEAN countries through dedicated project monitoring and financial commitment.
✅ Leverage India's software prowess to digitally integrate with Southeast Asian markets through cross-border digital economy partnerships.
✅ Diversify trade relations beyond China by concluding RCEP or bilateral FTAs with Southeast Asian nations.
✅ Expand security cooperation with ASEAN through intelligence sharing, coordinated patrols, transfer of defense technology and joint military exercises.
✅ Resolve regulatory and capacity issues hindering seamless overland connectivity with Myanmar and Thailand.
✅ Promote greater tourism, academic exchanges and cultural linkages between
India and Southeast Asia through scholarships, events and visa facilitation.
✅ Collaborate with Japan, Australia and other Indo-Pacific nations to provide alternatives to BRI for infrastructure development in Southeast Asia.
✅ Deepen energy ties with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia by attracting investments in India's oil and gas sector.
✅ Project India's software prowess, pharmaceutical industry and healthcare capacity for greater economic influence in Southeast Asia.
✅ Coordinate India's Act East Policy with Neighbourhood First policy to develop cross-cutting connectivity and development projects.
✅ Reform domestic regulations, taxation and business ecosystem to attract Southeast Asian companies to invest and manufacture in India.
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🔆Russia's pact with North Korea will deepen U. S ties in east Asia
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🔆How European Union chnat control law undermining online privacy?
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🔆Russia approves draft logistic agreement to be signed with India
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🔆How a ‘New’ Japan Promises to Transform Asian Geopolitics?
📍Why in News?
✅Japan’s PM’s (Fumio Kishida) address to the US Congress and the developments from his summit meeting with President Joe Biden, announced the arrival of a new, assertive Japan to the world.
✅What is the Change that Japan is Undergoing? After World War II, a defeated Japan adopted a policy of pacifism. Today, Japan is set to become a major military power, transforming its civilian industrial capability into a military industrial complex. From being a US protectorate, it now becomes an American partner and a significant contributor to Asian and Indo-Pacific security.
✅What is the Reason for this Radical Change? A mix of external and internal factors has contributed to its reorientation in the 21st century.
On the external front, the rise of China and North Korea;
the deepening military bonds between Beijing and Moscow; and the fears that the US could withdraw its security protection to Japan.
Internally, this situation strengthened conservatives in Tokyo, who wanted to see Japan becoming a ‘normal power’.
✅What Exactly is Japan Doing to Become a Geopolitical Power?
First, Japan has done away with the historical cap (~1% of its GDP) on defence expenditure.
Second, Japan is in the process of further strengthening its counter-strike capability in the form of cruise missiles.
Third, Japan has eased its self-imposed ban on exports of lethal weapons to friendly countries. Fourth, Japan-US are in the process of revising the command-and-control framework governing their defence forces.
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📍Why in News?
✅Japan’s PM’s (Fumio Kishida) address to the US Congress and the developments from his summit meeting with President Joe Biden, announced the arrival of a new, assertive Japan to the world.
✅What is the Change that Japan is Undergoing? After World War II, a defeated Japan adopted a policy of pacifism. Today, Japan is set to become a major military power, transforming its civilian industrial capability into a military industrial complex. From being a US protectorate, it now becomes an American partner and a significant contributor to Asian and Indo-Pacific security.
✅What is the Reason for this Radical Change? A mix of external and internal factors has contributed to its reorientation in the 21st century.
On the external front, the rise of China and North Korea;
the deepening military bonds between Beijing and Moscow; and the fears that the US could withdraw its security protection to Japan.
Internally, this situation strengthened conservatives in Tokyo, who wanted to see Japan becoming a ‘normal power’.
✅What Exactly is Japan Doing to Become a Geopolitical Power?
First, Japan has done away with the historical cap (~1% of its GDP) on defence expenditure.
Second, Japan is in the process of further strengthening its counter-strike capability in the form of cruise missiles.
Third, Japan has eased its self-imposed ban on exports of lethal weapons to friendly countries. Fourth, Japan-US are in the process of revising the command-and-control framework governing their defence forces.
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Forwarded from CSE EXAM ( UPSC prelims mains)
🔆International Seabed Authority (ISA)
📍Why in news
✅India has applied to the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) for rights to explore the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount (AN Seamount), a cobalt-rich region in the Indian Ocean.
✅It is an autonomous international organization established in 1994 to regulate mining and related activities in the international seabed beyond national jurisdiction, an area that includes most of the world’s oceans.
✅The ISA came into existenc eupon the entry into force of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which codified international law regarding territorial waters, sea lanes, and ocean resources.
✅ISA is the organization through which states parties to UNCLOSorganize and control all mineral-resources-related activities in the Area (the seabed and ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction) for the benefit of humankind as a whole.
✅In so doing, ISA has the mandate to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from harmful effects that may arise from deep-seabed-related activities.
✅Headquarters: Kingston,
Jamaica
✅Members: As of May 2023, ISA has 169 Members, including 168 Member States and the European Union.
📍Functions:
✅The ISA is responsible for granting licenses and regulating activities related to the
exploration and exploitation of mineral resourcesin the international seabed.
✅It ensures that these activities are carried out in a manner that protects the marine environment and promotes the equitable and efficient utilization of resources.
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📍Why in news
✅India has applied to the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) for rights to explore the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount (AN Seamount), a cobalt-rich region in the Indian Ocean.
✅It is an autonomous international organization established in 1994 to regulate mining and related activities in the international seabed beyond national jurisdiction, an area that includes most of the world’s oceans.
✅The ISA came into existenc eupon the entry into force of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which codified international law regarding territorial waters, sea lanes, and ocean resources.
✅ISA is the organization through which states parties to UNCLOSorganize and control all mineral-resources-related activities in the Area (the seabed and ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction) for the benefit of humankind as a whole.
✅In so doing, ISA has the mandate to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from harmful effects that may arise from deep-seabed-related activities.
✅Headquarters: Kingston,
Jamaica
✅Members: As of May 2023, ISA has 169 Members, including 168 Member States and the European Union.
📍Functions:
✅The ISA is responsible for granting licenses and regulating activities related to the
exploration and exploitation of mineral resourcesin the international seabed.
✅It ensures that these activities are carried out in a manner that protects the marine environment and promotes the equitable and efficient utilization of resources.
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