🔆Proposed India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

✅Recently, the External Affairs Minister of India discussed the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Britain’s PM and Foreign Secretary.

✅This round of talks comes amid the bilateral trade between India and the U.K. increased to $20.36 billion in 2022-23 from $17.5 billion in 2021-22.

📍Key Highlights of India-UK FTA

✅Merchandise Trade: Indian products like petroleum,
medicines, diamonds, machine parts, aeroplanes, and wooden furniture worth $6 billion face no tariffs in the UK, even without the FTA. These will not gain from the FTA.

✅Services: An area of immediate advantage for India is persuading the UK to issue priority visas to Indian professionals travelling to the UK to perform short-term assignments.

✅ However, obtaining a large number of short-duration
business visas from the UK may not be easy, as the UK
erroneously associates visas with immigration, a sensitive issue since Brexit.

✅Rules of origin:
This will ensure that products from third countries only receive FTA benefits if they undergo significant transformation in the exporting country.

✅India prefers conservative rules of origin compared to most developed countries, leading to extended discussions and negotiations.

✅Government procurement
Allowing the UK producers to sell to India’s government procurement sector would bring them on par with Indian firms.

✅On the other hand, Indian firms face a competitive and restricted government
procurement market in the UK with little business prospects. India needs to be conservative and careful.

✅Labour standards, gender, environment, digital trade, IPRs: India must make domestic rules/standards before taking commitments under the FTAs. Till then, India must avoid taking onerous obligations on nontrade issues.

📍Significance of India-UK FTA

✅ When signed, the India-UK FTA will serve as a template for an agreement with India’s 2nd-largest trade partner, the European Union (EU).

✅ Breaking from the look east policy for trade deals that saw widening deficits with Japan, South Korea, and ASEAN countries, the government is counting on economic
integration with Western and African nations to fuel export growth.

📍What Will India And UK Gain From India-UK FTA?

✅India:
🔰 India’s labour-intensive sectors such as apparel and gems and jewellery have seen a steep decline in market share over the last five years.
🔰Indian textile exports face tariffs as high as 10% in the UK; a trade deal could put India on par with competition such as Bangladesh, and revive textile exports.

✅ UK:
🔰Notably, the average tariff on goods imported from India into the UK is 4.2% but the average tariff in India on goods imported from the UK is 14.6%
🔰British exports to India such as cars, Scotch whisky, and wines, face considerable tariffs of 100-150%.
🔰Tariff reductions on these goods will potentially offer UK deeper access into Indian markets.

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CSM 23 RESULT

🔆Article 99 of UN Charter

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🔆OPEC+?

✅OPEC: Established in 1960 by founding members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, OPEC has since expanded and now has 13 member states.

✅Member countries are: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela.

✅Headquarter: Vienna, Austria.

✅OPEC produces about 40% of the world’s crude oil and its members’ exports make up around 60% of global petroleum trade.

✅OPEC+: In 2016, with the addition of another 10 allied major oil-producing countries, the OPEC is known as OPEC+.

✅OPEC+ countries include 13 OPEC member countries and Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

📍Objective:
The objective of the organisation is to “coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilisation of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply.

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🔆US-China Relationship

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Mission UPSC 2024

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🔆Srilanka recently announced a proposal for land connectivity with India, emphasizing economic integration, it highlights the potential for mutually beneficial ties

20years ago,in Chennai, Mr. Wickremesinghe, then PM, while delivering a lecture, floated the idea of building a bridge linking Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu with Talaimanar in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

This was part of his larger vision of regional economic integration, encompassing his country and the southern States of India and aimed at generating more opportunities for
economic growth

Both countries have agreed on a joint vision that emphasises comprehensive connectivity, including People to People connectivity, renewable energy cooperation, logistics, port connectivity, and grid connectivity for electricity trade.

India is Sri Lanka’s third largest export destination, after the US and UK. More than 60% of Sri Lanka’s exports enjoy the benefits of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. India is also a major investor in Sri Lanka.

🔆 91st Interpol General Assembly

✅Recently, the Indian delegation, led by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and National Investigation Agency (NIA), urged member countries to deny safe havens to crime, criminals, and the proceeds of crime at the 91st Interpol General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria

📍Key Highlights of the 91st Interpol General Assembly?

✅During the 91st Interpol General Assembly, resolutions were passed to strengthen the collaborative response to disrupt financial crime and corruption, combat online child sexual exploitation, and promote diversity within Interpol itself.

✅The delegation engaged in discussions with law enforcement agencies from various countries on coordinated strategies to combat organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, online radicalization, and cyber-enabled financial crimes.

✅They also advocated for real-time prevention of these crimes.

✅The delegation supported the adoption of Interpol's Vision 2030 and the establishment of the Interpol Future Council.

📍INTERPOL

✅Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization, with 194 member countries.

✅Established in 1923, it enables cross-border police cooperation and supports and assists all organisations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.

✅It is not a police force in the traditional sense—its agents are not able to arrest criminals.

✅It is more of an information-sharing network, providing a way for national police forces to co-operate effectively and

✅tackle international crime ranging from human trafficking and terrorism to money laundering and illegal art dealing.

✅Sharing of information is done by issuing colour-coded notices in four languages - English, Spanish, French, and Arabic.

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🔆UAE to Host the 13th WTO Ministerial Meeting in 2024

✅The next World Trade Organization ministerial conference will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in February 2024, the global trade watchdog confirmed in a statement.

✅ The UAE and Cameroon were both vying to host the event and came to an informal agreement for Abu Dhabi to host the first one and Cameroon to do the next, trade sources said.

📍Key Priorities Of MC13:

✅The top priority for the WTO’s 13th ministerial conference, known as MC13, will be reaching an agreement to reform the trade body’s hobbled dispute settlement system and modernising its 27-year-old rulebook.

✅Most nations want to restore the WTO’s appellate body — a sort of supreme court for trade — which the US crippled in 2019, citing systemic problems with the way its members settle trade disputes.

✅MC13 will also provide a forum for WTO members to complete the unfinished work of their 2022 ministerial conference, which produced an agreement to water down patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines and a deal to curb harmful fishery subsidies.

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🔆India To Be Added To U.K. Safe States List

✅The United Kingdom has announced its plan to include India to its list of safe states, a move that effectively
limits asylum rights for illegal migrants from the country.

✅The decision, announced by the UK Home Office, aims to streamline immigration procedures and enhance
border control measures.

📍Key Highlights

✅Aim of This Move: Strengthening the country's immigration system and help prevent abuse by people
making unfounded protection claims.

✅Currently, people are exploiting country's immigration system and making dangerous and illegal journeys to the UK from fundamentally safe countries.

✅Countries Included In The Safe List

🔰 India, Georgia, Albania, Switzerland, as well as the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area
(EEA) states have been included in the list
🔰The EEA links the EU member states and three EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an internal market governed by the same basic rules.

✅ A country can only be added to the UK's safe states list if the Home Secretary is satisfied that:
🔰there is, in general, no serious risk of persecution of its nationals, and;
🔰removal of nationals to that country cannot go against the UK’s obligations under the Human Rights Convention.

📍Significance For India

✅The inclusion of India in the safe states list implies that the UK government considers the country to be generally safe, stable, and free from widespread human rights abuses, ruling out their chance of seeking asylum in Britain.

✅As a result, Indians who travel from the country illegally will have their chances of seeking asylum in Britain diminish.

✅It will enable the detention and prompt return of individuals who enter the UK illegally, either to a safe third country or their country of origin.

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🔆NATO Announces Formal Suspension Of The Treaty Of Conventional Armed Forces In Europe

✅NATO announced the formal suspension of a Cold War-era security treaty named - the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

✅This was announced in response to Russia's withdrawal from the treaty.

📍Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)

✅ It was signed in Paris in November 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The CFE set constraints on conventional arms and equipment.

✅ Its purpose was to stop Cold War rivals from building up forces that could be used in a swift assault.

✅ Its main objective was to reduce the possibility of a surprise armed attack and the triggering of major offensive operations in Europe.

📍The Treaty

✅ Established comprehensive limits on key categories of
conventional military equipment in Europe (from the Atlantic to
the Urals)

✅Mandated the destruction of excess weaponry

✅Eliminated the Soviet Union's overwhelming quantitative advantage in conventional weapons in Europe

✅ Placed verifiable limits on categories of conventional military equipment that NATO and the thenWarsaw Pact could deploy

✅The CFE treaty is often referred to as the "cornerstone of European security”.

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🔆Decoding Putin’s dramatic visit to the gulf state

📍Key points
He announced his standing for elections in 2024 and affirming for leading Russia at least up to 2030 and possibly beyond.

📍Outcome of the Visit:
✅The recent visit achieved mutual goodwill and cordiality.
✅With UAE: Importance of strengthening dialogue and cooperation.
✅With Saudi Arabia: The development of friendly relations.

📍Targeted Agendas of the Meet:
🔰Continued cooperation among “OPEC +” members on oil policy.
🔰Exchange of views on the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
🔰Increasing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
🔰Enhancing bilateral-political-economic ties.

📍Significance
✅No Support to U.S. Sanctions: Despite the long-standing alliance with the U.S., both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have in recent years been asserting “strategic autonomy” and have prioritized expanding ties with China and Russia.
The UAE is now Russia’s most important trade partner in the Gulf.

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🔆What is Article 99 of UN Charter? could it impact the humanitarian situation on the ground? When has Article 99 been invoked in the past?

✅The UNSC is one of the principal organs of the UN. It comprises five permanent members – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia – and 10 non-permanent members appointed for specific periods.

✅On a rotational basis, each of these 15 countries holds the presidency for a month. The South American country of Ecuador is the President for December 2023.

📍What is Article 99 of the UN Charter?

Article 99 states: “The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
It is seen as a discretionary power

According to the UN, the President of the Security Council is under the obligation to call a meeting of the Council if the Secretary-General brings to the attention of the Council any matter under Article 99.

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🔆Who is Javier mile, the new preside of Argentina? What are the regional ramifications of his leadership?

On December 10, Javier Milei, a
far­right libertarian, was sworn
into office as the President of
Argentina.

Javier Milei, a radical
libertarian economist and
self­proclaimed
anarcho­capitalist, is known for
his economic policies which
challenge the “thieves” of the
political elite.

While stating that he is going to
be “aligned with the United
States, Israel, and the free
world,” he remained sharply
critical of working with China,
Brazil, and Russia, countries he
considers as “communist
regimes.”

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🔆India France United over "strategic autonomy"

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