India and the World

Ahead of Modi visit, India, China to iron out boundary issues

- by India Writes Network

India and China are poised to hold their first round of boundary talks since the formation of the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi – a key round of discussions that could see some movement ahead of the Indian leader’s much-awaited visit to Beijing.
China’s Special Representative for boundary talks, Yang Jiechi, a former foreign minister, will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, in New Delhi on March 23-24.
Ahead of the talks, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has struck an optimistic note and spoke out an uphill climb recording some positive developments. “At the moment, the boundary negotiation is in the process of building up small positive developments. It is like climbing a mountain,” he said. “The going is tough, and that’s only because we are on the way up and that the dispute (on the LAC) has been contained, he had remarked a couple of weeks ago, in much-reported remarks.
On a positive note, we must keep in mind that there are several components to the Sino-Indian relationship. While a boundary dispute acts an inhibitor, at times, to progress on other fronts, due credit must be given to both governments for not allowing it to hamper the multifarious cooperation between Asia’s first and third largest economies.

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India’s enhanced Africa diplomacy takes off, with Tanzania & S. Africa

- by Manish Chand

The Narendra Modi government has flagged off its enhanced Africa diplomacy, which will be telescoped in India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s first bilateral visit to two key partners of New Delhi in the resurgent African continent – Tanzania and South Africa. The forthcoming African safari of Mrs Swaraj will cohere the trinity of India’s engagement with Africa that pivots around three Ts: Trade, Training and Technology.
The minister’s interactions with her counterparts in Dar es Salaam and Pretoria are going to focus primarily on stepping up bilateral relations across the spectrum, but will also involve some preliminary consultations on the evolving agenda of the third edition of the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III) in New Delhi later this year. This will be the Modi government’s first summit-level interaction with the leaders of African countries, and promises to be bigger and grander than the previous two summits in New Delhi and Addis Ababa.
The March 28-31 visit of Mrs Swaraj, which was formally announced by Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson of India’s external affairs ministry on March 20, will be watched closely in the continent as this will signal the Modi government’s desire to raise the bar for this vibrant multi-faceted relationship that some feel was not given enough attention during the first few months of the new Indian government.

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Indian hostages in Iraq: India seeks Turkey’s help

- by India Writes Network

With the extremist Sunni terror group ISIS continuing its assault in the Middle East, the lives of 39 Indian constructions workers hang in the balance as they remain in the ISIS’s captivity for almost nine months. Against this backdrop, India has sought Turkey’s help to secure the release of the Indian hostages from Iraq, who were kidnapped from Mosul, Iraq, last June.

India’s External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj has been pursuing the issue over the past months through various channels and took it up with her Turkish counterpart, Mr. Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was in India on a short visit. Although intelligence agencies have been unable to locate the exact whereabouts of the Indian hostages and their captors, the talks with Turkey have brought fresh hope for their secure rescue.

India was faced with a similar situation last year when the ISIS held 46 nurses captive, later releasing them unharmed. Their safe return to India, after much back and forth across multiple diplomatic channels, showed the diplomatic prowess of the newly-elected Modi government.

In the current case, according to sources, Mr. Cavusoglu said that the ISIS’s information flow was very “restricted” and no concrete details were available on the whereabouts of Indian workers. Recent ISIS killings of hostages from Japan have caused concern for the safety of the Indian hostages. Some sources had also claimed earlier that the hostages had been killed.

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‘Modi ranks ahead of Xi in handling domestic affairs and Global diplomacy’

- by India Writes Network

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi added yet another feather to his cap by securing the top rank, ahead of China’s President Xi Jinping, in handling domestic as well as international affairs, as per China’s National Image Global Survey 2014, which ranked nine heads of state on different parameters.

The survey, collating responses of 4500 people across nine countries, showed that amongst the leaders’ capability in handling domestic affairs, Mr. Modi led the rest with a score of 3.74 on a scale of five, followed by Mr. Xi (3.58), Mr. Tony Abbott (3.55), Mr. David Cameron (3.53), Mr. Barack Obama (3.48) and Mr. Shinzo Abe (3.37). In the international affairs department too, Mr. Modi scored ahead of Mr. Xi, followed by Mr. Cameron and Mr. Obama.

“Xi’s handling of both domestic and international affairs has won high praise. He ranks second, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for his capability of handling domestic and international affairs,” Said Wang Gangyi, vice-president of China International Publishing Group, citing the survey report released in Beijing on March 18.

The survey was aimed at surveying international perception towards global leaders’ domestic and foreign image and policies. It also showed that President Obama was the most well known Head of State, followed by Mr. Putin.

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China, Japan open security dialogue after 4 years

- by India Writes Network

In what seems to be a promising development, China and Japan, the two leading Asian economies entangled in a festering territorial dispute, have held their first high level security talks in four years. The meeting in Tokyo signals the possibility of a thaw in strained relations between the two countries estranged by historical issues and perception of rivalry.
The meeting focused on improving the bitter relations and setting up a maritime communication hotline between the two countries. The meeting came ahead of a trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea on March 21, in Seoul for the first time in nearly three years.
Both China and South Korea have historical issues relating to Japan’s militarist past of wartime aggression. The way ahead lies in finding some mode of grand reconciliation and facing up to the past while looking ahead to the future of possibilities.
The possible thaw in relations between China and Japan also bodes well for India, which is looking to forge multi-pronged relations with the world’s second and third largest economies on separate tracks.

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Counter-terror meet: ISIS hasn’t influenced Indian Muslims

- by India Writes Network

India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the-three day counter terrorism conference in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The conference focuses on the integrated approach to counter terrorism and provides a platform to a wide array of professionals involved in counterterrorism analysis and practice from world over to explore the nature of terror threats in current times and strategies to overcome them.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Singh expressed happiness at the negligible impact of ISIS on the country’s youth. He said that Indian Muslims were ‘patriots’ and that ISIS has failed to influence them since the community is complete integrated in the national mainstream. Of the handful of Indian youth who had joined the ISIS, some had even returned after being persuaded by their families.

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India condemns Tunisia terror attack, calls for global action

- by India Writes Network

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee have condemned the terror attack in Tunisia and underlined that New Delhi stands firmly with the people of the country in this hour of attack.

“Attack in Tunisia is appalling & condemnable. We stand firmly with the people of Tunisia in this hour of grief and pray normalcy return soon,” Mr Modi said via twitter.

The attack on foreigners in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, appeared to be the worst since the al-Qaeda suicide bombing killing 14 Germans, two French and five Tunisian on the Island of Djerba in 2002.

The brutal militant group, The Islamic State, is suspected to have links with the Tunisia attack, which has once again underlined the trans-national nature of terrorism, fuelled by radical Islamist groups and ideologies.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the Bardo museum terror spree, saying that no terrorist action can reverse the path of Tunisia toward democracy.

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Netanyahu scores victory in Israel polls

- by India Writes Network

Benjamin Netanyahu has scored a “resounding victory” in Israel’s polls and looks set to form a right-wing coalition in Tel Aviv.
Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party defeated Zionist Union, led by Issac Herzog.
Mr Netanyahu, the chairman of Likud Party, boasts of nine years of office in three terms, with limited political achievements. He is poised to form a new government and serve the fourth term in the Knesset, making him the longest running prime minister of the country.
Mr Netanyahu promised to form the new government quickly. “Our country’s everyday reality doesn’t give us the luxury for delay,” he said in a statement.
“The citizens of Israel rightfully expect that we will act quickly and responsibly to establish a leadership that will work for them in areas of defense, the economy and society just as we promised in this campaign — and just like we will now set ourselves towards doing,” he added.

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It’s India’s moment, Chak de India: IMF chief

- by India Writes Network

“It’s India’s moment; seize it. Chak de India!” This ringing endorsement of an upswing in India’s economic fortunes from the IMF chief should be music to the ears of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his core economic team, who are shepherding the second-generation economic reforms in Asia’s third largest economy.
Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, has betted big on the India growth story and underlined that India continues to be a bright spot when the global economic recovery continues to be “too slow, too brittle and too lopsided.”

Downbeat on the prospects of global economy, but upbeat on India, Lagarde reiterated the IMF’s forecast on the world economy, saying that more than six years after the global financial crisis, the world economy is expected to grow by just 3.5 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2015.

“I want a larger quota of India at the IMF. This is India’s moment; seize it. Chak de India!” she said.

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