Category: Politics

On her visit to Ghana, US Vice President Kamala Harris pledged a new era of partnership with Africa. Highlighting the continent’s innovation in emergency health care supplies, vaccines, farming and mineral processing, she expressed her vision for “a future that is propelled by African innovation.”

“We must invest in African ingenuity and creativity, which will unlock incredible economic growth and opportunities,” Harris said from Independence Square in Accra, where thousands gathered waving US and Ghanaian flags. She said the US must be guided “not by what we can do for our African partners, but we can do with our African partners.”

Her visit is part of a week-long trip that will also include stops in Tanzania and Zambia.

While in Ghana, Kamala Harris addressed thousands of young Ghanaians in Accra on women’s empowerment, and toured a coastal building that was the last stop for Africans sold into the transatlantic slave trade. She promised American partnership and urged African nations to do more for women. In a speech in front of Black Star Gate, a monument built on the site where Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, the US Vice President said that by the middle of the century, one in four people in the world will be African, and innovation would be key to Africa’s future success.

India, the present chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), represented by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, held the 18th meeting of the SCO National Security Advisors and top officials of the member countries in New Delhi.

Speaking at the SCO-NSA meeting, Doval said that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and its financing are among the most serious threats to international peace and security. Any act of terrorism, regardless of its motivation, is inexcusable. He added that if the member countries follow the objectives of the SCO, it can show them the path to meet future security challenges.

The Indian NSA said that connectivity remains a key priority for India. “We stand ready to cooperate on investing in and building connectivity in the region. While expanding connectivity, it’s important to ensure that such initiatives are consultative, transparent and participatory, and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries,” said Ajit Doval.

He further said India is also committed to fulfilling our obligations under the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and to the inclusion of the Chabahar port within the framework of INSTC.

While the SCO summit is set to take place in Goa this summer, India is holding a host of events leading up to it. The next important SCO meeting will be the defence ministers’ meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi from April 27-29.

An intergovernmental organisation established in 2001, SCO comprises eight member states, namely, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

South Korean and US forces will hold their largest-ever live-fire exercises in June in a display of force to North Korea that has increased tension with several missile launches, said South Korea’s defence ministry on March 22.

The exercises are part of a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the two countries this year.

“We’ve planned various anniversary programmes focusing on realising ‘peace through strength’ through action based on our strategic deterrence capabilities and the solid combined defence posture amid North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats,” the ministry said in a statement.

During the live-fire exercises, the combined forces will demonstrate the alliance’s formidable firepower and mobility on an unprecedented scale, it added.

South Korea plans to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its military in September with a display by the allies’ forces of their “overwhelming deterrence and response capabilities” against North Korea, that will include South Korea’s missile defence system, the ministry said.

The United States has about 28,500 troops in South Korea. US and South Korean forces have been carrying out various types of military training in recent weeks including air and sea drills involving American B-1B bombers, and their first large-scale amphibious landing exercises in five years.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, have agreed to meet soon and pave the way for the re-opening of embassies under a deal to re-establish ties.

Earlier this month, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to revive relations after years of discord that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East. The ministers spoke by phone to mark the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said Saudi state news agency SPA. Amirabdollahian stressed during the call Iran’s keenness to boost relations with Saudi Arabia, reported Iran’s official news agency IRNA.

Analysts say both sides stand to benefit from de-escalation, as Iran seeks to undercut US efforts to isolate the country in the region, and Saudi Arabia tries to focus on economic development.  After Iran, Saudi Arabia plans to re-establish ties with Syria, say media reports. Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reopen their embassies after cutting diplomatic ties more than a decade ago, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, a step that would mark a leap forward in Damascus’s return to the Arab group.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Tokyo on March 12 to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, aiming to ease years of diplomatic tension. It was the first visit by a South Korean leader to Japan for a bilateral working meeting in 12 years.

After the leaders’ meeting, Japan’s trade ministry said it would lift export curbs to South Korea on some high-tech materials, namely fluorinated polyimides, resists and hydrogen fluoride. The decision came after confirming the effectiveness of South Korea’s export control regime at a three-day policy dialogue and South Korea’s plan to withdraw its complaint filed at the World Trade Organization on Japan’s export controls.

The two leaders agreed to revive regular visits to each other’s countries. Kishida said the visits would be frequent and informal. They also agreed to restart a bilateral security dialogue, suspended since 2018, in view of heightened threats to regional security with North Korea’s frequent missile launches.

Yoon declared a “complete normalization” of the intelligence-sharing GSOMIA (General Security of Military Information Agreement) pact, which Seoul threatened to pull out of in 2019. Kishida said the two countries will set up a conference to discuss economic security matters.

Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren and its South Korean counterpart, the Federation of Korean Industries, agreed to each set up a fund aimed at building “future-oriented” relations through joint projects in the areas of politics, economy and culture, and promote the exchange of younger people between the two nations.

The United Kingdom will pay France around 480 million pounds ($577 million) over three years to help stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. The announcement was made during a summit between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The money, which will be paid in instalments, will help fund a detention centre in France and boost patrols on French beaches.

While the leaders agreed to move forward on nuclear energy cooperation, reaffirmed their backing for Ukraine and vowed to boost inter-operability of their military forces, including through the development of future missiles and air defence systems, migration was the prime focus for Sunak. Since becoming the UK PM in October, he has made stopping small boats a priority after the number of migrants arriving on the south coast of England soared to more than 45,000 last year, up 500 percent in the last two years.

He has proposed new legislation to bar those arriving in small boats from claiming asylum, but for this he needs France’s cooperation to intercept the boats and break the people trafficking rings behind the flow of arrivals from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and other countries.

As part of the new deal, Britain will help fund a detention centre in France while Paris will deploy more French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol its beaches. Officers from both countries will also look to work with countries along the routes favoured by people traffickers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway to the nation on March 12. He also laid foundation stones for several projects worth around Rs 16,000 crore in Karnataka.

The Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway has a six-laning of the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta-Mysuru section of NH-275. The 118-km-long project has been developed at a cost of around Rs 8,480 crore. It will reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru from around 3 hours to only about 75 minutes, and will act as a catalyst for socio-economic development in the region.

In other projects, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for Mysuru-Kushalnagar 4- lane highway. He dedicated to the nation IIT Dharwad, the longest railway platform in the world at Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji Hubballi Station, and the electrification of Hosapete–Hubballi–Tinaighat section and the upgradation of Hosapete station, for boosting connectivity in the region. He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for various projects of Hubballi-Dharwad smart city, among other projects.

“Developed at a cost of over Rs 530 crores, the electrification project establishes seamless train operation on electric traction. The redeveloped Hosapete station will provide convenient and modern facilities to travellers. It has been designed to resemble the Hampi monuments,” it said.

Former NATO General Petr Pavel was sworn in as Czech Republic’s President on March 9.

In his maiden speech as the Czech President, Pavel underlined peace in Ukraine. “Central Europe’s single voice will be important if we are to help Ukraine prevail,” he said at the ceremony at Prague Castle. “It is in our own vital interest to support Ukraine.”

The new president vowed to lift his country’s reputation abroad “to a new level.” He said, he would back policies to quash inflation, which ran at 17.5% in January, while also pledging to fix public finances.

Pavel was elected in January, having defeated former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, a billionaire populist, in the run-off. He was a career soldier, having joined the army during the Communist era and was decorated with a French military cross for valour during peacekeeping operations in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The social liberal leader campaigned as an independent, and pledged to firmly anchor the Czech Republic in the European Union and NATO, and to boost relations with the United States. His stand was entirely different from his predecessor Milos Zeman, who had sought to boost ties with Russia and China. Zeman served as president for 10 years and his last five-year term expired on March 8.

While the role is mostly ceremonial, the Czech President names the government, appoints the central bank governor and Constitutional Court judges, and serves as the supreme commander of the armed forces.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has begun his third term as the President of China, after securing a historic win as president in a ceremonial vote in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on March 10. He received a unanimous 2,952 votes followed by a standing ovation.

Xi Jinping’s unprecedented third term as China’s president was officially endorsed by the country’s political elite, strengthening his control and making him the longest-serving head of state of Communist China since its foundation in 1949. His reappointment was largely seen as a formality, after the 69-year-old leader secured a norm-shattering third term as head of the Chinese Communist Party last fall.

In China, the presidency – or “state chairman” in Chinese – is a largely ceremonial title. Real power resides in the positions of head of the party and military, two key roles that Xi also holds and was reappointed to at a key Communist Party congress in October.

Xi has begun his third when the Chinese economy is struggling to recover from three years of harsh zero-COVID-19 restrictions, investor confidence is waning, and a demographic crisis is looming as the country registered its first population decline in six decades.

China is also facing a series of diplomatic headwinds from Washington and other Western capitals, as relations plummeted in recent years over Beijing’s human rights record, military build-up, handling of COVID-19, and growing partnership with Russia.

The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Farhan Al-Saud has said that the relationship between India and Saudi Arabia has grown exponentially, and there is a need for measurable progress in all sectors, especially the economic and trade relationship.

Highlighting the strong relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi FM said that both leaders want to see actual results and progress in relationship between the two nations. Al-Saud said this relationship has grown exponentially in the last five years. “India is a fantastically dynamic country with huge potential, and we have seen that especially in the last five years, the trajectory for India is fantastic. The potential that India holds is almost unmeasurable.”

In an interview in Delhi, the visiting minister acknowledged the fact that India has played an important role in the developmental journey of the Kingdom for several decades given the large Indian presence in the country. He also said that India’s huge size offers great potential as a huge amount of India’s trade to Europe passes through the Red Sea. “We are of course India’s most important energy partner as that’s the case for traditional energies, but we are also looking to continue that into the renewable era,” he added.