Category: Politics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Prime Minister elect Christopher Luxon for his party’s win in the New Zealand’s general election. Luxon’s National Party and coalition partner ACT registered victory on October 14, together securing 61 seats in a 121-seat parliament.

On Saturday, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins conceded that his Labour Party had lost the election and was not in a position to form a government. The outgoing Prime Minister has spent just nine months at the job after taking over from Jacinda Ardern in January.

Luxon on October 16 said that while his party was waiting for special votes to be counted, the parties were working on building relationships with both ACT New Zealand and New Zealand First parties. While the National Party and ACT have the numbers to form a government on the current count, roughly 5,67,000 special votes, around 20% of the total, are still be counted. The official result will be declared on November 3.

The New Zealand election campaign saw a significant emphasis on the challenging economic landscape and a sharp rise in the cost of living.

India and Tanzania on October 9 elevated their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership with the meeting of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The two leaders pledged to strengthen collaboration across a spectrum of areas, including trade, investment, defense, and counter-terrorism.

Tanzania has emerged as one of the significant beneficiaries of India’s intensified engagement with Africa. India has notably established about 15 new diplomatic missions in the African country.

President Hassan’s visit follows the recent agreement to establish the first overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Tanzania, and the African Union’s entry into the G20 as a full member during the summit hosted by India in September 2023.

India and Tanzania identified new initiatives to expand cooperation in trade and investment, including a proposed agreement on increasing trade in local currencies. The countries also agreed on a five-year roadmap for defence cooperation that encompasses new areas such as military training, maritime cooperation, capacity building and defence industry.

The two sides signed six agreements, including a technical agreement between the Indian Navy and Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation on sharing white shipping information, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on sharing digital public infrastructure, and an MoU between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and Tanzania Investment Centre for setting up of an industrial park in Tanzania.

In a major step towards boosting India-Africa ties, the Government of India has announced to post more Defence Attaches (DAs) in African nations. The DAs will include officers from all three defence services of the Indian Army, Navy, and the Air Force.

The Indian Army has decided to send DAs to Mozambique and Ethiopia. The Indian Navy, which already has Naval Attaches (NAs) in Kenya and South Africa, will post new NAs to Djibouti and Tanzania. A new Additional Air Attache (AA) will be appointed to serve in Ivory Coast, besides new AAs to be sent to Spain and Armenia. The appointed DAs will have a three-year tenure.

Sources from the three services confirmed to media that “more positions for DAs in Africa are under consideration.” Till some time back all three Armed Forces were sending envoys to over 100 Indian missions abroad.

In September 2023, with India’s support, the African Union became a permanent member of the Group of 20 (G20) largest economies of the world. In addition, India has contributed to Africa’s military, social and economic sectors to further enhance stable and long-term bilateral relationships.

India will continue to work with African nations to promote regional security, foster stability and enhance the defence capabilities together, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during the first edition of the India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave organised on the sidelines of 2nd Africa-India Joint Exercise ‘AFINDEX’ in Pune, Maharashtra on March 28, 2023.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterparts from Brazil and South Africa renewed their commitment to work for the expansion of the UN Security Council to include representation from developing economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America during the 11th IBSA Trilateral Ministerial Commission in New York on September 23.

At the Intergovernmental negotiations on UN Security Council reform, the foreign ministers stressed that the time has come to move towards a result-oriented process and urged the redoubling of efforts to achieve concrete outcomes within a fixed time frame through the commencement of text-based negotiations.

The leaders supported the legitimate aspiration of African countries to have a permanent presence in the UNSC and supported the endeavour of Brazil and India “to occupy permanent seats in the Security Council.”

Apart from Jaishankar, Brazil Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Grace Naledi Pandor, attended the meeting. The Indian minister led the Indian delegation for a week-long visit to New York, where he addressed a High-Level session of the 78th UNGA on September 26.

The ministers affirmed the need for a reformed, revitalised and reinvigorated multilateralism aimed at implementing the 2030 agenda, to adequately address contemporary global challenges of the 21st Century and to make global governance more representative, democratic, effective, transparent and accountable.

IBSA was created 20 years ago to promote coordination on global issues between three large pluralistic, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic democracies of Asia, South America and Africa, and to enhance trilateral cooperation in sectoral areas, providing a new framework to South-South Cooperation.

US President Joe Biden on September 22 announced a new office dedicated to gun violence prevention. The office, to be led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who pursued gun safety measures when she was California’s top prosecutor, will help the administration coordinate gun policy and pressing congressional leaders to act on the issue.

The Office of Gun Violence Prevention aims to combat a growing US national crisis through executive action instead of the more sweeping reforms that would require congressional approval. “We all want our kids to have the freedom to learn how to read and write instead of duck and cover, for God’s sake,” US President Biden said during remarks in the Rose Garden, where survivors of school shootings were among the hundreds of attendees.

For more than a decade, the US political system has been deadlocked on major changes to gun laws, despite several ghastly shootings.

In her address, Kamala Harris illustrated the urgency of the office’s mission. One in five people have lost a family member to gun violence, about 120 people are killed by a gun every day, and Black Americans are 10 times more likely than white Americans to be victims of gun violence and homicides; Latino Americans are twice as likely, she said.

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is an alternative strategic platform for boosting cooperation between developing countries as traditional institutions of international economy management lose credibility, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on September 19 at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

The recent decision taken by the group of five countries to invite new members to cooperate in the BRICS format after the Johannesburg summit in August helps “strengthen efforts for the order that would reflect economic, geographical and political pluralism of the 21th century,” the leader said. “We are a power that works on establishing fairer global trade in the light of the severe crisis of multisided institutions,” he pointed out.

The decision on Argentina, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia becoming full members of BRICS was taken at the BRICS summit that took place in Johannesburg under South Africa’s chairmanship in late August. The membership will take effect from January 1, 2024.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was in India for the G20 summit on September 9-10, called himself a proud Hindu and noted that he always had a strong connection with India.

The leader said that his wife is Indian and being a Hindu, he will always have a bond with India and its people. “I am hugely proud of my Indian roots and my connections to India,” added Sunak. He also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership saying that India is the “right country” at the “right time” to hold the G20 presidency.

On the India-UK trade deal, the UK PM said there was “still some way to go” for a free trade pact with India to be finalised, but he appeared confident that the final outcome will be a “forward-looking” and “modern” deal that would benefit both sides and help shared ambition of doubling trade by 2030. He pointed out that the trade deal could help Indian exporters, including 48 million small and medium enterprises, gain access to the British market.

On the margins of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the British Prime Minister agreed to a new strategic partnership with Singapore during a meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on September 9. Following the new partnership, both countries will work to conclude a new and modern bilateral investment treaty – the first for the UK after leaving the European Union.

The African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat on September 9 lauded AU’s entry into the Group of Twenty (G20), saying that it will allow Africa to make its “effective contribution” in meeting global challenges.

“I welcome the African Union’s entry into the G20 as a full member. This membership, for which we have long been advocating, will provide a propitious framework for amplifying advocacy in favor of the Continent and its effective contribution to meeting global challenges,” the AU head wrote on X.

The African Union at full strength has 55 members; six junta-ruled nations are currently suspended. Collectively, the union has a gross domestic product of $3 trillion with about 1.4 billion people.

The G20 has 19 countries and the European Union as members, which together represent 85 percent of the world GDP. South Africa is the only member state from the African continent.

“As a continent, we look forward to further advancing our aspirations on the global stage using the G20 platform,” Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who attended the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10, posted on X.

In a briefing on September 11, the United States of America lauded India for conducting a successful G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10. International Monetary Fund’s Deputy Director Gita Gopinath congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for successfully hosting the two-day summit in India in a post on X.

In the briefing, US State Department’s official spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters, “We absolutely believe it was a success. The G20 is a big organisation. Russia is a member of the G20. China is a member of the G20.”

Gita Gopinath had attended the Gala Dinner hosted during the G20 Summit at Bharat Mandapam convention centre in New Delhi on September 9. She interacted with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and exchanged pleasantries with President Droupadi Murmu and PM Modi during the dinner. In response to her message, PM Modi replied, “Thank you for the kind words. It is an honour to host the G20 summit. Our efforts are a testament to the collective spirit of unity and progress.”

The G20 Leaders Summit was attended by more than 30 heads of state and top officials from the European Union and invited guest countries, and 14 heads of international organisations. The summit concluded on September 10 with great fervour in the Indian capital under India’s presidency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested hosting a virtual G20 session towards the end of November to assess the recommendations and resolutions put forth during the recently concluded leaders’ summit in New Delhi.

During the closing session of the two-day G20 summit, PM Modi pointed out that India’s presidency of the G20 will remain in effect until November 30, allowing for more than two months fulfilling its role as the leader of the group. He added that the views, suggestions and proposals put forward by G20 country representatives during the summit are being closely looked upon as to how they can be speeded up. The proposed virtual session is where the members can review the issues that have been agreed upon during this summit, said PM Modi.

World leaders attending the two-day G20 summit hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his decisive leadership and for championing the voice of the Global South. Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thanked PM Modi for India’s gracious hospitality. US President Joe Biden said that this year’s Summit proved that the G20 can still drive solutions to our most pressing issues. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hailed Prime Minister Modi for providing “great leadership” of the G20, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for strengthening G20 cooperation based on “the foundation created by the Indian presidency.”