Category: Politics

The new Thai government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, sworn in by King Maha Vajiralongkorn in Bangkok on September 5, delivered its policy statement to parliament on September 11. In the policy statement, Prime Minister Thavisin detailed the main political, social and economic challenges facing Thailand, on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disturbed the country in the past three years.

The new coalition government is made up of 11 parties. Prime Minister Thavisin, whose Pheu Thai party leads the coalition, and 33 cabinet ministers pledged their loyalty to the monarchy during the ceremony at the Dusit Palace. In his policy statement in the parliament, the leader noted that 30.9% of the country’s GDP remains concentrated in the industrial sector and within limited clusters of products, while exports have contracted for three consecutive quarters and continue to do so. More than 30 million Thais are in the agricultural sector, but their overall revenue accounts for just 7% of GDP.

Srettha Thavisin, a 61-year-old US-educated billionaire and former president of luxury property developer Sansiri, said that his administration will focus on addressing people’s needs. During the first weekend of his tenure, the leader, who is also the country’s finance minister, travelled to northeastern provinces of Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nongkhai to meet communities and find out more about their problems.

On September 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded the G20 Summit in New Delhi by symbolically passing the presidency’s gavel to Brazil. During the two-day summit, the G20 officially adopted the New Delhi Leaders Summit Declaration after the member states successfully reached a consensus.

The New Delhi Declaration, running into 38 paragraphs, was adopted on September 9 with “100% consensus on all developmental and geo-political issues,” said the Government of India. The declaration was welcomed with G20 members thumping their desks.

Earlier on Saturday, PM Modi called for bridging the “global trust deficit” that had been deepened further by the war in Ukraine, as India proposed a new text on the Ukraine crisis to break the deadlock over the Delhi Declaration.

The New Delhi Leaders Declaration broadly focuses on five key areas: Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth; Accelerating Progress on #SDGs; Green Development Pact for a Sustainable Future; Multilateral Institutions for the 21st Century; and Reinvigorating Multilateralism.

On other key issues, the global leaders announced a multinational rail and ports deal linking the Middle East and South Asia. The African Union formally took its seat as a new member of the G20 at the invitation of summit host and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

During the closing ceremony, PM Modi congratulated Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and officially transferred the leadership of the bloc.

Top diplomats of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on September 4 reviewed a stalled peace plan for Myanmar, as the country’s ruling military failed to end violence more than two years after it seized power in a coup. ASEAN Foreign Ministers are meeting in Jakarta, capital of chair Indonesia, this week to discuss Myanmar, a code of conduct for the South China Sea, the region’s economy, transnational crime and other issues.

Myanmar is a member of ASEAN. However, its military rulers have been excluded from top bloc meetings since they ousted an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, leading to violent opposition to their rule. ASEAN has agreed on a peace plan, which calls for an end to violence and a dialogue among all parties, but the military generals have paid little more than lip service to it.

ASEAN leaders are due to gather in Jakarta later in the week along with leaders and top from partner countries such as the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and others.

Scheduled from September 5-7 with 12 high-level meetings, the 43rd ASEAN Summit is focusing on four main pillars, including upholding the long-term vision of the region, strengthening ASEAN’s resilience in facing the challenges, promoting ASEAN as a centre of economic growth, and making the Indo-Pacific a region of peace and prosperity.

On September 1, Singapore elected Tharman Shanmugaratnam as its new president. The 66-year-old Former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister won 70.4% of votes to gain a six-year term. He will replace Halimah Yacob, the island nation’s first female head of state.

Shanmugaratnam faced stiff competition in a three-way contest, which included two candidates of Chinese descent, as indicated by the preliminary vote count released by the Elections Department. His main rival, Ng Kok Song, a former chief investment officer of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, won 15.7% of the vote.

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi congratulated Tharman Shanmugaratnam on his victory in Singapore’s presidential election. “I look forward to working closely with you to further strengthen the India-Singapore Strategic Partnership,” PM Modi tweeted.

The recent election was the city-state’s first contested presidential election in more than a decade. Voting was compulsory for the more than 2.7 million eligible voters in Singapore.

Shanmugaratnam was born in Singapore in 1957 to a Tamil father and a Chinese mother. His father, Kanagaratnam Shanmugaratnam, was a renowned pathologist and cancer researcher, while his mother was a homemaker. His upbringing was shaped by the diversity of his cultural background, allowing him to become proficient in four languages, namely English, Tamil, Malay and Mandarin.

As Jakarta hosts the 43rd Asean Summit and other related summits from September 4 to 7, students in more than 700 schools in south and central parts of the Indonesian capital and most civil servants will study and work remotely for a few days.

The move aims to reduce traffic congestion during the summit. General traffic on several roads in the vicinity of the Jakarta Convention Centre, the summit venue, will be diverted or blocked to allow for the smooth movement of Asean leaders and delegates.

During the summit, 75% of the city’s civil servants will work from home. Presently, half of city’s civil servants work from home, according to a policy implemented in August to help combat deteriorating pollution in the city. The government has made exemptions for people employed in certain public services, such as hospitals. It has also appealed to the private sector to implement work-from-home wherever possible.

All preparations for the summit will be completed by September 3. In addition to the meetings at the convention centre, a gala dinner is planned for Asean leaders at Gelora Bung Karno City Forest, an urban green space near the city centre. Meetings will also be held at The St Regis Jakarta hotel and Asean Secretariat office.

Asean leaders will also be meeting their counterparts from partner countries, such as the United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea.

Indian-origin entrepreneur and US presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy was one of the main stars of the first Republican primary debate of the 2024 US presidential election cycle on August 24 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Former US President Donald Trump skipped the event, with eight Republican candidates facing off for two hours in the debate.

Ramaswamy garnered a lot of attention, particularly for his comments on the Ukraine war, Donald Trump and climate change. The 38-year-old presidential aspirant raised more than $450,000, with an average donation of $38, in the first hour after the debate.

Earlier, in an Emerson College poll, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were tied at second place in the Republican presidential field. The poll showed DeSantis and Ramaswamy tied at 10% each, trailing former President Donald Trump, who led with 56%.

DeSantis, who was in second place, despite registering 21% in June, witnessed a huge fall. On the other hand, Ramaswamy rose to the second spot from only 2% then. Almost half of Ramaswamy supporters said they will definitely vote for him, while only a third of DeSantis supporters said the same, according to the poll findings. Meanwhile, more than 80% of Trump supporters said they will definitely vote for the former president.

Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia are the new full members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In a landmark decision on August 24, the current members of the group declared expansion of the grouping by welcoming the six new countries into the fold. The membership will come into effect on January 1, 2024.

Announcing the decision at the end of the 15th BRICS summit at Johannesburg, South Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the addition of new members would strengthen the outfit and increase confidence in the idea of a multipolar world order. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, current Chair of BRICS, presented the Johannesburg Declaration – the outcome document of the summit.

In his address at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, PM Modi said that India has always supported the expansion of BRICS and believed that adding new members will strengthen BRICS as an organisation. He also expressed confidence that working together with these new members will give a new pace and energy to BRICS cooperation. He emphasised that the expansion and modernisation of BRICS is an indication that institutions of the world must get accustomed to changing times.

India’s digital public Infrastructure is secure, scaleable and provides inclusive solutions to challenges globally, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while virtually addressing the G20 Digital Economy Ministers’ Meet held in Bengaluru on August 18.

In his speech, the Prime Minister said that the government has created a digital goods depository, India Stack, on a global platform to overcome the digital divide. He emphasised the way India has leveraged technology to transform governance, making it more efficient, inclusive, faster and transparent than before. The PM underlined the fact that over 850 million Indians are internet users and enjoy some of the cheapest data costs in the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the event participants to develop a path facilitating a cross-country comparison of digital skills and work in the direction to raise a virtual centre of excellence on digital skilling.

In addition to sharing with the world its digital public infrastructure, India is in the process of building ‘Bhashini,’ an AI-powered language translation platform to support digital inclusion in all the diverse Indian languages. Talking about the future tech possibilities the PM pinned hope that India is likely to build an entire tech-based ecosystem addressing technological solutions and solving the challenges faced currently.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attended a ‘Ram Katha’ by spiritual preacher Morari Bapu at Cambridge University campus on August 15. The nine-day Ram Katha at Cambridge University ran until August 20.

The leader said that he was at the event not as a Prime Minister, but as a Hindu.  He said that for him, faith was very personal, and it guides him in every aspect of his life and gives him “courage, strength, and resilience” to do the best he can as leader of the country.

He said that he was proud to be British and Hindu, before recalling his childhood in South Hampton where he visited his neighbourhood temple with his siblings. The first Indian-origin prime minister said in his concluding remark that Lord Ram would always be an inspirational figure for him.

The 43-year-old leader shared the special moment when he first lit Diwali diyas outside No. 11 Downing Street as the first British Indian Chancellor in 2020.

Rishi Sunak also participated in an aarti on stage. Morari Bapu presented him with a consecrated Shivlinga from the Somnath temple as a sacred offering from the Jyotirlinga Ram Katha Yatra.

Greeting India on its 77th Independence Day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that India has achieved universally acknowledged success in economic, scientific and technical, social and other fields.

In a message of greetings to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Putin said he is confident that the two nations will continue to boost fruitful bilateral cooperation in all areas through joint efforts, as well as constructive partnership in resolving pressing issues on the regional and global agenda.

The Russian leader was joined by other eminent world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda,’ and Bhutanese PM Lotay Tsherin for their greetings, who underlined their special, privileged and strategic partnership with New Delhi as they wished India.

In his message posted on X, French President Emmanuel Macron said that India can count on France as a trusted friend and partner, always. Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in his message wished India lasting freedom and prosperity.

In his greetings, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese underlined the strength of Australia-Indian communities. He said, whether as students, entrepreneurs, professionals, or building families and communities, “Australia is grateful for all the experiences and ideas you have shared. We are a richer country because you have made Australia your home.”