Category: Politics

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in South Africa as part of his three-nation tour of Africa. He visited a museum in South Africa, remembering how the country’s Black youths helped to end white racist rule.

Blinken’s visit to Africa is seen as part of a contest between Russia and top western countries for support from African countries over the war in Ukraine. His trip to Africa comes after recent visits by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French President Emmanuel Macron.

South Africa is one among the other African countries that have maintained a neutral attitude toward the war and have not openly criticized Russia.

After arriving early morning, Blinken went to the outskirts of Johannesburg to visit the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto township, which is built in memory of a student killed in 1976 when protesting South Africa’s regime of apartheid.

“Hector’s story is one that resonates because we have our own struggle for freedom and equality in the United States and South Africa’s story is unique, but there are also so many common elements, and that resonates powerfully,” said Blinken.

On Monday, Blinken will hold a press conference with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor in which the two countries’ different stances on the Ukraine war are expected to be discussed.

The US and Australia are among six countries that have evinced interest in India’s Tejas aircraft. The other countries, according to Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, are Indonesia, the Philippines, Argentina, and Egypt. Malaysia has already finalized the jet under its acquisition program, as per the government reports.

 Tejas, manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), is a versatile fighter aircraft that runs on a single engine and can work in dangerous air environments.

In February 2021, the defense ministry signed a Rs 48,000 crore deal with HAL for the purchase of 83 Tejas light combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Bhatt, when asked about Tejas, said the HAL responded to a Request for Information (RFI) received from Royal Malaysian Air Force in February 2019.

Malaysia is acquiring the aircraft to replace its deteriorating fighter planes. However, it’s not known how many aircraft Malaysia is looking to buy.

In July, the then Chairman and Managing Director of HAL R Madhavan said the Tejas aircraft has become the most popular choice for Malaysia.

When asked whether the government intends to manufacture a stealth fighter jet, Bhatt said “yes” and added the “autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator” has been tested successfully by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

On Tuesday (Aug 9), the 57th anniversary of Singapore’s independence, the Padang will be gazetted as the nation’s 75th national monument. According to Culture, Community, and Youth Minister Edwin Tong, even though the site lacks physical structures, the open space holds many of our nation’s memories.

He explained that Singaporeans can continue to use the site as a social and community space by protecting it from alteration or change. Taking place in the former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings next to the Padang, Mr. Tong was speaking at the National Gallery Singapore.

Listed as a national monument by Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB), Padang is the country’s first green, open space. Its recognition is considered part of the significance of a structure or site and is the highest form of acknowledgment.

This green patch is about the size of six football fields and is located in the heart of Singapore’s civic district. It is surrounded by St Andrew’s Road, Connaught Drive, the Singapore Cricket Club’s (SCC), and Singapore Recreation Club’s (SRC) clubhouses.

India has welcomed a US Navy ship for repairs and maintenance for the first time. Charles Drew, a US naval ship, arrived yesterday at L&T’s Katupalli Shipyard in Ennore, near Chennai for repairs and maintenance. As far as we know, this is the first time a US Navy ship has been repaired in an Indian shipyard.

There will be repairs on various areas of the USNS Charles Drew for 11 days at the Kattupalli shipyard. Indian shipyards have demonstrated their capabilities on the global market for ship repairs in this event. Using advanced maritime technology platforms, Indian shipyards provide a wide range and cost-effective ship repair and maintenance services.

According to Ajay Kumar, the event was a ‘red-letter day’ for both the Indian industry and bilateral defense relations. He said, “The initiative also assumes significance in advancing the strategic partnership between India and the US. It marks the start of a new phase for deepening engagement.” He further added that a lot of attention has been paid to defense industry cooperation with the US and that both nations have been enlarging the scope and scale of their relationship.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and US secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed regional and global issues along with the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. This was the second bilateral meeting between the two diplomats in less than a month’s time.

Mr. Blinken blames Sri Lanka’s economic crisis on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine causing global food insecurity. The meetings were held in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Mr. S Jaishankar tweeted on his account, “A warm conversation to start meetings on the sidelines of ASEAN Ministerial in Phnom Penh. Discussed the ever-strengthening India-US relationship and the global situation with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken.”

The US spokesperson also stated that Secretary Blinken condemned the execution of democracy activists by the Burmese military regime at the Jaishankar-Blinken meeting. They also spoke about promoting accountability for the regime’s atrocities as well as our joint efforts to return Burma to the path of democracy. They also commended us for working together to advance an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, safe, and wealthy.

Despite its “deep concern” over these recent executions, India has not yet condemned Myanmar’s junta strongly.

Joe Biden is on his first trip to the Middle East as president, where he told the leaders that the United States would remain an active partner in the Middle East. The Biden administration was initially against selling offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, but things have been changing as per the latest development.

The White House has approved the sale of $3 billion Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia and a $2.2 billion sale of missiles for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the United Arab Emirates.

 “The United States is invested in building a positive future of the region, in partnership with all of you—and the United States is not going anywhere,” Joe Biden said, according to a transcript of his speech accessed by the Reuters.

During a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Biden raised the issue of human rights, which also drew countercriticism from the crown prince.

“We believe there’s great value in including as many of the capabilities in this region as possible and certainly Israel has significant air and missile defence capabilities, as they need to. But we’re having these discussions bilaterally with these nations,” a senior administration official told reporters.

India wants to ramp up its ties with Uzbekistan in sectors like digital payments, start-ups, agri and pharma to mark the 30th year of their diplomatic relations. Amidst rising geopolitical tensions, the ties between India and Uzbekistan have become important to the government’s vision of an integrated extended neighbourhood.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday that increasing cooperation in seven emerging areas will help boost economic ties between the two nations. Goyal said this while addressing the 13th session of India-Uzbekistan Inter Governmental Commission (IGC) in the national capital.

Bilateral trade, as per the Economic Times, has increased from USD 247 million in 2019-20 to USD 342 million in 2021-22.

The Uzbekistan delegation was led by Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi twill be making a visit o Uzbekistan in September, and Khodjaev said that he is looking forward to receiving the dignitary.

He also said the PM’s visit will be utilised for giving a significant boost to the bilateral relations in sectors of mutual interest. PM Modi had last visited the country in 2015, when he held bilateral talks with the then President Islam Karimov. The relations between the two countries date back several years in history.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will pay a two–day visit to Uzbekistan on July 28-29 to take part in a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) council of foreign ministers.

The meeting will talk about preparations for the forthcoming meeting of the SCO council of heads of state in Samarkand during September 15-16, the external affairs ministry said on Wednesday.

The foreign ministers will analyze and evaluate the ongoing cooperation to expand the SCO organization and share ideas on regional and global developments of mutual interest, the ministry said.

Jaishankar is visiting Uzbekistan at the invitation of its acting foreign minister Vladimir Norov. There he is likely to meet the Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the SCO meet. If the meeting takes place, it will be the second time this month that Jaishankar will hold talks with Wang on the margins of a multilateral event.

The last meeting between Jaishankar and Wang was on July 7, in Indonesia, on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in which Jaishankar called for an “early resolution” of all pending issues along the LAC and urged for complete troop disengagement at all friction points to bring back peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

African nations, Macron will make his second stop in Benin. With a goal of reviving France’s postcolonial connection with the continent, the four-day trip, which ends in Guinea-Bissau on Thursday, is Macron’s first to Africa in his new role as French president.

During the joint news conference, Macron mentioned the “unique partnership” between France and Benin and expressed a willingness to support initiatives to make Benin an “example of development” in western Africa. Talon and Macron planned to expand their partnership by contributing to Benin’s culture, education, and security.

According to Macron, France might provide Benin with drones and much more advanced weapons to assist it in combating a deteriorating Islamist insurgency that is endangering the area.

As the violence from the Sahel nations of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger moves south, Benin, along with the Gulf of Guinea republics of Togo and Ivory Coast, has experienced an increase in assaults from militants affiliated with al Qaeda and the Islamic State group. A new French policy is to aid the nations in fortifying their troops, offer assistance, and let them assume command of operations on the ground.

Macron added that France already offers Benin intelligence, training assistance, and other forms of humanitarian aid to assist in the development of areas that are exposed to Islamist threats.

French President Emmanuel Macron has set off on a three-nation African tour, his first trip to the continent after being as he seeks tore-elected, to restore France’s post-colonial relationship with the ‘dark continent’

Macron’s July 25-28 tour will begin in Cameroon and then move on to Benin and then Guinea-Bissau.

 A French presidential official, who refused to be named stated, that the tour “will show the commitment of the president in the process of renewing the relationship with the African continent” It will indicate that Africa is a “political priority” for his presidency.

In Cameroon, which has been plagued by ethnic violence and military operation by anglophone separatists, Macron will meet the 89-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for nearly four decades and is the longest-serving non-royal leader in the world.

Biya has ruthlessly ruled the country, not giving in to demands for federalism and dealing with the rebellion by separatists.

According to the French state media Radio France Internationale (RFI), Macron desires to revive economic ties between France and Cameroon–where the economic influence of France has been gradually diminishing, and French investments are dwindling. In the 1990s, French companies accounted for 40 percent of the economy, whereas in 2021, the figure went down to 10 percent.