Category: Politics

As the new year begins, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li is all set for his foreign diplomatic trips to five littoral countries of the Indian Ocean Region including Island nations the Maldives and Sri Lanka. This initiative will likely strengthen China’s increasing economic and security stakes in the neighbouring countries.

On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Mr Wang would begin his trip on January 4 and visit five nations that will include eastern African countries of Eritrea and Kenya, the island nation of Comoros, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Chinese government spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that “The upcoming visit to the three countries in Africa is keeping up the Chinese foreign ministry’s 32 years tradition of choosing Africa for their first overseas visit every year”. He further added that the visit to the Maldives and Sri Lanka “comes to the 50th anniversary of Chinese-Maldives diplomatic relations, 65th anniversary of Chinese-Sri Lanka diplomatic relations, and the 70th anniversary of the Rubber-Rice pact between China and Sri Lanka”. However, India is alarmed by the Chinese growing relations with countries like the Maldives and Sri Lanka over the years in the South.     

The five countries the U.S, Russia, U.K, France and China that are also permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have made it their primary objective to avoid nuclear war among nuclear power nations and to increase cooperation and harmony among the countries.

All these 5 countries believe issued a joint statement on Monday which was published by Kremlin where they stated that they would work to avoid further spread of nuclear war and nuclear arms. The English language version of the statement read, “We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. It also read, “”As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons — for as long as they continue to exist — should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war.”

Chinese vice foreign minister and French government believe that this joint statement will increase a mutual trust, coordination and cooperation among the major power states of the world.

The statement from the P5 group came after seeing the soaring relations between United States and Moscow since the Cold War and also since Washington and China have come under several conflicts over security issues.

China is asking all the nuclear power nations to discuss briefly the matter of global security to include the increasing threats. It bases its focus on the rare multilateral pledge to tamper with the risks of nuclear war.

The director-general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s arms control department Fu Cong told to some reporters that the P5 nations- France, Russia, U.S.A, U.K, and China should discuss “more directly” the global security issues. Additionally, he said that “Strategic stability goes beyond nuclear” stating that their idea to bring together the P5 nations is not just to discuss the nuclear wars but also other issues that are related to strategic stability and economic developments such as the latest emerging AI technology, space technology, and defence missiles.

The P5 nations that are all permanent members of the U.N Security Council issued a joint statement pledging to eliminate the risk of nuclear conflict on Monday. This is after this statement that China decided to call these nations together to discuss these matters at length.

However, this initiative by China is received with great skepticism in Washington, the U.S.A due to its recent military tensions with Beijing which the administration of President Biden calls “strategic competitions” over two of the world’s strongest economies.

Pakistan is soon to host the 19th SAARC Summit and has reiterated its invitation to all the member states. They have restated its invite to India as well, and it says that if India cannot attend the summit physically in Islamabad, they are welcome to attend it virtually. According to some sources, Islamabad is planning to send a formal invitation to all the countries, including India. The last biennial SAARC summit was about to take place in 2016 but was canceled due to the Uri attack in the same year that was carried out by terrorists from across the LoC. India has since then planned to end all diplomatic relations with Pakistan which is why the 2016 summit was called off. The last SAARC summit took place in 2014 in Kathmandu and has not taken place again since then.

SAARC member countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal are keen to join the upcoming summit as they want to resume the diplomatic consensual decision-making process with Pakistan and other countries. However, India is still reluctant on its decision of avoiding any such relations with Pakistan as it feels that Pakistan has not done enough since the 2016 terror attack to cross-check cross-border terrorism.

A Beijing official warned on Wednesday that China will take “drastic measures”  if Taiwan makes move towards Independence, adding that Taiwan’s provocations and outside meddling could intensify next year.

China claims that the democratically governed Taiwan is its own territory, and in the past two years has stepped up military pressure to assert its claim. China was willing to try its utmost to seek peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but would act if any red lines on independence were crossed, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office, in a media briefing.

Xiaoguang further added If separatist forces in Taiwan seeking independence provoke, exert force or even break through any red line, China will have to take drastic measures.

Beijing has sent repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait to pressure Taiwan. It has said it will not give in to threats. Xiaoguang said that next year, the Taiwan Strait situation will become more complex and severe.

Taiwan has emerged as a key factor in strained relations between Taiwan and the United States, which recognises only one China.

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949, after losing a civil war with the Communists, who established the People’s Republic of China.

After a group of French parliamentarians visited Taiwan in October, six French lawmakers are now in the country on a five-day trip.

Francois de Rugy, the head of the Taiwan Friendship group in the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s Parliament, is at the helm of the visiting delegation. They will meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior government officials.

Upon arrival at the airport, de Rugby told reports that the lawmakers wish to have exchanges on all dimensions of the relation between Taiwan, the EU and France on the economy and culture and all the issues at stake for their countries.

Earlier in October, another group of French lawmakers led by Sen. Alain Richard held meetings with Tsai, Taiwanese economic and health officials, and the Mainland Affairs Council. That visit was part of regular parliamentary exchanges that had been going on for years.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its national territory, had tried to get the October meetings scrapped. Its embassy in France had said that it would not only damage China’s core interests and undermine Chinese-French relations, but would also impact France’s own reputation and interests.

Australia and South Korea signed a historic $1 billion defence agreement on December 13 when Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Moon Jae-in held talks in Canberra. As per the agreement, Korean defence company Hanwha will provide 30 self-propelled howitzer artillery weapons, 15 ammunition supply vehicles and radars.

The deal, which is the largest ever between Australia and an Asian nation, also includes a new Centre of Excellence built jointly between the South Korean company and the Federal Government in the Victorian region of Geelong.

Speaking on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Australia and South Korea, Mr Morrison said the two nations share a strong link with each other. “The contract with Hanwha demonstrates the value of industrial collaboration in supporting our countries in addressing mutual security challenges,” Mr Morrison said. He also said the deal would create a minimum of 300 jobs.

President Moon is on a four-day visit to Australia. Besides talking about the deal, he also confirmed that South Korea will not be joining hands with the U.S.-led diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. He also said that North Korea is making efforts to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Russia has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution which seeks to formally link climate change and global security. The resolution, drafted by Niger and Ireland, called for “information on the security implications of climate change” to be addressed by the Security Council. Also, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been asked to make climate-related security risks “a central component” of conflict-prevention and peacekeeping strategies.

The resolution won support from 12 of the council’s 15 members. India voted no and China abstained from voting.

Only the Security Council can ensure the security impacts of climate change are integrated into the critical work of conflict prevention and mitigation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian response, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, wrote on Twitter.

Greenfield also wrote about Russia voting no to block the resolution, saying that the country has let the world down by vetoing a resolution backed by a majority of UN member states.

Those who opposed the resolution argued that the UN already had bodies devoted to addressing climate change and the issue could become politicized at the Security Council.

While the Security Council has considered climate change in some of its work, this is the first time it has picked the subject for a resolution of its own.

As per several reports, Delhi is planning to invite leaders of five Central Asian countries as chief guests for the Republic Day parade and celebrations on January 26. While the diplomats of these five countries have already been informed informally, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is likely to hold a dialogue with the foreign ministers of these five countries over the next weekend.

If the invitations are accepted and everything pans out as planned, five Presidents — Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon, Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov — will make a trip to Delhi on Republic Day.

Reports on Indian Express also state that India wanted to invite countries of the BIMSTEC group, which includes Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. But the plan didn’t go through.

The five Central Asian countries are all playing an important role in monitoring the current situation in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and Delhi has been keeping in touch with them over the same since the past few months. Recently, the NSAs of the five countries visited Delhi for the regional security dialogue on Afghanistan hosted by NSA Ajit Doval.

The last time when Republic Day invitations were sent out was in 2018, when 10 leaders from ASEAN were chief guests.

On Monday, December 13, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was received by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan at his private palace in Abu Dhabi during his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates.

At the airport, Mr. Bennett was received by UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and an honour guard. For the uninitiated, Bennett has become the first Israeli prime minister to visit the gulf nation after diplomatic ties were established last year. Earlier in June, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also visited the UAE to inaugurate the nation’s embassy in Abu Dhabi. 

The prime minister said he appreciated the very warm hospitality and was excited to be in the UAE as the first official visit of an Israeli leader.

Earlier in a video, Mr. Bennett had said that the relations between the two states were “excellent and extensive, and we must continue to nurture and strengthen them, and build  warm peace between the people”. Before his visit, his office had informed that the dignitaries will discuss deepening the ties between Israel and the UAE, especially the economic and regional issues. 

The visit is also important as it comes at a time when world powers’ try to renew a nuclear deal with Iran.