Category: Politics

The Philippines has accepted Indian BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd’s proposal to provide the Philippine Navy with a Shore-based Anti-Ship Missile System Acquisition Project worth $374.9 million, a major boost to India’s defense export plans.

Indian ties with the nation have been upgraded over the last few years as the nations are negotiating preferential trade agreements and expanding their defense partnership further. With this partnership, this BrahMos order is a major military export by India. Jointly developed with Russia, the supersonic missile will be available in multiple versions in the future, including a lighter, longer-range system that can be launched from aircraft and submarines.

The philippine’ Department of National Defense has communicated the Notice of Award to BarhMos officials. Within 10 days, the notice of award sought feedback from BrahMos Aerospace. Recently from destroyer INS Visakhapatnam, a naval variant of BrahMos was tested by the Indian Navy that was jointly developed by India and Russia.

As a result of the pandemic, the Philippines had been unable to afford to order BrahMos missiles. A defense agreement between the two countries was signed last year to facilitate the export of defense equipment from India to Manila. In addition to Vietnam and Indonesia, other countries in Southeast Asia have expressed interest in purchasing BrahMos from India to secure their defense architecture.

The violence over the past week in Kazakhstan shook the nation will killing more than 160 people and 5,000 people under arrest and 125 separate investigations are being held.

According to Sputnik news agency, the health ministry said two children were among the 164 dead in the country’s deadliest outbreak of violence in its 30 years of independence. Police sometimes fired into the air to stop people approaching the city’s central square on Sunday, with the nation’s economic hub appearing to return to relative calm. Almaty, the main city of Kazakhstan saw one of the worst unrest and reported 103 deaths.

Interior Minister Erlan Turgumbayev said, “Today the situation is established in all regions of the country. The counterterror operation is continuing in a bid to re-establish order in the country”.

The unrest began a week ago in western provinces following a fuel price increase, but riots soon erupted in Almaty and other large cities. As a result, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has issued shoot-to-kill orders to quell the unrest he claims is caused by “bandits and terrorists”.

Russia’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent troops to restore order at Tokayev’s invitation, an intervention that comes ahead of new talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis at a time of high tension between the United States and Russia.

According to the satellite image analysis, China has accelerated settlement-building on the China-Bhutan border. More than 200 structures that included two-story buildings were being constructed in six locations. 

HawkEye 360, a data analytics firm specializing in satellite-based surveillance, provided images, and analysis, vetted by two experts, that show China’s recent construction along the Bhutan border. These activities have been underway since 2020 where China initiated building tracks first and clearing out areas. The mission application director at HawkEye 360, Chris Biggers said that it was based on the material provided by satellite imagery firms Capella Space and Planet Labs.

In a study of recent satellite images conducted by Capella Space, two other experts reported that all six settlements appear to be located on land disputed by Bhutan and China including a 110 square kilometer area with limited resources and no native population.

Bhutan’s foreign ministry said, “It is Bhutan’s policy not to talk about boundary issues in the public” and declined to comment further on the issue.

On the other hand, China’s foreign ministry said that the construction is entirely for the improvement of the working and living conditions of the local residents.

In the wake of Russia’s threat of an attack on Ukraine that has sparked the worst tensions since the Cold War, Russia and the United States concluded a first round of high-stakes talks on security.

In Geneva, the two sides scheduled a separate briefing after full day talk between US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. In advance of the meeting, both sides emphasized caution regarding the outlook for the talks.

More than 100,000 Russian troops have gathered near Ukraine, which prompted warnings in Washington and Kyiv about the risk of an incursion into the ex-Soviet country. Kremlin officials deny planning an attack. However, they say they are responding to increased NATO activity on their borders, as well as the threat of an offensive by Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists. The Ukrainian government also denied accusations of invasion.

The Russian government demands a legally-binding guarantee that NATO’s enlargement will cease and the alliance’s military presence in Eastern and Central European countries will cease. This has been dismissed by the U.S. as unrealistic and instead, a call has been made to curtail missile deployment and exercises in the region.

On Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s fourth successive government will be sworn in with a focus on climate change ten months after elections. Over the next 10 years, the new government has pledged to allocate €35 billion ($39.64bn) for climate measures after grueling negotiations.

The country, which has one of the lowest-lying and densest populations in the world, promises to build two new nuclear power plants and become climate neutral by 2050.

Rob Jetten, 34, is the Netherlands’ first Climate and Energy Minister and is tasked with reducing emissions and making the country less dependent on fossil fuels, particularly gas. He said, “the government has to catch up climate change and lay the foundation for the next generation”.

Sigrid Kaag was sworn in by King Willem Alexander via video-link as the new finance minister as she is currently quarantined for testing positive for coronavirus. The new coalition has a record number of women in which 14 out of 19 ministers and secretaries of state are female.

Mr. Rutte, nicknamed ‘Teflon’ for staying in power and avoiding scandal, has said in December that he wishes his new government to “restore trust”.

On Sunday, Russia ruled out any concession talk with the United States over Ukraine on soaring tension as Moscow seeks a wide-ranging new security arrangement with the West. However, it faced strong pressure to pull back troops.

Ahead of the talks in Geneva, Russia’s deputy foreign Sergei Ryabkov said the Kremlin was also “disappointed” with the signals coming from Washington and Brussel. Here the European Union and NATO are based. He said, “we will not agree to any concession. That is completely excluded. We are disappointed with the signals coming in the last few days from Washington but also from Brussels”.

With the high-level meetings, the United States tries to reassure European allies that they will not be sidelined during a week of diplomacy during which Russia will meet with NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Since last year, Russia has been amassed by the thousands of troops located at the Ukraine border. It demands guarantees that NATO will not further expand eastward. In response, the Kremlin said NATO should never grant membership to the ex-Soviet Ukraine.

On Friday, US States Secretary Antony Blinken dismissed Moscow’s demand and said, “We are prepared to respond forcefully to further Russian aggression. But a diplomatic solution is still possible and preferable if Russia chooses it.

To punish a small country Lithuania, President Xi Jinping’s regime is targeting the global supply chain. President Xi Jinping blocks Lithuanian imports including Lithuanian parts for defying Beijing for Taiwan. Jinping’s regime is upset for approving the establishment of a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius located in the Middle Kingdom’s wolf warrior diplomacy.

By imposing sanctions on the tiny Baltic nation, China is threatening other members of the European Union (EU) not to question Beijing. However, the spokesperson of the Chinese government has denied the reports regarding blocking the imports chaining Lithuanian components.

The spokesperson alleged that German automotive suppliers were harmed by the Chinese import ban, as their precious cargo was languishing in Chinese ports. Among the beneficiaries of a close economic relationship with China are Germany and France, which often use this leverage to dissuade the EU from taking diplomatic action against Beijing for violating human rights.

Lithuanian is under the pressure to rename the Taiwanese office in Vilnius by the German automotive industry players along with multinational companies. The nation is also facing the warning by the tiny EU country to back down as German subsidiaries that are at risk showing how the economic leverage of Beijing works globally.

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.