South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Tokyo on March 12 to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, aiming to ease years of diplomatic tension. It was the first visit by a South Korean leader to Japan for a bilateral working meeting in 12 years. After the leaders’ meeting, Japan's trade ministry said it would lift export curbs to South Korea on some high-tech materials, namely fluorinated polyimides, resists and hydrogen fluoride. The decision came after confirming the effectiveness of South Korea’s export control regime at a three-day policy dialogue and South Korea's plan t
The United Kingdom will pay France around 480 million pounds ($577 million) over three years to help stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. The announcement was made during a summit between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The money, which will be paid in instalments, will help fund a detention centre in France and boost patrols on French beaches. While the leaders agreed to move forward on nuclear energy cooperation, reaffirmed their backing for Ukraine and vowed to boost inter-operability of their military forces, including through
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway to the nation on March 12. He also laid foundation stones for several projects worth around Rs 16,000 crore in Karnataka. The Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway has a six-laning of the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta-Mysuru section of NH-275. The 118-km-long project has been developed at a cost of around Rs 8,480 crore. It will reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru from around 3 hours to only about 75 minutes, and will act as a catalyst for socio-economic development in the region. In other projects, the Prime Minister l
Former NATO General Petr Pavel was sworn in as Czech Republic’s President on March 9. In his maiden speech as the Czech President, Pavel underlined peace in Ukraine. “Central Europe’s single voice will be important if we are to help Ukraine prevail,” he said at the ceremony at Prague Castle. “It is in our own vital interest to support Ukraine.” The new president vowed to lift his country’s reputation abroad "to a new level." He said, he would back policies to quash inflation, which ran at 17.5% in January, while also pledging to fix public finances. Pavel was elected in
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has begun his third term as the President of China, after securing a historic win as president in a ceremonial vote in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on March 10. He received a unanimous 2,952 votes followed by a standing ovation. Xi Jinping’s unprecedented third term as China’s president was officially endorsed by the country’s political elite, strengthening his control and making him the longest-serving head of state of Communist China since its foundation in 1949. His reappointment was largely seen as a formality, after the 69-year-old leader secured
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Farhan Al-Saud has said that the relationship between India and Saudi Arabia has grown exponentially, and there is a need for measurable progress in all sectors, especially the economic and trade relationship. Highlighting the strong relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi FM said that both leaders want to see actual results and progress in relationship between the two nations. Al-Saud said this relationship has grown exponentially in the last five years. “India is a fantastically dynamic coun
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Indian degrees would now be recognised in Australia. Albanese added that the Australian Government and Indian Government have finalised the Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism, through which Indian degrees would be considered valid. The first official visit of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to India is from March 8 to 11. The visit began from Gujarat, where the Australian Prime Minister announced that students with Indian qualifications would be recognised in his country. In addition, for In
Calling India’s economy a success story, Morocco's Delegate Minister of Investment Mohcine Jazouli said that most countries, including Morocco, want to benefit with India. In an interview to an Indian news agency, Mohcine Jazouli said, “We want to benefit from India’s experience, mainly from financial technologies, and automobile,” adding that Morocco can share its experiences in renewable energy. “We can use Morocco as a manufacturing and industrial platform for India.” Jazouli was speaking to the media after a bilateral meeting with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called India a critical and great power in the Indo-Pacificregion. “There is no reshaping of the Indo-Pacific without India. We have seen that India is a civilisational power that brings a different perspective to some of the challenges of these times,” she said in her address at the meeting of QUAD Foreign Ministers in Delhi on March 3. Wong participated in a meeting presided by Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2023. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and US Secretary of State Antony
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought investments in India’s green economy, and said the country’s solar, wind and biogas potential is no less than any gold mine or oil field. Addressing the first webinar on green growth in the 12 post-budget webinars to be held till 11 March, the Prime Minister said that India’s commanding position in the renewable energy space will ensure a commensurate change in the world. Besides the three segments of solar, wind and biogas, he also highlighted investment opportunities in areas like the green hydrogen ecosystem, which includes fuel cells, elect