In a historic move, US President Joe Biden signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades. A bipartisan compromise was reached on Saturday that had seemed inconceivable until a series of mass shootings, including a massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas. Citing the families of shooting victims, President said, “Lives will be saved. Their message to us was to do something. Well today we did”. According to a bipartisan group of senators, the deal "doesn't achieve all I want," but it "does include things I've long advocated for that are going to s
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Munich, Germany to attend the G7 summit on June 26 and 27. Mr. Modi was invited by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to visit the country that is holding and chairing the G7, a meeting of the world's seven richest nations. Ahead of the summit, Mr. Modi said that he was looking forward to “fruitful discussions” along with other world leaders on topics like climate, food security, energy, environment, counter-terrorism, gender equality, and democracy. During a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, Narendra Modi met with Argentinean P
Senior diplomat Ruchira Kamboj, on Tuesday, has been appointed as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Kamboj, the current envoy to Bhutan, will succeed T S Tirumurti as the Indian ambassador to the UN. A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) office, Ruchira Kamboj, was the all-India women's topper of the 1987 Civil Service batch and the topper of the Foreign Service batch in the same year. Kamboj's diplomatic journey started in Paris, France, where she was posted as the Third Secretary in the Indian Embassy in France from 1989 to 1991. After that, she retu
An expert panel from India and Indonesia addressed two sessions in the Center for Global Affairs and Public Policy that hosted a round table conference on "G-20, Indo-Pacific and the Regional Economic Order: Collaborative Synergies between India and Indonesia" on June 20 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. In a session titled Exploring Synergies in the G-20, Dr. Tauhid Ahmad, INDEF's Executive Director in Jakarta, said the government needs to develop a coherent policy to deal with Indonesia's data protection issues. Furthermore, he said Indonesia is in favor of a comprehensive partnership
On Wednesday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Indian envoy Pradeep Kumar Rawat in Beijing ahead of the BRICS meeting. The two sides discussed boundary situations and broader bilateral relations. Mr. Rawat met the Chinese Foreign Minister for the first time since his arrival in Beijing in March, ahead of the summit on Thursday. Speaking at a security conference in Slovakia earlier this month, Mr. Wang mentioned Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks regarding “Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems but the world’s proble
The defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) agreed on Wednesday to strengthen the federation’s pervasiveness, solidarity, integrity, and a rules-based order for harmonized security and the good of the people in the region started a joint declaration. The 16th edition of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) was held in person in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital on Wednesday (June 22), under the chairmanship of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh, after two years of online meetings brought about by the coronavirus pandemi
On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the annual summit of the five-nation grouping BRICS on June 23 and 24 following an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is China that hosts the summit as the chair of the group for the current year. A group of five developing countries representing 41 percent of the world's population, 24 percent of the world's GDP, and 16 percent of global trade, the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) is the world's largest group of developing countries. Presidents Vladimir
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been elected after defeating independent candidate Rodolfo Hernandez in the second round of elections in a very tight race, the state-run National Civil Registry reported. Petro will take office on August 7. 62-year-old Petro is a senator and former Mayor of Capital Bogota. According to the reports 99.67 percent of polling stations, Petro, candidate of the leftist Historic Pact for Colombia coalition, received 11,266,138 votes, or 50.48 percent, while Hernandez received 10,546,163 votes or 47.26 percent. The new president took to Twitter to expre
The Foreign Ministers of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16 and talked about different facets of cooperation between the two sides. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers are in New Delhi as part of a two-day convention being hosted by India to commemorate the 30th anniversary of its relations with the 10-nation organization. The meeting between Modi and the ASEAN Foreign Ministers also had the presence of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Mr. Modi tweeted,” Had a good inte
US President Joe Biden is on his first trip to West Asia and will visit Saudi Arabia and meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month in a bid to repair and build on ties with one of Washington’s closest allies. The decision marks the end of his administration's tough stance toward the country, over which ties have frayed in recent years because of human rights concerns. The White House also ended the speculations regarding Biden's visit to Israel and Palestinian West Bank, and Saudi Arabia. This will be his first trip from July 13-16 since taking office. This trips major political t