In Monday's top defense-level talks, India and Malaysia discussed the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) offer as well as the future of the Su30 MKM aircraft of the Malaysian Air Force. Rajnath Singh and Malaysia's senior defense minister, YB Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, held video conferencing talks. According to reports, the Indian offer for 18 Tejas fighter jets to satisfy Malaysia's needs was discussed extensively. Earlier, India offered Malaysia a dual package for the indigenous fighter jets as well as maintenance services for the Su30 MKMs it operates. The Indian Defense
Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani landed on Friday in Cairo, marking his first official visit to Egypt since the boycott of Doha by four Arab states. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani arrived in Cairo, his first visit to Egypt since the thaw in relations between the two countries. Four Arab nations viz- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain had boycotted Doha in mid-2017 but in January of last year, the Arab quartet signed the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar terminating their all-round boycott of Doha. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi received
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