Diplomacy

Delhi-Dar bonding: Blending energy and business with tourism & strategy

- by Manish Chand

It’s Africa time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Energy, business, developmental assistance, Indian Ocean strategy and tourism promotion melded anew in a new configuration as the Indian leader held wide-ranging talks with Tanzania’s President Jakaya Mrisho Kikewete, the first head of state from the resurgent continent Mr Modi hosted since taking charge in May last year.

The outcomes of the talks in New Delhi, which included the signing of eight MoUs to expand engagements swaddling diverse areas, reflected the Modi government’s emerging Africa policy in a miniature. Expanding its developmental partnership with the East African state, India extended a line of credit for $ 268.35 million for a host of projects, including the extension of a pipeline project.

Reflecting the growing importance of the African continent in India’s energy security calculus, India offered its expertise to Tanzania in development of its emerging natural gas sector.

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India, Pakistan make placatory noises to improve strained ties

- by India Writes Network

After protracted posturing and sharp rhetoric, India and Pakistan are now making placatory noises saying they want to improve and normalize their bilateral relations. New Delhi, however, put the onus on Islamabad, indicating that any marked improvement in the accident-prone bilateral ties can happen only after the latter delivers on its promise of curbing anti-India terror.

Speaking at a think tank in New York, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley underscored that India wanted to improve or at least normalise its relations with its neighbour, but made it clear that the onus was on Islamabad.

“The message that we are interested in normalising our relationship with them or at least improving our relationship with them and the onus is on Pakistan for this purpose has been loud and clear,” he said at the New York-based think-tank Council on Foreign Relations.

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Global refugee crisis: When will we wake up

- by India Writes Network

The United Nations refugee agency has released statistics that show the number of displaced people around the world has reached more than 60 million people. That means one in every 122 people on the planet is either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum. And while this is reportedly the highest level of displaced people ever recorded, there is profound apathy in global responses to the refugee crisis.

While UNHCR head Antonio Guterres told the BBC that the “world is a mess”, stricken with conflicts which are causing the crisis with no clear end in sight, he also mentioned how the lack of a humanitarian response is a major impediment in cleaning up the mess.

The statistics are grim. The report says that 59.5 million people were displaced by the end of 2014, which included 19.5 million refugees, 38.2 million internally displaced people and 1.8 million still awaiting the outcome of asylum claims. Of these numbers, a staggering 50% of the refugees were children. Almost 86 per cent of all refugees are in the developing countries, which lack the infrastructure and resources to tackle the challenge.

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Modi, Sharif likely to meet at SCO summit in Russia

- by India Writes Network

The guessing game has begun, the usual media frenzy that kicks off whenever the leaders of India and Pakistan are expected to be present at a multilateral event.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s telephone call to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif has fuelled speculation about a possible meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual summit in the Russian city of Ufa next month.

Against this backdrop, Mr Modi’s Ramzan call to his Pakistani counterpart on June 17 is widely seen as a sign of thaw between the two prickly South Asian neighbours. During his conversation with Mr Sharif, Mr Modi emphasised that there was a need for maintaining “peaceful” and “friendly” bilateral ties between the two neighbors.

However, no official request for a meeting has been initiated from either side so far.

India and Pakistan are expected to be given full membership of the SCO at the forthcoming summit on July 8-9.

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