1. WFP will handle Indian wheats in Afghanistan
Tags: International News
The Indian Government has signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme((WFP)) for the distribution of 50,000 tonnes of wheat ,which will be supplied by India to Afghanistan as a humanitarian assistance .
India has committed to supply 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan free of cost through Pakistan’s land route.
Last year on October 7, India proposed to supply wheat to Afghanistan through the Pakistan road route and Pakistan agreed to it .
India has also committed to provide Rs 200 crore for development assistance to Afghanistan.
Earlier, India has also supplied six tonnes of medicine and 5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine out of the total 10 lakh vaccines promised by India to Afghanistan.
India does not recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan which came to power after the Ashraf Ghani government fled from Kabul on 5 August 2020. Whatever assistance is provided by the Indian government to Afghanistan is through a neutral partylike the UN or its agencies.
WFP
The World Food Programme(WFP) is the largest humanitarian agency of the United Nation.
It provides food to people displaced by conflicts and made destitute by disasters.
It provides food to children in poor countries through school feeding programmes
It helps countries and communities to prepare and cope with climate related changes.
It helps the small farmers in improving productivity.
WFP headquarters : Rome
It was founded in 1961
It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
Chairman : David Beasley
2. Australia and India signed an MOU on Tourism
Tags: International News
Australian minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment, Dan Tehan visited India on 10-11 February 2022.
He signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism cooperation in the field of Tourism with Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles on behalf of the Tourism ministry on 11 February 2022.
3. Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting
Tags: Popular International News
Australia hosted the third in- person foreign minister’s meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue also known as QUAD in Melbourne on 11 February 2022. Earlier in person foreifn ministers’ meetings were held in Tokyo in October 2020 and the inaugural meeting in New York in September 2019.
The Melbourne meeting was attended by the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken , Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and the Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payn.
A joint statement was issued after the end of the meeting .The main highlights of the statement were as follows :
For the first time the QUAD mentions the terrorist incident of 2008 Mumbai attack of 26/11 and the attck on Pathankot air base 2016 and called for bringing the prepartotrs to justice .
The foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the US reviewed the Quad Vaccine Partnership, which was launched in March last year, during their meeting in Melbourne. The partnership envisages the production of at least 1 billion doses of US-developed vaccines in India with American and Japanese funding.
Indian company Biological E is producing corona vaccine developed by U.S Texas Children’s Hospital scientists Drs Peter Hotez and . Maria Bottazzi. The vaccine is called Corbevax. This vaccine will be supplied to poor countries through Quad Vaccine Partnership.
Australia will hold an Indo-Pacific Clean Energy Supply Chain Forum meeting in mid-2022 to establish responsible and resilient clean-energy supply chains
QUAD
Quad or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a group of four countries US, Japan, Australia and India. The concept of QUAD was given by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007 for maritime cooperation between these countries after the Indian ocean Tsunami disaster in 2004.
Now the group is mainly seen as a group to counter the Chinese influence in the region .
The first virtual summit meeting of the leader of QUAD was held in March 2021.
The First in person summit meeting of the leaders of the four countries was held by the United States in September 2021 in Washington attended by the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
The next summit meeting will be held in Japan in 2022.
4. Iran unveils a new missile that can hit US base and Israel
Tags: International News
Iran has claimed to develop a new missile, the Khaibar-buster. a reference to a Jewish castle overrun by Muslim warriors in the early days of Islam.
The missile has a range of 1,4500 km and uses solid fuel.
The missile can hit the United States military bases in the West Asian region and also deep inside its arch enemy Israel.
Islamic Republic of Iran
It is a muslim country in West Asia .
Capital : Tehran
Currency : Iranian Rial
President : Ebrahim Raisi
5. ICJ orders Uganda to pay $325m for Congo occupation
Tags: International News
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has held Uganda guilty of occupying parts of Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998 to 2003.
Uganda was held responsible for the deaths of 10-15000 people in the eastern Ituri region of Congo and for looting its gold, diamonds and timber .
The ICJ has ordered Uganda to pay $ 325 million as compensation to Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congo filed a case against Uganda in 1999 for acts of armed aggression committed against it and its citizens. It accused Ugandan soldiers of looting and human rights violations.
The ICJ decision is final but it has no power to enforce its decision .
International Court of Justice (ICJ)
- The International Court of Justice is also called the World Court, and is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
- It was set up in 1945
- Its headquarters: The Hague, Netherlands .
- It hears cases relating to disputes between member countries but it has no power to enforce its decision.
Uganda
- It is a landlocked country in Eastern Africa. It is the second most populous landlocked country after Ethiopia in the world .
- Capital : Kampala
- Currency : Ugandan Shilling
Democratic Republic of Congo
- It is located in Central Africa . It is the second largest country in Africa after Algeria .
- Capital : Kinshasa. It is on the bank of River Congo
- Congo is the only river in the world to cross the equator twice .
- Currency : Congo franc
6. Sri Lanka Foreign Minister G.L Peiris visit India
Tags: International News
Sri Lankan foreign Minister G.L Peiris was on a three day state visit to India from 6 to 8 February 2022.
It was his first Indian visit after assuming office ,he met Indian Foreign Minister Mr. S. Jaishankar ,the Indian Foreign Secretary Mr. Harsh Vardhan Shringla and the National Security Advisor Mr Ajit Kumar Doval.
Both countries agreed to schedule a meeting of the “Joint Working Group on Fisheries” to discuss the Palk Bay fisheries conflict.
Sri Lanka, which is facing a severe economic crisis has been helped by India recently . They are :
India has extended a $400 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka
, It has deferred a $500 million loan repayment by Sri Lanka,
It has provided a Line of Credit for $500 million for fuel imports and another $1 billion is currently under negotiation.
7. ADB lends $4.6 billion to India in 2021
Tags: International News
The Manila based multilateral lending agency ,Asian Development Bank has lent $ 4.6 billion to the Government of India / State governments in 2021.
In 2021 the Asian Development Bank has signed various agreements with the Governments to fund 17 projects with a loan amount of $4.6 billion including $ 1.8 billion loan for India's coronavirus disease pandemic response programme.
Of the COVID-19-related assistance, $1.5 billion was towards vaccine procurement and $300 million to strengthen primary health care in urban areas and the country's future pandemic preparedness.
Out of the $4.6 billion in loans, $2.2-billion in loans will be provided to the 12 state government projects .
It has also lent $271 million to the private sector in 2021.
India is the largest recipient of the Asian Development Bank amongst all its borrower countries .
Asian Development Bank
It was set up in 1966.
Its headquarters is at Mandaluyong City, Manila, Philippines
Total member countries : 68
President of ADB : Masatsugu Asakawa of Japan
8. African Union Summit Meeting 2022
Tags: International News
The 35th African Union Summit meeting was held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on 5-6 February 2022.
The theme of the summit was “Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent, Strengthening Agro-food systems, health and social protection systems for the acceleration of human, social and economic capital development.'’
African Union
It was founded in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity. It focuses on integrating African states to drive Africa’s growth and economic development.
It has 55 member countries of Africa .
Total countries in Africa is 55.
- Its headquarters is at Addis Ababa,Ethiopia.
9. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Tags: Science and Technology International News
The Prime Minister inaugurated the 50th Anniversary celebrations of ICRISAT.
He inaugurated ICRISAT’s Climate Change Research Facility on Plant Protection and ICRISAT’s Rapid Generation Advancement Facility.
These two facilities are dedicated to the smallholder farmers of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Prime Minister also unveiled a specially designed logo of ICRISAT and launched a commemorative stamp issued on the occasion.
ABOUT ICRISAT
ICRISAT is a non-profit international organisation founded by renowned agricultural scientists M.S.Swaminathan,C.Fred Bently and Ralph Cummins in 1972 at Patancheru, Hyderabad.
It was set up to conduct agricultural research for development in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Its mission is to empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agriculture.
It helps farmers by providing improved crop varieties and hybrids and also helps smallholder farmers in the drylands fight climate change.
It has two regional hubs at Nairobi( Kenya) and Bamako( Mali). It has country offices in Niger, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
10. Iceland to stop hunting whales in 2024
Tags: International News
Iceland to stop hunting whales in 2024
Iceland, one of the three countries which commercially hunt whales, has decided to stop hunting from 2024 due to sharp decline in the demands of whale meat .
Iceland's biggest market for whale meat was Japan. In 2019 Japan decided to resume commercial hunting of whales resulting in a sharp decline of Icelandic products in Japan.
Iceland, Japan and Norway are the only three countries in the world which still allow commercial hunting of whales despite criticism from animal rights and environmental groups .
Iceland
It is a Nordic European island country in the Northern Atlantic Ocean.
Nordic countries includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
The capital of Iceland : Reykjavik
Currency of Iceland : Icelandic Krona
