General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Apr 29, 2024

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is Deputy Prime Minister

In a surprise move, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was appointed as the country's Deputy Prime Minister.
Dar a chartered accountant and a veteran politician, belongs to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the appointment was made by Prime Minister Sharif with immediate effect and until further orders.
The announcement was made when both Prime Minister Sharif and Foreign Minister Dar were away in Saudi Arabia to attend a World Economic Forum's moot.
Dar has served as Finance Minister in two previous governments. He was considered the party's answer to all economic problems, serving as finance minister for the fourth and last time in the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government.

Italy's Giorgia Meloni to Contest EU Election to Boost Support for Party

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be fighting European Union (EU) elections slated to be held in June this year (2024), she announced Sunday (Apr 28). However, she won't be taking up the seat if elected. The elections will be held from June 6-9 and would be a litmus test for her 18-month-old rule. The move, Meloni says, is an effort to boost support for her Brothers of Italy party.
Meloni, a right-wing leader, has been a ferocious opponent to the European Union. She even called for leaving the Euro Zone in her 2022 election campaign, which had set alarm bells ringing in European capitals.

Apr 27, 2024

Haiti PM Henry Resigns as Transitional Council Takes Over

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry quit from his post following which a transitional council came to power in a bid to bring back stability to the country wracked by gang violence.
Henry's former Finance Minister, Michel Patrick Boisvert, took over as the interim Prime Minister.
The transitional government's mandate runs until February 2026.

Apr 26, 2024

Italian PM Meloni Invites PM Modi to G7 Summit Outreach Session in June

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received an invitation from his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni to attend the G7 Summit Outreach Session in Italy on June 13-15.
Modi thanked Italian Prime Minister Meloni for the invite to the G7 Summit Outreach Sessions to be held in Italy's Puglia.

Prabowo Subianto Declared Indonesia's President-Elect Amid Controversy

Indonesia's electoral commission officially declared Prabowo Subianto as the President-elect after the country's highest court rejected challenges to his landslide victory lodged by two losing presidential candidates. Subianto, currently serving as the Defence Minister, secured 58.6% of the votes, amounting to more than 96 million ballots, which is more than twice the number received by either of his rivals.
However, Subianto's victory was not without controversy, as his opponents alleged widespread fraud and state interference in the electoral process. Authorities deployed over 4,200 police and soldiers to maintain order during the declaration ceremony held at the General Election Commission compound.
Prabowo Subianto, a longtime commander in Indonesia's Kopassus special forces, was discharged from the military in 1998 after Kopassus soldiers tortured activists who opposed dictator Suharto, his father-in-law. Although he denies any involvement, several of his men were tried and convicted.
Subianto went into self-exile in Jordan before returning and founding the Gerindra Party in 2008. He has previously worked closely with hard-line Islamists to undermine his opponents and made three unsuccessful bids for the presidency, challenging his own losses to Widodo in 2019, which led to violence that claimed nine lives in Jakarta.

Russia Vetoes UN Vote on Stopping Arms Race in Outer Space

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as 'a dirty spectacle'.
The draft resolution, put forward by the US and Japan, sought to reaffirm a principle already set out in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
It also called on countries to uphold the Outer Space Treaty, under which all parties agreed 'not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction'.
Of the council's 15 members, 13 voted in favour, while Russia - one of five permanent members with a veto - voted against and China abstained.

Apr 25, 2024

India's Gita Sabharwal Appointed as UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, appointed Gita Sabharwal of India as the new UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia. Sabharwal brings with her nearly three decades of experience in development, supporting climate transition, sustainable peace, governance, and social policy, while leveraging digital technology and data to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With the host government's approval, Sabharwal's appointment as the UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia came after her previous roles as the UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand and as the Peacebuilding and Development Adviser for the United Nations in Sri Lanka. Before joining the UN, she served as The Asia Foundation's Deputy Country Representative for the Maldives and Sri Lanka and held positions as the Poverty and Policy Adviser for the United Kingdom's Department for International Development in India and Vietnam.
The UN Resident Coordinator is the highest-ranking representative of the UN Development System at the country level. Resident Coordinators lead UN country teams and coordinate UN support to countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Apr 24, 2024

India Calls for Regional Observation Centre at 2024 Ocean Decade Conference

India, led by Earth Sciences Secretary M. Ravichandran, advocated for the establishment of a region-specific ocean observation center during the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference held in Barcelona, Spain.
The conference, organised by the Spanish government and UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, aimed to assess progress toward the goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) and foster collaboration among stakeholders.

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