General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2017

Mar 2017

Mar 20, 2023

Global Terrorism Index 2023: Afghanistan Tops the List of Most Impacted Country by Terrorism

India was among the 25 worst terror-hit countries and also among 56 of the 120 nations surveyed with no respondents selecting war and terror as the biggest threat to their daily safety, according to the 10th edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
The index released by Sydney-headquartered think-tank Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) noted India has a number of low-level conflicts in some of the border areas but the vast majority of the country's population lives outside of these regions.
The GTI score of India, which was listed among countries with a high impact of terrorism and ranked 13th, was 7.175 compared to 8.822 of Afghanistan which topped the index.
The calculation of the score considered deaths, incidents, hostages, and injuries from terrorism, weighted over a five-year period.
The GTI produces a composite score so as to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism. The GTI scores each country on a scale from 0 to 10; where 0 represents no impact from terrorism and 10 represents the highest measurable impact of terrorism.

Ramsahay Yadav is Nepal's New Vice-President

Ramsahaya Prasad Yadav, a senior leader from the Madhes region, was elected as Nepal's Vice President, in a further boost to the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.
Ramsahaya Prasad Yadav, a candidate from the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), comfortably defeated his nearest rival Ashta Laxmi Shakya of CPN-UML and became the Himalayan nation's third Vice President and the first from the Madhes region, bordering India.
Yadav had the support of the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, and other fringe parties. Rastriya Prajatantra Party did not take part during the vice presidential voting.

International Court Issues War Crimes Warrant for Vladimir Putin

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
It was the first time the global court issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The ICC said that Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow—and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough.

Japan, South Korea Agree to Mend Ties as Leaders Meet after 12 Years

As Japan and South Korea continue to deal with North Korean threats and growing concerns about China, the leaders of two neighbours promised to rekindle ties in a fence-mending summit in Tokyo.
Leaders of South Korea and Japan have not met in 12 years because of strained relations stemming from a wartime labour dispute, and other issues.

Mar 19, 2023

Japan, UK, Italy Push Joint Fighter Jet Development by 2035

Japan, Britain, and Italy reaffirmed their commitment to push joint development of a next-generation fighter jet as a centrepiece of their increasingly close defence ties in the face of growing threat from China, Russia and North Korea.
In December 2022, Japan announced a joint next-generation fighter jet development with the UK and Italy as it looks to expand defence cooperation beyond its traditional ally, the United States.

Bhutan's Graduation from the UN List of Least Developed Countries

At the United Nations Least Developed Countries (LDC) Summit that concluded in March 2023 in Doha, Qatar, the landlocked Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was no longer on the list of LDCs and became only the seventh country to graduate from the list.
Bhutan was included in the first group of LDCs in 1971. However, over the last few decades, it has made remarkable progress on a variety of socio-economic metrics.
Bhutan first fulfilled the requirements for graduation in 2015, and then again in 2018. Bhutan was therefore scheduled to graduate in 2021.
However, the UN viewed Bhutan's request to match the effective graduation date with the conclusion of the nation's 12th national development plan in 2023 as a legitimate request and thus postponed the delisting.
Six countries that have graduated from Least Developed Country status are Botswana in December 1994, Cabo Verde in December 2007, Maldives in January 2011, Samoa in January 2014, Equatorial Guinea in June 2017 and Vanuatu in December 2020.

Mar 18, 2023

Poland Becomes First to Pledge Fighter Jets to Ukraine

Poland pledged it would send four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first NATO member to do so, in a significant move in Kyiv's battle to resist Russia's onslaught.
As per President Andrzej Duda, the planes, from about a dozen that it had inherited from the former German Democratic Republic, would be handed over in the coming days after being serviced.
Warsaw took a lead among NATO allies in supplying Kyiv with heavy weapons. The announcement that Poland will send the Soviet-designed planes marks a step beyond the rest of the alliance's commitments, and could put pressure on other member states to do the same.

Mar 17, 2023

Indian-American Ravi Chaudhary New Assistant Secretary of US Air Force

The United States Senate confirmed Indian-American Ravi Chaudhary as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Air Force, one of the top civilian leadership positions in the Pentagon.
The Senate voted 65-29 to confirm the former Air Force officer's nomination with more than a dozen votes being cast by the opposition Republican Party.
Chaudhary previously served as a Senior Executive at the US Department of Transportation where he was Director of Advanced Programs and Innovation, Office of Commercial Space at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Mar 16, 2023

India's K.R. Parvathy Appointed as UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan

India's Kavilmadam Ramaswami Parvathy, who served in leading roles at the World Food Programme in Türkey and Afghanistan, was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan.
Parvathy took up her new post as Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan, following the appointment by the Secretary-General and confirmation from the host Government.
Parvathy brings more than 30 years of experience in development and humanitarian sectors, focusing on strategic planning, performance, risk management, people management, conflict analysis and humanitarian access negotiations.

US Senate Confirms Eric Garcetti as US Ambassador to India

Eric Garcetti, who is President Joe Biden's close aide, was confirmed by the US Senate as the country's next ambassador to India. The Senate voted 52-42 to fill the key diplomatic position that had been vacant for over two years. The former Los Angeles mayor's nomination was pending before the US Congress since July 2021 when he was nominated for the prestigious diplomatic posting by Biden.
His nomination was not brought to the Senate floor for a vote during the last Congress as the ruling Democratic Party did not have enough support to get the close aide of Biden through.
Kenneth Juster, the last occupant of the ambassadorial residence of the US in New Delhi, stepped down in January 2021 after the change of government in America.

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