General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2017

Mar 2017

Jan 08, 2022

Justice Ayesha Malik to be Pakistan's First Woman Supreme Court Judge

Pakistan moved closer to appoint the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, after a high-power panel approved the elevation of Lahore High Court judge Ayesha Malik to the apex court.
The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, approved Malik's elevation by a majority of five votes against four.
This is the second time that the JCP held a meeting to decide on Justice Malik's elevation.
Justice Malik's name first came before the JCP in September 2021 but the panel was equally split, resulting in the rejection of her candidature.

Australia, Japan Sign Landmark Defense Pact

The leaders of Japan and Australia signed a landmark defense agreement that allows closer cooperation between their militaries and stands as a rebuke to China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in a virtual summit to sign the Reciprocal Access Agreement, the first such defense pact signed by Japan with any country other than the United States.
The agreement follows more than a year of talks between Japan and Australia aimed at breaking down legal barriers to allow the troops of one country to enter the other for training and other purposes.

Jan 07, 2022

Antigua and Barbuda Joins International Solar Alliance

To catalyze global energy transition through a solar-led approach, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda joined the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
In the presence of the Indian High Commissioner Dr. K. J. Srinivasa, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne inked the framework agreement of ISA, making it the 102nd country to join this agreement.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies as a means for bringing energy access, ensuring energy security, and driving energy transition in its member countries. Launched by India & France in 2015 to facilitate energy access, security & transition.

Jan 06, 2022

Senior Chinese Diplomat Zhang Ming Takes Charge of Secretary-General of SCO

China's senior diplomat Zhang Ming took charge as the new Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which India is a member.
Zhang took charge from Vladimir Norov, former Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, from January 1 for a three-year term.
He was until recently China's ambassador to the European Union.
The Beijing headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), also known as the Shanghai Pact, is an Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance.

Kazakhstan Government Resigns

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government's resignation, after violent protests triggered by a fuel price increase rocked the oil-rich Central Asian country.
The protests shook the former Soviet republic's image as a politically stable and tightly-controlled nation - which it has used to attract hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment into its oil and metals industries over three decades of independence.

Jan 05, 2022

Ex-UK PM Tony Blair Joins Top Royal Order 2022

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Baroness Amos are to be appointed as members of the Order of the Garter, England's oldest and most senior order of chivalry. The former Prime Minister now will be known as 'Sir Tony'. The appointments are the personal choice of the Queen, who has up to 24 "knight and lady companions". The ceremonial order, founded in 1348, is a recognition of significant public service and made without prime ministerial advice.
Under Sir Tony's leadership, the UK joined the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – an official inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war was strongly critical of his government and UK military chiefs. He famously referred to Diana, Princess of Wales, as the "people's princess" after her death.

T. S. TRimurthy Assumes Charge of UN's Counter-Terrorism Committee

T. S. Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the United Nations was named the new Chair of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC).
Prior to taking up his current position as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, in May 2020, Tirumurti served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, handling the Economic Relations portfolio (which included, inter alia, the Gulf and the Arab World, Africa, and India's Development Partnership).
Tirumurti previously served at the Embassy of India to Egypt, in Cairo; at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in Geneva; as the first Representative of India to the Palestinian Authority, in Gaza; as Counsellor in the Embassy of India to the United States, in Washington. DC; as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India to Indonesia, in Jakarta and as High Commissioner of India to Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur.
India will chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in January.
This Committee was formed in September 2001 soon after the tragic terrorist attack of 9/11 in New York, while India had chaired this Committee in the Security Council in 2011-12.

US, Bucharest 9 Group in Solidarity with Lithuania against China Aggression

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the representatives of the Bucharest Nine group highlighted their solidarity with Lithuania amid escalating political pressure and economic coercion by China.
The tensions erupted between China and the Baltic nation when in November Lithuania angered China by allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius, equivalent to an embassy. It escalated in recent times after Lithuania took steps to strengthen ties with Taiwan. China considers Taiwan as its integral part.
According to a report, Lithuania needs the support of the West and other foreign powers to counter Chinese aggression as it seems to be struggling almost alone against one of the world's economic and political superpowers.
Bucharest Nine is an organization founded in November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them. Members of it are Poland and Romania and also Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and UAE Join Security Council

The United Nation Security Council got five new members as Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates formally took up the posts they won in an election in June 2021.
Ambassadors made brief remarks and installed their countries' flags alongside those of other members outside the council chambers, and posed for a group photo – wearing face masks and standing apart in an acknowledgment of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The flag ceremony is a tradition that Kazakhstan started when it was on the council in 2018.

If Not in Person, Join Virtually: Pakistan Invites India for 19th SAARC Summit

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that his country was ready to host the 19th SAARC Summit and India can join it virtually if the leadership in New Delhi is not willing to visit Islamabad.
Addressing a press conference to highlight the achievements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021, Qureshi accused India of making SAARC dysfunctional through its stubbornness by refusing to come to Islamabad for the Summit meeting.

Jan 04, 2022

France Takes over EU Presidency for Six Months 2022

France assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union with effect from January 2022. The country will continue to hold the EU presidency for the next six months till June 30, 2022. This is the 13th time that France took over the rotating presidency. The motto of France as EU President is "recovery, strength, belonging."
France will work to place the continent's digitization and climate protection at the forefront. The presidency of the EU rotates every six months among the member states of the 27-nation bloc. Upon the completion of six months presidency, France will be replaced by the Czech Republic.

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