General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - August 2018

Aug 2018

Aug 26, 2020

Pascal Lissouba Ex-Congo President Passes Away

Former Congolese President Pascal Lissouba died in France at the age of 88.
He was President of the Republic of Congo - also called Congo-Brazzaville, to distinguish it from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - from 1992 to 1997.
He fled the country after being overthrown in a civil war by the current president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who had lost the country's first multi-party elections in 1992.
Born in Tsinguidi, in the southwest of the country, Lissouba studied agricultural engineering, gaining a doctorate in France.
In the 1960s, he became Minister of Agriculture in the newly-independent country before serving as Prime Minister under the then President, Alphonse Massamba-Debat.

Ivorian Ex-president Gbagbo Barred from Elections

Ivory Coast's former President Laurent Gbagbo has been barred from running for the presidency in upcoming elections after a court upheld the electoral commission's decision to remove him from the electoral list.
The country's electoral commission struck him off the list of candidates because he was convicted of a crime.
The President of the electoral commission, Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, had in August said that anyone convicted of a crime would not be allowed to stand.
Four candidates including former rebel leader Guillaume Soro were also removed from the list.
Mr. Gbagbo was sentenced in absentia in November 2019 for the looting of the Central Bank of West African States (Bceao) following a disputed 2010 election that resulted in violence.

Africa Now Free of Wild Poliovirus, but Polio Threat Remains

Health authorities are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralysing disease in more than a dozen countries.
The declaration would leave Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan as the only countries thought to still have the wild poliovirus, with vaccination efforts against the highly infectious, water-borne disease complicated by insecurity and attacks on health workers.
The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication came after no cases were reported for four years. Polio once paralysed some 75,000 children a year across Africa.
Health authorities see the declaration as a rare glint of good news in Africa amid the coronavirus pandemic, an Ebola outbreak in western Congo and the persistent deadly challenges of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.
The World Health Organisation says it is just the second time a virus has been eradicated in Africa, after the elimination of smallpox four decades ago.

Aug 25, 2020

Taliban Delegation in Pakistan for Afghan Peace Dialogue

A high-level delegation from the Taliban's political office in Doha arrived in Pakistan to discuss the way forward in the Afghan peace process with the Pakistani leadership.
As per foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, Pakistan has invited the Afghan Taliban delegation to visit Pakistan to discuss the way forward in the Afghan peace process.
This will be the second visit of Mullah Baradar to Pakistan in the last 10 months.
He visited Islamabad in October last year when President Donald Trump abruptly called off the peace talks with the Taliban, citing the militant group's continued attacks against the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Pompeo Urges more Arab States to Make Peace with Israel

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he hopes to see other Arab states following the United Arab Emirates and normalising relations with Israel.
According Mr. Pompeo, it would not only increase Middle East stability, but also improve people's lives.
But he added that the US would ensure Israel retained a military advantage.
Mr. Pompeo spoke after meeting Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem, at the start of a five-day trip that will also take him to Sudan, Bahrain and the UAE.
Earlier this month President Donald Trump helped broker the historic agreement between Israel and the UAE - only the third peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country.
Under the agreement, Israel and the UAE agreed to full diplomatic ties - exchanging ambassadors, starting direct flights and trading openly. Israel also said it would suspend its plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a move many believed would have killed off chances of peace with the Palestinians.

Republican Party Re-nominates Trump as Presidential Candidate

The Republican National Convention formally re-nominated US President Donald Trump as the party's presidential candidate for the November 3 elections.
Trump, 74, who faces a formidable challenge from former Democratic vice president Joe Biden, 77, is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech from the South Lawns of the White House on August 27.
The once in four-year GOP (Grand Old Party) convention is being held in virtual mode due to the coronavirus pandemic. A small part of the official business of the convention is being held at Charlotte in North Carolina.
Trump was re-nominated following a roll call of votes from elected GOP delegates from all the 50 states. Vice-President Mike Pence was re-nominated as the running mate of Trump. Pence made a surprise appearance at the Charlotte where the roll call vote was done.

Aug 24, 2020

Kellyanne Conway Resigns as Senior White House Adviser

Kellyanne Conway announced that she is resigning from her post as senior adviser to US President Donald Trump.
Her husband, George, an outspoken critic of the President, will also be stepping back from political activism.
The announcement came hours after one of Mrs. Conway's daughters, Claudia tweeted that her mother's job had "ruined (her) life".
A Republican strategist and veteran pollster, she was the first woman to manage a successful US presidential campaign, spearheading Mr. Trump's effort in 2016.
As senior counsellor at the White House, Mrs. Conway acted as political adviser to President Trump and maintained a highly influential position in the administration.

Top West Africa Delegation Goes to Mali to Meet with Junta

Top West African officials are arriving in Mali's capital following a coup in the nation this week to meet with the junta leaders and the deposed president in efforts to negotiate a return to civilian rule.
The mediation efforts came a day after thousands of Malians took to the streets of Bamako, the capital city, to celebrate the coup.
The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has strongly condemned the coup and said the high-level delegation will work "to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order".
ECOWAS also demanded the reinstatement of deposed president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
ECOWAS had said that it is mobilising a regional military force, an indication that it is preparing for a military intervention in case its negotiations with the junta leaders fail.
The high-level delegation is to hold talks with the junta, including Col. Assimi Goita, who has declared himself the group's leader.
Later the regional delegation will meet with Keita and the other detained officials.

Cyprus Denies New Allegations in "Golden Passport" Scheme

Cyprus denied fresh allegations that it was granting citizenship to foreigners accused of crimes in exchange for millions in investments, insisting that all those who received a passport met all criteria in place at the time.
The Cypriot parliament last month beefed up the eligibility criteria for the so-called "golden passport" investment program, which has brought billions in revenue since its introduction following a 2013 financial crisis.
The program has attracted many investors because a passport from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus automatically grants its holder citizenship to the entire 27-member European Union.
Cyprus' interior ministry said that 12 foreigners named in an Al Jazeera report received citizenship under the investment program only after being approved by Cypriot and foreign agencies tasked with vetting such applications.
The report claimed that the 12 — including four Russians, two people each from Ukraine, China and Iran, and one each from Venezuela and Vietnam — secured Cypriot passports after paying at least 2 million euros (USD 2.36 million) in investments despite being under investigation for an assortment of crimes such as corruption and fraud.
The Cypriot interior ministry said that it would look into the new information in the report.

Aug 23, 2020

South Korea and China Hold Highest-level Talks

South Korea held talks with China`s top diplomat over trade, denuclearisation and the coronavirus response, in the first visit by a high-level Beijing official since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted late 2019.
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, met with South Korea`s new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan.
The two sides discussed topics such as accelerating free-trade agreement negotiations, expanding cultural exchanges as well as the election of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General.
The talks come after the COVID-19 pandemic had undercut bilateral exchanges and stalled denuclearisation negotiations involving North Korea.
The two countries resumed exchanges last month when Seoul sent a high-level diplomat for a bilateral economic meeting.

UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Heading to Iran

The head of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency will head to Tehran next week to press Iranian authorities for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
It will be the first visit to Iran of International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi since he took office last December (2019), and comes amid intense international pressure on the country over its nuclear program.
The focus will be on access to sites thought to be from the early 2000s, before Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iran maintains the IAEA inspectors have no legal basis to inspect the sites.

TikTok Launches Legal Action against Trump over Ban

Chinese video app TikTok is taking legal action to challenge a ban imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Mr. Trump's executive order prohibits transactions with TikTok's owner ByteDance from mid-September.
Officials in Washington are concerned that the company could pass data on American users to the Chinese government, something ByteDance has denied doing.
The short video-sharing app has 80 million active US users.
TikTok says it has tried to engage with the Mr. Trump's administration for nearly a year but has encountered a lack of due process and an administration that pays "no attention to facts".
"To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the executive order through the judicial system," a company spokesperson said.
A group of Chinese-Americans filed a separate lawsuit against the president's similar ban on the social media app WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese firm, Tencent.

To Avoid FATF Blacklist, Pakistan Sanctions 88 Banned Outfits

As per reports, seeking to wriggle out of the FATF's grey list, Pakistan has imposed tough financial sanctions on 88 banned terror groups and their leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim, by ordering the seizure of their properties and freezing of bank accounts.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) put Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action by the end of 2019, but the deadline was extended later due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government issued two notifications on August 18 announcing sanctions on key figures of terror outfits such as 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Azhar, and underworld don Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, who heads a vast and multifaceted illegal business, has emerged India's most-wanted terrorist after the 1993 Mumbai bombings.
In the midst of US-led peace process in Afghanistan, Pakistan has sanctioned Taliban too, including its chief peace negotiator, Abdul Ghani Baradar, and several members of the Haqqani family.

Aug 22, 2020

Turkey's Erdogan Hails Huge Natural Gas Find

A Turkish drilling ship has discovered a big natural gas reserve in the Black Sea.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the drilling ship Fatih, which has been operating in the area since July, found 320bn cu m (11.3 tr cu ft) of gas.
He said that it was Turkey's biggest natural gas find to date.
If Turkey can extract the gas commercially, it will be able to reduce its reliance on imported energy.
He added: "This reserve is actually part of a much bigger source. God willing, much more will come.
But energy experts say it could take up to a decade and billions of dollars of investment to get the gas into commercial use.
Turkey has also sent a ship to carry out a drilling survey in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Myanmar Govt. and Armed Groups Sign Framework Accord for Ceasefire Implementation

The government of Myanmar and ten armed ethnic groups signed a framework agreement for the implementation of the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) at the end of the 4th session of the Union Peace Conference - 21st Century Panglong. The agreement also includes the framework for implementation of various processes beyond 2020, and basic principles to establish a democratic federal union.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said that the accord opens a door to solving misunderstanding regarding the NCA and difficulties faced in its implementation. The spokesperson of the President Office termed the agreement as a great success as it contains a step by step peace process for implementation beyond 2020 in working for peace, democratic reform, federalism and national reconciliation.
The peace accord called Union Peace Accord III contains 15 provisions to implement the NCA. These include troop deployment, protocol to deal with skirmishes between government troops and the armed groups among others.
The peace process in Myanmar was started In 2011 by President Thein Sein to end the long standing conflict with ethnic armed groups active in the country. A National Ceasefire Accord (NCA) was signed in October 2015 with armed ethnic groups. Subsequently the dialogue to initiate a political peace process was started in 2016 which is continuing.

Myanmar's Pushback against China-funded Economic Corridor Inspired by Debt Trap in S. Asian States

Myanmar's pushback against China, which is trying to widen its influence through China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), among other issues has been influenced by Pakistan's experience in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port that have pushed these countries to debt trap.
Myanmar's all-powerful generals have drawn lessons from experiences of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives where China funded projects have pushed these countries debt trap and increased Beijing's influence. The Ministers in the current civilian government have equal reservations against the Chinese inroads.
In terms of geography, the Chinese have proposed that the CMEC (part of BRI) would start from China's pivotal Yunnan province, which shares borders with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. From Ruili city on the China-Myanmar border, the corridor would head towards Mandalay, Myanmar's former royal capital on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in the northern part of the country. From there, it could extend towards the east and west to Yangon New City and the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, in the western Rakhine province.

Mali Coup: Military Junta Seeks Transitional President

Coup leaders in Mali are talking to opposition parties about appointing a transitional president, who could be civilian or military.
They arrested Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and forced him to resign, sparking global condemnation.
West African leaders have called for him to be reinstated and the UN says all those detained should be freed.
Mali has several jihadi groups in its northern deserts and there are fears they could take advantage of the coup.
They did so following the previous military takeover in 2012.
The coup leaders have promised to respect international agreements on fighting jihadists. Thousands of French, African and UN troops are based in the country to tackle the militants.

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