INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS APRIL 2010

INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS APRIL 2010

• To mark the 2,600th Buddha Jayanti, Sri Lanka presented India a sapling of the Maha Bodhi tree, under which Gautama Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is a sacred fig tree at Anuradhapura town and is said to be a sapling of the historical Bodhi tree. It is the oldest recorded tree in the world. 
• Navies of India and the United States have begun the 14th edition of MALABAR, a 10-day war exercise involving anti-submarine warfare, surface firings, search and seizure and submarine operations. 
• In the report on the Mid-Term Development Imperatives and Strategy for Pakistan, an advisory panel of economists of the Pakistan Planning Commission has made out a strong case for granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India to exploit the huge potential offered by regional trade. 
• India and China signed an agreement to set up a hotline to open up direct communication between their Prime Ministers. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna during his tour called for China to review its position on India's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He also voiced India's concerns over Chinese support to development projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the issuing of stapled visas to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir.
• Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna during his Beijing visit called on the Chinese government to rethink its opposition to India's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and to cooperate more on tackling terror from Pakistan. Mr. Krishna will also launch a six-month-long “Festival of India in China” in Beijing's Forbidden City to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
• India and Bangladesh agreed to launch the India-Bangladesh Sunderbans Ecosystem Forum in September this year for cooperation in the conservation of the Sunderbans, a region that is “ecologically vulnerable and sensitive to climate change.
• The 2010 edition of the Singapore Indian Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX), in which the navies of India and Singapore will hold annual exercises this year, starting on 3rd April, and will go on till April 16th, in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
• The declaration issued by the BRIC nations at a summit meeting in Brasilia, their second since 2009, called for
  • A more stable, predictable and diversified international monetary system.
  • The voting power reform of the World Bank to be fulfilled.
  • The quota reform of the IMF to be concluded by the G-20 Summit.
  • Renounce the "jobs for the boys" approach of the West to the two international financial institutions and calls for an open and merit-based selection method, irrespective of nationality, for the heading positions of the IMF and the World Bank.
  • The need to make the U.N more effective and representative by endorsing the specific demand India and Brazil have made for permanent seats in the world body.
• ‘Bonjour India' a year-long Indian art and culture festival is opened in Paris. 
• The India-Brazil-South Africa forum (IBSA) and the Brazil, Russia, India, China group (BRIC)both met within hours of each other on April 15 in Brasilia (Brazil). 
• India, China and Nepal have launched a trans-boundary projectto conserve the Mount Kailash region under the guidance of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a sacred landscape that lies at the borders linking the three nations. 
• A high-level NTPC technical team would be visiting Bangladeshshortly to explore the possibility of setting up the plant which could be in the region of 500-1,000 MW. Under the initial plan, power generated from the plant will be evacuated to India through a transmission network to be developed by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL).NTPC and the Bangladesh Power Development Board will jointly develop the project.