INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS FEBRUARY 2010

INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS FEBRUARY 2010

• India has offered a $ 250-million line of credit to Nepal. It also extended an 80,000 tonnes of essentials, mainly food grains to Nepal.
• During the visit of Turkey President Abdullah Gul to India, both countries agreed to work towards developing an action plan such as joint working Group against Terrorism. India and Turkey also unveiled a joint declaration on terrorism Ankara recognized Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).
• India and Britain agreed to increase the flow of trade and investments, particularly Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), in regard to market access for both goods and services and also look for collaboration and opportunities in the defence sector.
• India and the U.K. have agreed on the text of a civil nuclear cooperation deal that is likely to be signed soon. The agreement came after a meeting between British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson and visiting Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in London. It would be the seventh civil nuclear agreement since its first historic deal with the United States in October 2008. India has signed agreements with USA, France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.
  
• The safeguard agreement with regard to civilian nuclear facilities between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has come into force, as said by U.S. president Barak Obama.
  
• India and Hungary entered into the following agreements during the visit of Union commerce and industry Minister, Anand Sharma, to Hungary
  
1. An agreement for oil exploration was signed between MOL, the official Hungarian Oil Company and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in which MOL will be a 35 percent partner.
2. Both countries agreed to work for increasing the level of trade to $1 billion by 2012.
3. To strengthen cooperation in the information technology (IT) sector.
4. The India - Hungary S & T fund of 2 million euro annually for the promotion of joint research projects.