INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS MARCH 2011

INDIA & THE WORLD BILATERAL AFFAIRS MARCH 2011

• India and Africa, seeking to further strengthen the economic engagement, has set a target of $70 billion by 2015. India also reaffirmed its commitment to provide cheap medicines for the poor despite strong legal and diplomatic offensive launched by Western pharmaceutical companies. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma inaugurated the seventh conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership, ‘Creating possibilities: delivering value', organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Exim Bank in New Delhi with the support of Ministries of Commerce and Industry and External Affairs. 
• The Indo-Pak Semi Final cricket match, played under tight security in Mohali, Punjab India, on 30 March. Action on the field was accompanied by a display of "cricket diplomacy" as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani watched together in the stands. It was the first time a Pakistani leader has visited India since 2001 when then president Pervez Musharraf attended a summit that ended in acrimony. Singh said at a dinner with Gilani during the game that the countries "need permanent reconciliation to live together in dignity and honour". Gilani earlier told reporters that holding talks at the match would help bring” progress and improvement in relations". 
• The Governing Board meeting of International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) held in New Delhi from March 21 to 24 launched the “ICRISAT South-South Initiative” (IS-SI) to boost India-Africa partnerships on agricultural research for development. Chair of the GB Nigel Poole launched the IS-SI platform at the conclusion of the India-Africa roundtable on agricultural development for a systematic partnership towards stronger and inclusive development cooperation between the two continents. 
• India sought enhanced supplies of crude oil and agreement for supply of LNG from Nigeria even as the bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to touch $12 billion during 2010-11.The issues came up for discussion during the bilateral meetings between the visiting Nigerian Foreign Minister, Henry Odein Ajumogobia, and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Jaipal Reddy, in New Delhi. 
• India and Brazil on March 8 decided to forge stronger trade and economic ties and decided to work towards achieving a bilateral trade target of $10 billion in the next few years against $7.73 billion in 2010.This was agreed at a meeting between Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and visiting External Relations Minister of Brazil Antonio Patriota in New Delhi. 
• Foreign Minister of Thailand Kasit Piromya visited India and has advocated a closer security relationship with India — intelligence-sharing in particular — to check money-laundering and drug-trafficking and also said India and Thailand must cooperate in tackling piracy off the Somalia coast. It was his second visit to the country in just over a year. 
• India has taken over as co-chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Review Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental policy-making body which sets global standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Macau is the other co-chair of the FATF group, which consists of more than 30 countries and has a ministerial mandate for establishing the standards. The Asia Pacific Regional Review Group is one of the four international cooperation review groups of the FATF, the other three being Europe-Eurasia, America, Middle East and Africa. 
• India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are committed to achieving a trade target of $70 billion by 2012, up 40 per cent from $50 billion in 2010, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at the first India-ASEAN business fair and conclave being held in New Delhi by the Commerce Ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). ASEAN trade ministers are here to attend the conclave. India and the 10-nation bloc also broadly agreed that the free trade agreement (FTA) to cover services and investment sectors would be in place by 2011-end.