International and Bilateral: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nov, 2011

Freedom from virtual captivity

For the people of the two tiny Bangladesh enclaves, history recently took a new turn. The iron gates of the Indian corridor connecting them with the mainland will now remain open round the clock, heralding the end of nearly 64 years of captivity for its inhabitants.
According to Sheikh Hasina, complete access through the corridor is a great achievement as it has given “our people a new freedom.”
The issue of enclaves is the result of a hasty and unwise job done by the Boundary Commission led by Sir Cyril Radcliffe in 1947 — the year British India was partitioned.
After Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971, Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an agreement aimed at putting into effect the demarcation of boundaries on selected stretches of territory on May 16, 1974. Under the accord, India was supposed to lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area of 178x85 square metres in Tin Bigha, to connect the Dahagram-Angapota enclaves to the mainland in exchange for Bangladesh's South Berubari. South Berubari was handed over to India almost instantly but the people in Dahagram-Angarpota remained virtually stateless due to a lack of unfettered access to the mainland.
They were allowed to use the corridor for 12 hours a day between July 1996 and September 2011. But even after getting the 12-hour access, the people remained virtual captives. Most of the children were forced to abandon their education, many died due to a lack of timely health care. The mainlanders refused to even enter into matrimonial relations with the enclave inhabitants.
The two governments, which enjoy a cordial relationship despite the jolt over the failure to sign the Teesta deal,
While the Teesta deal is important to carry forward the warmth, it is also time to complete the final exchange of the enclaves, in accordance with the agreement signed in Dhaka.
A total of 37,000 Indians live in the Bangladesh enclaves while 14,000 Bangladeshis are in the enclaves in India.

India seeks end to external interference in Afghanistan

Going beyond the “New Silk Road” vision unveiled by the United States, India has proposed economically linking Central Asia with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as that would act as a “critical confidence building measure” in a region affected by a decade of violence in Afghanistan.
India was well placed to assist Afghanistan, argued Mr. Krishna, because it was involved in all three critical requirements of that nation — security, good governance and development. But to achieve this, there must be an end to external interference in its internal affairs. Mr. Krishna drew attention to the continuation of safe havens and sanctuaries beyond its borders.

Xinjiang keen on reviving historic trade ties with India

The regional government of China's far-western Xinjiang region is keen to revive the frontier trade with India that once flourished along the disputed western section of the border and is courting Indian involvement in plans to develop a special economic zone in the border town of Kashgar
In a first, the regional government's Development and Reform Committee (DRC) appeared to implicitly acknowledge India's claims to PoK in written responses to questions ahead of Mr. Bekri's visit, making the case for increasing frontier trade with India and describing Kashgar as bordering India, not Pakistan.
We welcome Indian companies to invest in Kashgar, which possesses great growth potential in bilateral trade.” The DRC said it would also favour the opening of international flights from Kashgar to India
India's Consulate in Kashgar was closed in 1950, following which the Indian trade presence ceased to exist in the region. Since then, an increasing number of traders from Pakistan have established a presence in Kashgar.
However, deep-rooted cultural links with India, sourced in a long history of commercial and cultural engagement between Kashgar and Ladakh and through the Silk Road, have left a strong appeal for Indian culture among Uighurs

Beginning of a new era: industry

Pakistan's decision to grant MFN Status to India will help give a big jump to bilateral trade. It will substantially reduce illegal and third country trade with the potential of raising official bilateral trade to $8 billion in less than five years.
However, road blocks like stringent visa rules, non-tariff barriers, difficulty in communication and opening of more trade routes like Wagah still needs to be addressed
the move would “pave way for economic integration of South Asia. It would substantially reduce illegal and third country trade.”

Much more needs to be done to restore confidence in global markets: Manmohan

Home to the world's most prestigious film festival which is hosting the 2011 Summit of the 19 largest global economies and the European Union.
The Greek crisis, which many believed was sorted out last week, has literally hijacked the G20 summit.
The twin Summits of the European Union and eurozone a few days ago have helped to restore a measure of confidence in the markets, but much more needs to be done.
Developing economies such as India need a conducive-global economic environment to address the vast challenges they face. In an increasingly interdependent world, we have to be wary of contagion effects and the import of inflationary pressures in our economy. We need to ensure that developing countries have access to requisite funds through multilateral development banks and to investible surpluses to meet their infrastructure and other priority needs.
The issue of global governance will also come up for discussion. This is an issue of importance to India, and we will work with others to develop effective and representative global governance mechanisms and carry forward the process of reform of the international monetary and financial system
The shadow of China also looms large over the summit. The decision by eurozone leaders to seek outside funding for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), essentially from China, is causing serious political ripples here.

For LeT, India is “primary target”: U.S. Congress

A report by the United States Department of Defence (DoD) submitted to Congress this week suggested that India remained the “primary target” of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group from Pakistan that is held responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Key among these arguments was the suggestion that the U.S. ought to share “top-of-the-line technology” with India, as exemplified by the case of the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme.
According to the DoD, the JSF, also known as the F-35 Lightning II Programme, has advanced airframe, autonomic logistics, avionics, propulsion systems, stealth, and firepower, which will “ensure that the F-35 is the most affordable, lethal, supportable and survivable aircraft ever to be used by so many war-fighters across the globe.”
hence the U.S. would join with key partners such as India, “to expand counter-terrorism cooperation ... and our current special operations engagements in the region will continue to focus on the mutually beneficial ways in which we can enhance each other's capabilities.”
This imperative would require continued focus on combined exercises, personnel exchanges and training, maritime domain awareness, countering piracy humanitarian assistance, disaster response and relief and naval and coast guard cooperation

Pakistan grants India MFN status

Pakistan on Wednesday extended the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India amid protests from jihadi outfits and the media.
Maintaining that the move would not dilute Pakistan's position on Kashmir, the Minister pointed out that people were already engaged in trade across the Line of Control.
Admitting that Cabinet members raised questions about how the decision would impact the Kashmir cause, she said India and China had a flourishing trade despite territorial disputes.
India had granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1995 and World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments mandated that Islamabad reciprocate.
MFN status would not alter the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement that allows Afghan goods to cross over Pakistan into India and not vice versa.
Indian goods were allowed to move into Afghanistan over land through Pakistan between 1959 and 1965 as per an Af-Pak agreement.
both countries had granted the status to each other after ratifying the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in July 1948 despite the bloodletting of Partition less than a year ago.
This regime continued till 1965.
Trading relations between the two countries resumed after the Shimla Agreement

World stocks plunge on Greek, China worries

World stocks plunged on Tuesday after Greece announced a referendum on its latest bailout deal
The news was even more troubling as it followed weak Asian manufacturing growth data, especially in China, which further clouded an already very uncertain outlook.

An exceptional change in Zambia

Zambia's recent peaceful transfer of power, in which the incumbent president spent millions of dollars on re-election, lost and then graciously acknowledged defeat. In a way, Mr. Scott was an apt person to make this point and spotlight Zambia's unusual degree of stability and harmony.
Mr. Scott is Zambia's Vice President and he is white. He now calls himself “the highest pure honky” official anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa and he seems to be right. While black-white relations tend to be touchy in some of the other countries — in Zimbabwe, whites have been pushed off farms, and in South Africa black leaders are fighting for their right
Unlike so much of the continent, Zambia has been spared chronic famines, civil wars and poisonous ethnic or racial politics.
The new government openly chafes at the idea of being beholden to the Chinese, who are inking enormous mineral deals across the continent and spending billions to ingratiate themselves with Africa's rulers. In Kenya, the Chinese are working closely with the national spy agency. China has shipped arms to Zimbabwe, even as it was torturing opponents. And in South Africa, the Chinese are so influential that they just pressured the government to deny a visa to the Dalai Lama, who stood shoulder to shoulder for years with anti-apartheid activists.
But while many African leaders say they welcome China, preferring its business-first approach to what they often call the West's preachiness, Zambia's new President, Michael Sata, campaigned explicitly to protect workers from exploitation by China. Still, he has been careful not to threaten to kick out the Chinese, who run copper mines, coal mines, chicken farms and banks here.

In Japan, a trial by water

A Japanese Member of Parliament has drunk water collected from a radioactive puddle inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, after journalists challenged him to prove it was safe.
“Just drinking [the decontaminated water] doesn't mean safety has been confirmed. I know that,” Mr. Sonoda was quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency.
“Presenting data to the public is the best way.”

Jobs crisis could spark unrest: ILO

The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries.
The study found that only half the 80 million jobs needed to return employment to its pre-crisis levels were likely to be created over the next two years, and that the stalling of the global recovery was already leading to an increase in joblessness.
In a new “social unrest” index, the ILO said there was growing unhappiness over the lack of jobs and anger over perceptions that the burden of the crisis is not being shared fairly. It noted that in over 45 of the 118 countries examined, the risk of social unrest is rising, with signs of tension in the EU, the Arab region and to a lesser extent Asia.
unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone had climbed to a 15-year-high of 10.2 per cent. Young people are being hardest hit by the lack of jobs, with youth unemployment at 29 per cent in Italy, 43 per cent in Greece and 48 per cent in Spain.
The world economy, which had started to recover from the global crisis, has entered a new phase of economic weakening. Economic growth in major advanced economies has come to a halt and some countries have re-entered recession, notably in Europe.

Historic peace deal struck in Nepal

Nepal's political parties arrived at a historic agreement on the peace process, Constitution writing and power-sharing
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the Nepali Congress (NC), the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), and the Madhesi parties settled the future of 19,602 Maoist combatants, agreeing to integrate a maximum of 6,500 fighters into the Nepal Army (NA) and provide rehabilitation and cash packages to the rest.
The directorate will be responsible for development works, industrial security, forest security, and disaster relief. Combatants will be integrated on an individual basis, and will have to meet the norms of the security force. But there will be flexibility on age, marital status, and educational qualification. To determine ranks, the norms of the security organs will be taken into account. There will be bridging and educational courses for the combatants.
The Maoists have also committed to return property confiscated during the insurgency.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Disappearances Commission, a high-level political mechanism to oversee the peace and Constitution process, and an experts' team to address state restructuring issues would also be constituted.
Leaders expressed optimism that the agreement would enable the successful conclusion of political transition in Nepal.

Sudan inks gold exploration contracts

The Sudan government has signed contracts with 50 national companies and foreign countries for gold exploration in a move to compensate the loss of oil revenues which Khartoum lost following the separation of South Sudan.
Jordanian, Chinese and Turkish companies have entered the production circle. A gold refinery would be commissioned by early 2012 with a production capacity of 150 tons of gold and 30 tons of silver.

Consumption, not population, is the issue

The birth of a baby is usually an occasion for joy. The arrival, however, of the seven billionth person is being awaited with growing trepidation about the devastating impact of humans on the planet.
Environmentalists are arguing in circles about who or what is to blame: the total number of people; or the amount of water, food, mineral ores or clean air each demands.
Professor Paul Ehrlich, whose book The Population Bomb helped ignite this debate
The World Bank estimates, for example, that the richest fifth of the world has more than three-quarters of the income; the poorest fifth just 1.5 per cent.
population policy would inevitably have to make noticeable inroads into the tall-skinny many/poor rectangle. Assuming such policies were successful — and excluding the widely unacceptable coercion of China's one child policy or India's mass sterilisations in the 1970s, persuading people to have fewer babies has proved very tricky — the overall reduction in combined environmental impact would be very small.
Across time and geography, countries that have reduced birth rates have got richer and so more consumptive: rising incomes, better health and education give men and women the confidence that more of their children will survive into adulthood and help support their families; and as birthrates fall governments can spend more on each person's health, education and jobs, feeding a virtuous cycle of economic development and slowing population growth.
on-the-ground evidence suggests rising affluence and declining fertility rates are inextricable.
Time after time descriptions of countries that have successfully reduced population growth show how they have grown notably richer at the same time, even if they are not exactly well—off: Guatemala in central America, Bangladesh in south-east Asia, and the Asian tiger of South Korea.
At the same time, study after study shows environmental damage rises — so far almost always perpetually — with income, and often more steeply as developing countries begin to industrialise. Most dramatically, these forces appear to have come together in China, whose one-child policy — albeit with massive state investment and rapid expansion of the market economy — has coincided with the country's rise to become the world's second biggest economy (and, incidentally, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution).

Challenges ahead for India's nuclear diplomacy

After the diplomatic successes of 2008, when the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) exempted India from the cartel's ban on atomic sales to countries that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or placed all their nuclear facilities under international safeguards, 2011 has not been a very good year at all.
India's liability law is being unfairly attacked by its potential partners and, of course, the 46-nation NSG adopted new guidelines for the export of sensitive nuclear technology this June — Including enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) equipment and technology — that made the sale of these items conditional on the recipient state fulfilling a number of “objective” and “subjective” conditions.
The first of these conditions, namely NPT membership and full-scope safeguards, were specifically designed to dilute the 2008 waiver India received
The fact that India failed to prevent the adoption of the new guidelines despite knowing they were in the pipeline for more than two years suggests a certain complacency on the Manmohan Singh government's part.
But never was the proposed ENR ban projected by the government as an attempt by Washington to unilaterally rewrite the terms of the nuclear bargain it had struck with India.
The fact is that the NSG's 2008 decision to lift its embargo on India was not some kind of unilateral concession. It was part of a complex bargain involving reciprocal commitments by both sides. If the supplier nations agreed to drop their insistence on the NPT and full-scope safeguards and open the door to full civil nuclear cooperation with India, India committed itself to fulfilling several onerous steps, including the difficult and costly separation of its civilian and military nuclear programmes, the placing of its civilian facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, the signing of an Additional Protocol, as well as extending support to a number of nonproliferation and disarmament-related initiatives at the global level.
The Minister then noted the statements made by the U.S., France and Russia following the NSG's June 2011 meeting in which each country tried to assure India that the new guidelines would not “detract” from or “affect” the original waiver granted in September 2008.
France did not consider itself bound by the new guidelines when it came to nuclear commerce with India. The Minister confirmed that notwithstanding the NSG rules, Paris remained free to sell ENR items and technology in a manner consistent with its national law and its bilateral agreement.
Of course, the challenge for India will be to hold the French to their word, as and when the requirement for cooperation in the ENR field is required.
Though India has its own capabilities in these fields, there is no reason why it should not seek access to the best international components and equipment for the new reprocessing plant it has committed to build.
The U.S. has not so far committed itself to sell ENR equipment to India. New Delhi can live with that. But not with American efforts to block others from cooperating with it.

UNFPA says it has no clue

The World's seven billionth baby is born for sure, says the United Nations Population Fund. But where?
The media has been filled with stories of where the baby was born: and most of these stories speak of a child being born in Dhanaur village in the outskirts of Lucknow, in the most populous state in India, Uttar Pradesh. A few from the UK media too have parroted this line.
Down south, in Sri Lanka, the country celebrated the arrival of Wattalage Muthumani, who was born at the Castel Street Maternity Hospital, as the seventh billion.

U.K. target of “disturbing” levels of cyber attacks

Britain has become a target of “disturbing” levels of cyber attacks with an “exponential rise” in attempts to steal sensitive data held on government computer systems, including those of the Ministry of Defence
The disclosure came on the eve of a two-day international conference on cyberspace called by Foreign Secretary
The London Conference on Cyberspace, to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a host of political leaders and experts from around the world, will discuss ways to formulate a “global coordinated response” to the growing threat to not only government data but also personal information of individuals.

Peshawar temple reopens after 60 years

Prayers were offered on Sunday at a temple in Peshawar which dates back to 1823 and which had been closed for the past 60 years. The temple reopened for worship under court orders, bringing joy to the Hindu community which otherwise lives under the shadow of rising intolerance.
Prayers were offered on Sunday at a temple in Peshawar which dates back to 1823 and which had been closed for the past 60 years.
The Goraknath Temple is located in the Gor Kattri archaeological complex, which traces its origins to the pre-Christian era and has associations with Buddhist, Mughal, Sikh and Hindu traditions.
Peshawar High Court had decided that worship could be permitted, while refusing to give control over the property to the family that was staking claim to it.
There is a reference to the complex in Babarnama . Since the area was at the crossroads of an old trading route, a ‘caravansarai' (rest house for caravans) and a mosque were built later as per the orders of Jehanara, daughter of Shah Jehan. This mosque was destroyed during the Sikh rule and replaced with a temple to Goraknath.

Atambayev voted Kyrgyz President

Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev claimed a surprising outright win in Kyrgyzstan's presidential elections on Sunday
Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), criticised faulty voter lists, multiple voting and ballot stuffing, even as they hailed the free and peaceful election campaign.
Many people were unable to vote because they could not find themselves on the registered voter lists.
At the same time, they said the election deepened the split between the north and the south, which has largely defined Kyrgyzstan's clan-based politics since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

UNESCO membership for Palestine

In a historic vote, UNESCO on Monday granted full membership to Palestine which, until now, enjoyed only observer status at the U.N. agency for education, science and culture.
A 185 of UNESCO's 194 member states were eligible to vote.
Full membership of UNESCO is a small but significant step forward for the Palestinians in their attempts to gain international recognition and statehood.
Despite desperate lobbying efforts, the U.S. failed to obtain a rejection of the Palestinian application for membership. Israel, too, had engaged in a media blitz against the Palestinian move
The U.S. and Israel are scheduled to withdraw their funding for UNESCO, which will result in a budget shortfall of 22 per cent. U.S. law prohibits Washington from funding any U.N.-affiliated body that accepts Palestinian membership.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova warned the U.S. against “disengagement” from the organisation, arguing that it supported “core U.S. interests” in a number of key countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq.
India, as Chair of the “Group of 77 and China” within UNESCO, played a “crucial, contributory yet constructive role in response to a legitimate demand on the part of the Palestinian people”
Asked if member states were aware that such a vote could result in the loss of over one-fifth of UNESCO's funding, one delegate who wished to remain unnamed told The Hindu : “There is a feeling that UNESCO should return to its original function, that of a crucible of ideas. Ideas matter, not money.

Cheers, fears across world

The world welcomed its symbolic “seven billionth” baby on Monday but celebrations were tempered by worries over the strain that humanity's population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.
U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement marking milestone: “From the moment the child was born, he or she — like every other child born today or any other day — should be guaranteed freedom from fear and want, protection from discrimination and abuse, and equal access to security, justice and respect as a member of the human family.”
Mounting concern over humanity's environmental impact and fears that we may not be able to feed ourselves 100 years from now cast a cautionary tone over the buildup to Monday's milestone.
With about two babies being born every second, the figure can only go up and up in the decades to come — to more than 10 billion by 2100, according to U.N. estimates.

Afghan endgame gets into high-gear with Turkey meet

The Afghan endgame gets into high-gear from Wednesday with the one-day Istanbul conference of 15 Foreign Ministers
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to be the sole Western representative (she has dropped out due to personal reasons) while all the other Foreign Ministers are from Afghanistan's immediate neighbourhood — Pakistan, Iran, China and most Central Asian “stans” — or neighbours of the neighbours, such as India, UAE, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
agenda for SCO members — Russia, China and four of the five Central Asian “stans” (minus Turkmenistan) — will be upgrading observers India and Pakistan to full members, granting observer status to Afghanistan and making Turkey a dialogue partner. Iran has been left out of the matrix
The West hopes that a declaration emanating from the “Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia” conference in Turkey would prepare the ground for the broader theme of economic, regional and political integration at the Bonn meeting, which will be attended by 85 countries and 15 international organisations.
The Bonn conference — the first time Afghanistan will chair a conference on its own (the Ankara meet will be co-chaired by Turkey and Afghanistan) — is also expected to take a closer look at the security-related commitments made in Turkey.
- Bonn Agreement was the initial series of agreements intended to re-create the State of Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
- Under the Bonn Agreement the Afghan Constitution Commission was established to draft a new constitution in consultation with the public. The Bonn Agreement called for a loya jirga (A loya jirga is a mass meeting usually prepared for major events such as choosing a new king, adopting a constitution, or discussing important national political or emergency matters as well as disputes in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.) to be convened within 18 months of the establishment of the Transitional Authority and for the use of the 1964 constitution as the basis for a new constitution. The constitution had been adopted by the loya Jirga on January 4, 2004.
- The Bonn Agreement calls for a judicial commission to rebuild the justice system in accordance with Islamic principles, international standards, the rule of law, and Afghan legal traditions.
- The Bonn Agreement called for the establishment of a Supreme Court of Afghanistan.