International and Bilateral Issues

Iran appears to have elevated its threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz with a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warning that if prevented from selling oil, Iran would retaliate by blocking other countries from doing the same.
He dismissed as “futile” the latest EU sanctions, under which the 27-nation bloc will from July 1 boycott purchases of Iranian oil.
- The EU has also frozen assets of Iran's Central Bank, and banned trade with Iran of gold, diamonds and other precious metals.
He also stressed that EU's decision could reshape the pattern of global oil trade, amplifying the Iranian view that energy hungry emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil can easily replace the bloc as buyers of surplus Iranian crude.
Ahmad Khatami said: “Why wait six months [for sanctions to be enforced], why not right away? The answer is clear. They [the EU] are in trouble; they are grappling with crisis.” We would “have to approve a ‘double emergency' bill calling for a halt in the export of Iranian oil to Europe starting next week”.
Italy — one of the major buyers of Iranian oil — was at risk of closing “five refineries and at a European level [and] we're talking about 70 possible shut downs”.

President of the Senate of Chile called for partnership between his country and India in the renewable energy sector, saying that his country had decided to achieve 20 per cent of its energy needs through renewable energy sources by 2020.
- Chile, one of the world's largest copper producers, needed more energy resources, to double investments in copper industry.
- There was tremendous scope for partnership between Chile and India in areas of renewable energy, especially, geo-thermal, tidal wave, wind, biomass and solar.
India and Chile could also explore cooperation in areas of biotechnology, agriculture sciences, food processing, ocean water desalination and transportation.
Chile possessed rich lithium and suggested India could use lithium-based batteries to power electric vehicles.
Chile would soon sign a revised Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with India increasing the number of items of export and import.
Over the years India and Chile have developed common areas of interest in civil aviation, science and technology, research in Antarctica, manufacturing and mining.

A proposal of expanding the United Nations Security Council membership, tabled G4 nations — India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, has received “solid support” from countries across regions, India's envoy to the world body, Hardeep Singh Puri, has said.
There was “very strong support” from countries in Europe such as Portugal, Greece, Hungary and Slovenia and some Caribbean and Pacific nations.
Rubbishing reports of China's opposition to the resolution, he said, “I had a look at the Chinese statement. They said they are in favour of necessary and reasonable reform of the Security Council.”
Pakistan, however, is opposed to the G4 proposal and described it as a “zero-sum” that was likely to benefit only the G-4 nations.
Lacking space for compromise, the G-4 proposal is zero-sum in nature, with 4 winners and 184 losers. Therefore, it has neither garnered meaningful support nor allowed progress in the reform process.