International and Bilateral Issues

Ethiopian Ambassador to India sought investments in the following areas to catch up with fastest growing countries such as India and China.
1. textiles,
2. leather,
3. healthcare,
4. milk and dairy products,
5. tourism and
6. chemicals
Ethiopia is a power surplus country. However, it has shortage in milk and dairy products. Similarly, investments can be made in the field of healthcare as we are according priority to it.
Quoting World Bank, IMF and Economists forecasts, she said “Ethiopia will be the third fastest growing country following China and India this year. Ours is a developing economy. We are a poor country and working hard to develop Ethiopia to where India is at present. We are planning to transform our economy from agriculture to industry in order to join those nations that enjoy a middle income economy in the next 10 to 15 years.”
Indian firms were engaged in agriculture, leather and leather products, mining and manufacturing making them as one of the biggest foreign investor in Ethiopia

Afghan government officials and representatives of the Taliban are to hold peace talks in Saudi Arabia
The talks in Saudi Arabia will be separate from the U.S.-brokered meetings held in Qatar and will be the first such talks to take place in the Sunni kingdom.
A member of the Taliban's leadership council, the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura, said on Sunday that “the idea that the Taliban should have a point of contact in Saudi is pushed by the Pakistan and Afghan governments.” The Afghan diplomat, however, said there were no plans for a third party to attend the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had called on the Syrian authorities and all opposition groups to send their representatives to Moscow “for informal contacts without pre-conditions.
The call for talks came as Moscow rejected the new Arab-European draft resolution on Syria presented by Morocco in the U.N. Security Council
- Russian Ambassador expressed “deep” disappointment with the draft, saying the international community should not impose an outside solution on the Syrian conflict.
- He also rejected the idea of an arms embargo or the use of force against Syria.
Russia last week signed a $550-million contract with Syria for the supply of 36 advanced combat jet trainers, Yak-130. Defence analysts said the deal was a forerunner for the supply of Russia's latest fighter planes, MiG-29M or MiG-35, to Syria.

A month after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect its embassy and consulates, as well as U.S. personnel.
- The United States, which will soon begin taking bids to manage drone operations in Iraq over the next five years, needs formal approval from the Iraqi government to use such aircraft here
- Senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the programme, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.
- Such approval may be untenable given the political tensions between the two countries.
U.S. contractors say they have been told that the State Department is considering plans in the future to field unarmed surveillance drones in a handful of other potentially “high-threat” countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan, and in Afghanistan after the bulk of U.S. troops leave in the next two years.
- Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy's 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armoured military vehicles.
- When embassy personnel move throughout the country, small helicopters buzz over the convoys to provide support in case of an attack.