* The Republic of India and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam enjoy strong bilateral relations.
* Historical relation from 2nd century as The Indic Cham Pa kingdom had some influences on Vietnamese art and architecture
1.Strong Political relations-
* India supported Vietnam's independence from France and supported unification of Vietnam
* India strongly condemned U.S. action during the Vietnam War.
* India is one of the few non-communist countries to assist Vietnam during the CambodianVietnamese War.
2.Bilateral and commercial ties-
* India and Vietnam established official diplomatic relations in 1972
* India granted the "Most Favoured Nation" status to Vietnam in 1975
* bilateral trade agreement signed b/w them in 1978 and the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) in 1997
* The Indo-Vietnam Joint Business Council has worked to promote trade and investment since 1993.
* In 2003, both nations promulgated a Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation and both nations negotiating on free trade agreement.
* Bilateral trade has increased rapidly since the liberalisation of the economies of both Vietnam and India.
* in 2010, as the ASEAN-India free trade agreement came into effect, bilateral trade exploded to US$3.917 billion by the end of 2012, with Vietnam exported US$1.7 billion to India in 2012
* India and Vietnam have also expanded cooperation in information technology, education and collaboration of the respective national space programmes
3.Strategic cooperation-
* Both are members of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, created to enhance close ties between India and nations of Southeast Asia
* Vietnam has supported India's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
* Vietnam increasing the significance of the relationship between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its negotiation of an Indo-ASEAN free trade agreement.
* built strategic partnerships, including extensive cooperation on developing nuclear power, enhancing regional security and fighting terrorism, transnational crime and drug trafficking.
4 why in news ????????
* Indias quest for greater intensity in bilateral energy,defence and economic energy with Vietnam.
* India looking for opportunities in setting up refineries and the TATAS looking forword to setting up 1320mw thermal power project. often its failure to set up a $5 billion steel plant.
* The Indian-Veitnam Project that has got the most attention-allocation of two oil blocks in Pho Khanh basin of south china sea that is contested by china.
* India plan for withdrawing from prospecting for blocks 128 on commercial considerations just like it returned block 127 about four year back.
* India has already offered a $100million credit line for the purchase of offshore patrol vessels but official sources remained non-committed of prospects of Indian defence exports, especially the Brahmos missile
* Vietnam is ready to be the part with know-how for breeding the Pangasius fish (also called basa)
* The consumption of Pangasius ,primarily found in Vietnam and some adjoining countries ,has been going up by leaps and bounds in India but its captive rearing in the country has not been really taken off.
* Vietnam has closly held the breeding techniqies and has now agreed to part with it for a breeding centre near Chennai.
ABOUT PANGASIUS-
* This fish is raised in cages in free flowing water and the Vietnamese have mastered upon this in ponds in the Makong river delta region
* India import of pangasius have nearly gone up by close to 50%
* Vietnam has already emerged as the second largest supplier of fish after Bangladesh.
Kuwait and India
1.Cultural links-
* recent discovery of artifacts such as pottery and jewellery from the Kuwaiti island of Failaka point to commercial and cultural interaction between the two countries.
* IndoKuwait trade revolved around dates and pedigreed horses, with Kuwaiti sailors making annual trips between the Shatt-al-Arab and the western ports of India to conduct the trade
* the horse trade was ended in 1945 after World War II, following which trade turned to pearls and teak wood.
2.Political relations-
* India was among the earliest countries to recognise Kuwaiti independence
* Kuwait was one of the first countries to extend support to India during the war with China in 1962
* Relations were strained in the early 1990s due to India's pro-Iraq stance following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
* The demolition of the Babri Masjid also impacted ties with Kuwait calling for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to rebuild the structure and hand it over to Indian Muslims.
3.Economic relations
* Prior to oil discovery,depended heavily on maritime activities and trade as Kuwait was a centre for ship building and pearl diving and fishing.
* In 201112, bilateral trade amounted to $17.56 billion. Petroleum accounts for the bulk of the trade, with the non-oil trade accounting for only $1.9 billion.
* India having joint venture projects between the two countries towards establishing new facilities in the oil and gas sector in both countries
* Kuwait has welcomed Indian companies for projects in Kuwait as it undertakes a massive infrastructure development program.
* Indian and Kuwaiti institutions of higher education and research and agreements on avoidance of Double Taxation, drug reduction and prevention of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs
4.Why in news?????
Kuwait Declaration-Arab Africa Economic Co-Operation
* It underlined the need to accelerate economic integration in the Arab world,which includes oil rich gulf states and investment thirsty African states and this summit will achieve a quantitative transformation in the African-Arab economic ties as Africa has huge resources of raw-materials,agriculture & energy but lack investment.
* For the creation of a joint African-Arab financing mechanism to fund
* Programmes and projects ,under a plan adopted at the last Arab-Africa summit in Libya 3 years ago
* African union and Arab league to co-ordinate with financial institutions and funds in the two regions to form a working team to finance the implementation of project.
* the Kuwait declaration strongly condemned terrorism.it urged its member states to exchange cooperation and co-ordination to combat terrorism in all its form
* the summit was the third of its kind ,and the first since 2010,when leaders met in Libya prior to the Arab spring that toppled long standing dictatorship there and elsewhere in north Africa and west Asia.
* Kuwait would co-ordinate with the world bank to enter joint investments in infrastructure in accordance with the plan.(which is not announced yet..:))
* according to the world bank the continent needs about $30billion a year to develop its energy sector.
* the international monetory fund says African economy growth was a solid 5% in 2012.despite the global economic crisis.
* Africas huge quantities of natural gas off its east coast has added to its continents economic potential.
* states of energy rich gulf cooperation council have accumulated surpluses of$2-trillion thanks to persistently high oil prices
* the leaders called for the need to boost co-operation in the agricultural field to achieve food security
* next summit in 2016 in Africa.
ADIZ(Air Defence Identification Zone) (CHINA)
* It is a section of international airspace over which a country declares its right to identify aircrafts to protect itself from foreign threat.
* Its a product of customary international law but it is not jurisdictional.
WHAT HAPPEN IF ADIZ ESTABLISHED??
* Then the country would use radar to detect unexpected aircraft flying in the ADIZ zone and observe them.
* Using radar ,it would query those it was concerned about.
* Country can also launched an aircraft to intercept and observe.
WHY CHINA DECLARING AN ADIZ??
* The chinas ADIZ overlaps with the ADIZ that was created by the US after the world war 2 and transferred to Japan in 1969.
* The Chinas ADIZ encompasses the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands and this is for the first time that an overlapping ADIZ has been declared in an area where there is a sovereignty disputes.
ABOUT ISLAND?
* The chinas call the island Diaoyu and Japan call them Senkaku.
HISTORY RELATED TO ISLAND-CAUSE OF ALL DISPUTES..:??
* Japan, once a vassal state of imperialism china, subjugating and humiliated the chinese not once but twice in different period of time in the late 1800s and again in 1930.
* The Diaoyu islands were considered lost during this period when Japan formally annexed them in 1895.
WHY CHINA SUDDENLY DECLARED ADIZ??
* China feels it has a right to an ADIZ to protect its sovereignty over both its territory as well its claimed maritime spaces. After all ,Japan has an ADIZ.
* China could be redefining the status qua.
* Japan ADIZ comes with in 130km of chinas territory ,therefore its only fair that chinas ADIZ extends to within 130kms of Japans territory.
* It could be directly challenge to Japans administration of Diaoyu/Senkaku.
* It extend its maritime security issues in the east china sea and asserting chinese dominance.
FOR INDIA??
* As china is more aggressive in its foreign policy ,which doesnt do well for its relations with India.
INDIA AND JAPAN-Trade exceed $300 billion
High level interaction in-
* Annual India-Japan summit
* Regular exchange b/w the two defence ministries.
* Two plus two dialogue involving the foreign and defence secretaries
* Dialogue on maritime securities
* Trilateral dialogue that involves USA.
* Both countries are also the part of G-4 nations that recently intensified efforts towards text-based negotiations on the expension of the US security council.
* Comprehensive economic partnership agreement(for boosting trade)
* Japan has been generous with financial assistance for infrastructure projects such as Delhi Metro and Delhi Mumbai Industrial corridor.
* Japanese investment in Indian industries (automobiles ,a dominant sector in Tamil Nadu )
* In 1998 Japanese against India for the pokharan nuclear tools left relations crippled for more then 2years.
* Civilian nuclear agreement.
Anam Singla
