Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
The two sides are engaged in negotiations to expand the ambit of FTA in goods to include trade in services and investments.
Japanese auto major Nissan on Wednesday said it is discontinuing Datsun brand in India, nine years after the company kicked off the marque's global relaunch in the country. Having failed in its ambitious global relaunch of Datsun, Nissan had in 2020 discontinued the brand in Russia and Indonesia, the other two countries along with South Africa and India which were marked as key markets targeting the entry level car segment. Confirming the move to discontinue the Datsun brand, Nissan India in a statement said, "Production of Datsun redi-GO has ceased at the Chennai plant (Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd). "Sales of the model still continue (till the stock lasts)."
At a joint media briefing with Lavrov, Jaishankar listed issues such as "factors of instability" such as terrorism and its cross-border manifestation and said it remains a "major concern".
The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have decided to enhance cooperation in the economic, commercial, investment, educational, cultural and media fields.
India has been forcefully raising the issue of market access as well as protected lists of goods mainly to shield its domestic market as there have been fears that the country may be flooded with cheap Chinese agricultural and industrial products once it signs the deal.
It was the second time in the last three days that India asserted that the relationship with China depends on the resolution of the pending issues in eastern Ladakh.
In a major expansion into sportswear and lifestyle wear segment, the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail has signed a long-term licensing agreement with Authentic Brand Group of New York, which has the marketing and branding rights of Reebok, to run the operations of the global sportswear, athletic and lifestyle major in the country and ASEAN markets. The new agreement between the largest domestic multi-brand fashion retailer and Authentic Brand is an extension of their existing relationship as ABFRL already markets and sells some ABG brands like Forever 21. The agreement follows the global transfer of ownership of the Reebok brand from Adidas to ABG, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Friday organised a 500-kilometre-long human chain with over four million participants in Kerala to protest a treaty signed with the 10-country Southeast Asian bloc. The agreement will be effective from Jan. 1, 2010, and tariffs on the products covered would be reduced to zero between 2013 and 2016. The Communists oppose the agreement saying its would sound the death knell for the southern state's agro-based economy.
India is close to signing a free trade pact with the South-East Asian nations to boost exports in the face of a global economic downturn and rising protectionism, a top official said on Wednesday.
The Southeast Asian nation has been focusing on modernising its military in the face of myriad security challenges as well as decades-long territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.
The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 5, 2020, when a violent clash between the two sides erupted in the Pangong lake area.
India-Maldives ties came under strain under Yameen who was perceived to be close to China.
Japan also reported that five of those missiles landed in its exclusive economic zone, understandably causing grave concern.
China on Friday announced sanctions on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family members for her visit to Taiwan this week, disregarding the strident warnings from Beijing, asserting that it violated China's sovereignty and the "One China policy".
The senior defence official, however, refrained from describing the kind of responses that the two countries would respond to their common challenges.
Expressing concern over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India and Australia have underlined the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and stressed that the contemporary global order has been built on UN Charter, international law and respect for States' sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In his opening remarks at a ministerial meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral coalition, also known as 'Quad', External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India remained committed to a rules-based world order, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes.
Meeting is on June 24-25 on stalled pact, agreement likely by year-end.
After more than a year since the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) became operational, it is now approaching consolidation.
The PM held bilateral meetings with three ASEAN leaders, including his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and discussed key bilateral and regional issues.
"The decision has nothing to do with warnings from the United States, Britain and Australia earlier this week that terrorists were planning to bomb the gathering."
Overseas shipments at auto firms expanded at a brisk pace year-on-year (YoY) in March, bumping up the overall annual exports for FY22 and taking it to a record level for some like Maruti Suzuki India and Bajaj Auto. Amid a semiconductor shortage, a depreciating rupee and a strong demand in various export destinations, passenger vehicle makers diverted capacity meant for the local market in favour of the more-lucrative export market. Among the passenger vehicle makers, market leader Maruti Suzuki led the rally with its overseas shipments touching a record level of 238,376 units in FY22 - the highest for the company in any financial year.
This is more than 25 per cent higher as compared to the same period of the previous year when the prime minister had 78 domestic engagements.
It will not be to India's advantage to create misperceptions that it is bandwagoning with some Anglo-American project for regime change in Myanmar, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In the midst of rising global concern over China's military expansionism, India and three other member nations of the Quad on Thursday vowed to uphold a rules-based international order underpinned by respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, freedom of navigation and peaceful resolution of disputes.
The Biden administration has reaffirmed its commitment to support India's permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council and New Delhi's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
India is no longer shying away from playing a role on the regional and international stages and is willing to don a bigger role in regional politics. It is showing traits of a responsible stakeholder in the regional security dynamics, says Dr Rahul Mishra.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday embarked on a four-day visit to Indonesia and Singapore with an aim of bolstering partnership with East Asia at a time when the United States and Europe are going through economic crisis.
'It seems a wiser decision to pull out at the right moment than regret after joining the pact,' explains Dr Rahul Mishra.
The Quad has come of age and its agenda covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes it a force for global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the first summit of the coalition. In his opening remarks, he also talked about shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
'It is an unpleasant fact of history that stronger nations dominate the power play and the only way it can be mitigated is through recourse to diplomacy,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"The deal is being implemented. We witnessed attempts on the part of the US to undermine this cooperation and make India obey the American orders to follow the American vision of how this region should be developed," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi, Madhav stressed that culture and religion have been the major aspect of ties between India and Southeast Asia
Shringla said India will continue to work towards the reformed United Nations during its stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The Indian armed forces, especially the Navy, are building partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region for peace and security, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, he said.
The prime minister was speaking at an event to mark golden jubilee of the Aditya Birla Group's presence in Thailand.
Like software-as-a-service (SaaS), CaaS has emerged as a well-orchestrated ecosystem for cybercriminals.
Wen has postponed an official visit to the Philippines, which was originally scheduled for December 13-14, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang announced in Beijing on Sunday.
The US "Indo-Pacific Strategy" is bound to be a failed strategy, Wang said in the comments posted by the Chinese foreign ministry on its website.
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