India has decided to authorise the country's biggest lender SBI to promote rupee trade with Russia and soon Moscow will name its bank to operationalise the mechanism, exporters' body FIEO said on Wednesday. The RBI in July issued a detailed circular asking banks to put in place additional arrangements for export and import transactions in Indian rupees in view of increasing interest of the global trading community in the domestic currency. Currently, a large part of bilateral trade between India and Russia is getting settled in rupee due to sanctions imposed by the US and Europe following Moscow's attack on Ukraine.
India is expected to ramp up its purchase of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the coming months following discussions between the two countries on the sidelines of the ongoing COP28 summit in Dubai, multiple sources in the know said. The UAE has historically been India's third-largest source of crude. It has suffered the largest drop in shipments since Indian refiners began to binge on Russian crude in 2022.
He said China has accrued significant capacities for force mobilisation, application, and sustenance of military operations and maintained the long-pending boundary issue can not be divorced from bilateral relations between the two Asian giants.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will travel to India to attend the meeting of G20 foreign ministers on March 2, during which he is expected to hold his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
From the seas to the stars, this partnership will now be deepened by the defining role of technology, the statement said.
Delving into implications of the latest developments in Afghanistan, Russian Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev said that there is a danger of the possible spread of terror into Russian territory as well as Kashmir, noting that India and Russia will continue to work together to counter any threat of terrorism.
Qin's first in-person meeting with Jaishankar on Thursday came on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers conclave in New Delhi amid the over 34-month-long border row in eastern Ladakh.
In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the US State Department to designate India as a "country of particular concern" on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations.
"Reports of PM Modi not meeting Putin due to nuclear threat is baseless. The meeting is not taking place due to scheduling issues," sources told ANI.
Russian oil supplies to India will continue to flow unhindered and suppliers will come up with ways to sidestep secondary sanctions, a Russian official told Business Standard.
The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was established in 2012 as an institutional mechanism for consultation and coordination for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
The 'Holi celebrations' event was organised by the Governor in the honour of the visiting dignitary and his delegation.
It aims at tackling issues such as child labour, mistreatment of workers, and denial of basic wages, among others. There will also be penalties for non-compliance.
India and the US on Friday said they have started talks to put in place a strategic framework for human space flight by year-end as they plan to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024.
The MEA said the two sides agreed to continue discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues "at the earliest" so as to create conditions for the restoration of normalcy in the bilateral relations.
The discussions took place on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
It is often said that the India-Indonesia relationship is overshadowed by mutual neglect.
Those who consider the rupee as a proxy for virility have started thumping their chests and dreaming of dethroning the dollar from its coveted position, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'The two sides agree to continue firmly supporting each other in safeguarding their respective core interests,' a joint statement issued at the end of Muizzu's talks with Chinese leaders said.
Shringla began his two-day official visit to Nepal on Thursday. He was accorded a warm welcome on his maiden visit to Nepal which is happening at the invitation of Nepal Foreign Secretary Paudyal, amid a strain in bilateral ties following a bitter border row between the two countries.
Qin, who is visiting New Delhi to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting on Thursday, is expected to meet Jaishankar on its sidelines though the foreign ministry here is tight-lipped about it.
India, the US and 12 other members of the IPEF grouping have signed a supply chain resilience agreement that would help mitigate risks of economic disruptions from supply chain shocks and improve crisis coordination. The agreement would help member countries like India to reduce their dependence on China and provide timely information to the IPEF member countries about potential supply disruptions. The COVID outbreak severely disrupted the global supply chain, as most countries were dependent on China for various products like pharma raw materials.
"I do not think they (World Bank) are in a position to interpret the treaty for us. It is a treaty between our two countries and our assessment of the treaty is that there is a provision of graded approach," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
The target of $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2020 is doable, feels Anand Sharma.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov focusing on the Ukraine conflict, bilateral ties and issues relating to the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin and they reviewed the full range of bilateral ties, including giving an impetus to trade as well as cultural linkages.
Rediff.com's Editor-in-chief Nikhil Lakshman, who is traveling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the BRICS summit in the Chinese town of Sanya, reports that the two Asian giants have agreed to set up a working mechanism to resolve irritants that have led to a deterioration in relations
The commander said the situation in the region has been stable and no major "changes or palpable shift of stance has been noted" even as the Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off in Demchok and Depsang in eastern Ladakh.
A powerful senatorial committee on Wednesday is set to consider a bipartisan resolution to recognise Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India, pushing back against China's military aggression to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control.
The attempt failed as other member countries felt Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
Describing the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to America as a "watershed moment" in bilateral ties, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has said that this week will be one of those moments that can change the course of history as the two democracies get together for peace and prosperity.
In a major development, India and the US have agreed to end six trade disputes at the WTO through mutually agreed solutions, while New Delhi will remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples.
The rising dependence on discounted crude oil has resulted in India's trade deficit with Russia hitting the second-highest place last year, after China, reveals Department of Commerce data. From April through January 2022-23 (FY23), India's maximum trade deficit was with China, at $71.58 billion. This was followed by Russia, where the deficit expanded sevenfold - from $4.86 billion in April-January of 2021-22 (FY22) to $34.79 billion during the same period in FY23.
India and China achieved a major milestone this year when their bilateral trade crossed the landmark figure of $100 billion but it did not generate any fanfare in both capitals as the two Asian giants are going through a "particularly bad patch" in their relations due to a set of actions by Beijing in violation of agreements that led to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Starting with a modest $1.83 billion in 2001, the bilateral trade crossed $100 billion-mark in the first 11 months this year, a significant milestone for which the two countries carried out campaigns to boost trade and build it as a major stakeholder to improve the relations between two nations, whose ties otherwise remained frosty over the festering boundary dispute and strategic rivalry. According to last month's data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC), the India-China bilateral trade totalled $114.263 billion, up 46.4 per cent year-on-year from January to November 2021.
Haokip advocated giving "political and administrative recognition to the ethnic separation" in the state, upping the ante from earlier vaguely explained demands for a "separate administration" for Kuki areas made by fellow Kuki community leaders.
Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath has discussed mechanisms for development of the economic partnership between India and the UAE with UAE Foreign Trade Minister Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, it was announced in Dubai on Monday.
State Bank of India, the nation's largest lender, has stopped processing transactions of Russian entities that have been sanctioned by the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, sources said. To effect this, SBI has issued a circular as it fears that any transaction with entities or sectors under sanction will invite sanction on it as well, sources said. No transactions involving entities, banks, ports or vessels appearing on a US, European Union or United Nations sanctions list would be processed irrespective of the currency of the transaction, they said. Payments due to such entities have to be processed by other mechanism rather than through the banking channel, sources added.
Seeking to further strengthen bilateral economic relations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India and the US will "restart" discussions on the Social Security Agreement and resume talks on Bilateral Investment Treaty.
India has told China not to "shift goalposts" and "confuse" managing the border affairs and restoring peace at the frontiers with the larger issue of the resolution of the boundary question, which is dealt with by different designated mechanisms.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Santo Domingo on his first official visit to the Dominican Republic, also said that India has seen a dramatic expansion in connectivity, contacts, and cooperation across the region.
