International Relations - 4 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Bangladesh Offers Chittagong Port For Use To India

What Does The Bangladesh PM’s Offer Mean?

• Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram — share a 1,879 km border with Bangladesh. The Northeast has been the key to the increase in bilateral engagements between India and Bangladesh in recent years.
• With a special focus on railways and waterways, many of the pre-Partition trade routes are being revived.
• Most of these roads lead to Chittagong port, which has historically been the largest and the most convenient for trade and commerce for the region.
• Against this backdrop, the current offer of Bangladesh will help these states to flourish economically

Activities On The Ground To Increase The Connectivity

• In March 2021, the Prime Ministers of the two countries inaugurated the Maitri Setu, a bridge built over the Feni River. This has reduced the distance between Sabroom in southern Tripura and the Chittagong port to just 111 km.
• The government is working on a multi-modal transit hub at Sabroom that can help goods reach the Chittagong port in a few hours.
• Road connectivity in Meghalaya’s Dawki, southern Assam’s Sutarkandi and Tripura’s Akhaura linking eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh is also being improved.
• Apart from the India-Bangladesh Protocol Route involving the Brahmaputra, cargo ships from Bangladesh have reached Tripura through the Gomati River and Assam’s Karimganj via the Kushiyara River.

Mujib-The Making Of Nation

• The first trailer of the feature film, ‘Mujib- the Making of a Nation’, was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival.
  • This year, India was the Country of Honour at the Marche du Film, or Cannes Market, which runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival.
• The film is a biopic of the founder and first Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
  
• The feature film directed by Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal is a co-production of India and Bangladesh.
• It is a tribute to the great leader on his birth centennial and to mark the 50 years of Bangladesh’s formation.

Visit of PM Modi to Nepal

Key Highlights Of The Visit

• PM Modi launched the construction of the India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage during a day-long visit to Lumbini in Nepal.
• The construction of the India International Centre for Buddhist Culture & Heritage is to be undertaken by the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), India, with financial support from the Ministry of Culture.
  • The IBC is a grantee body under the Ministry of Culture and it was registered in November 2012.
  • It aims to propagate and preserve the teachings and heritage of the Buddha across the world, and especially in India’s immediate neighbourhood.
• Most foreign nations, including US, China, Canada, France, Germany etc. have already built their centres in Lumbini as an instrument of promoting Buddhist philosophy.

2. MoUs Signed

• The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will sign two MOUs with authorities in Nepal:
  • One on setting up the Dr B R Ambedkar Chair for Studies on Buddhism at Lumbini University and
  • Another on a Chair Professor at Kathmandu University.

3. Sister City Relations Between Lumbini and Kushinagar

• The two sides agreed in principle to establish sister city relations between Lumbini and Kushinagar.

Trans-national Buddhist Tourist Circuit

• India’s Ministry of Tourism has collaborated with Nepal to build a trans-national Buddhist Tourist Circuit to trace the footsteps of Buddha.
  • This circuit will be starting from Lumbini and concluding at Kushinagar.
  • An international airport was recently inaugurated at Kushinagar.
• This circuit will be in addition to the project to build the Ramayana circuit linking various sites in the two countries.

Analysis Of This Visit

• His brief visit to Lumbini was focused on bringing soft power to the centre stage of India-Nepal relations.
• This also marked India’s formal presence at the holy site that’s barely 10 km away from the border.

2. Countering China

• The PM’s visit to Lumbini comes amidst China’s evident interest in Lumbini.
• Almost a decade ago, China had offered to build Lumbini as a world peace centre at a cost of three billion dollars. China is also holding talks on bringing its railway right up to Lumbini.{For more details, refer the topic “Visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal to India” from April 2022 Recitals}

PM Modi’s Meeting with President of the USA

• On the sidelines of Quad summit, PM Modi met with President of the USA in Tokyo.
• The two Leaders welcomed the signing of the Investment Incentive Agreement.
  • This agreement enables the US Development Finance Corporation to continue providing investment support in India in sectors of shared priority such as healthcare, renewable energy, SMEs, infrastructure etc.
• Both sides launched an India-U.S. Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) to facilitate outcome-oriented cooperation.
  • iCET would be co-led by the National Security Council Secretariat in India and the U.S. National Security Council.
  • It would forge closer linkages between government, academia and industry of the two countries in areas such as AI, quantum computing, 5G/6G, biotech, space and semiconductors.
  • India and USA extended the longstanding Vaccine Action Programme (VAP) until 2027 to continue joint biomedical research which had resulted in development of vaccines and related technologies.

US Becomes India’s Biggest Trading Partner

Key Highlights: Statistics

• According to the data of the Commerce Ministry, in 2021-22, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $119.42 billion. It was $80.51 billion in 2020-21.
• Exports to the US increased to $76.11 billion in 2021-22 from$51.62 billion in previous fiscal year. Imports from US rose to $43.31 billion as compared to about $29 billion in 2020-21.
  • America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2021-22, India had a trade surplus of $32.8 billion with the US

2. Bilateral Trade With China

• During 2021-22, India’s two-way commerce with China aggregated at $115.42 billion as compared to $86.4 billion in 2020-21.
• Exports to China marginally increased to $21.25 billion last fiscal year from $21.18 billion in 2020-21.
• On the other hand, imports from China jumped to $94.16 billion from about $65.21 billion in 2020-21.
• Trade gap rose to $72.91 billion in 2021-22 from $44 billion in previous fiscal year.

3. Trade With Other Countries

• In 2021-22, the UAE with $72.9 billion, was the third largest trading partner of India.