Newsletter 11 March

Sino-India Standoff:

Ahead of QUAD Meeting on Mar 12^,QUAD to Reject the 2007 Chinese Veto on its Foreign Policies

The meeting of leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or QUAD – India, Australia, Japan and the US –signifies three things.
The QUAD virtual summit tomorrow (Fri) will send a message that it is there to stay and reject the veto it had inadvertently allowed China on its foreign policy 15 years ago when it first met in 2007.
“The real test of the QUAD summit will be whether it can send a credible message to the world that democratic rule-based countries can join hands-on shared political and economic values,” said a former Indian foreign secretary.
The QUAD grouping’s first meeting at the level of senior officials was held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Manila in 2007.
The same year, a naval exercise under the banner of Malabar was held in the Bay of Bengal with the participation of QUAD plus Singapore.
However, the move dissipated when China served a demarche on all the countries asking them to explain whether this was an anti-Beijing alliance in the making.
With the Left supported UPA-I at the helm in Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs went to great lengths to assuage China that QUAD had nothing to do with cooperative security and defense.
The message from Beijing was so hard that 2008 Malabar exercises turned bilateral with US and Indian navies participating in the Arabian Sea.
Australia also reacted in a similar way and went out of its way to pacify Beijing.
In the past 15 years, China has shown that it is not bothered about any other country when it comes to its self-defined core interests, while the US has come off its horse playing the lone ranger.
India, under Narendra Modi, has moved towards the global stage by leading in disaster management, peacekeeping forces, solar energy and becoming the pharmacy of the world by supplying needy countries and friends with drugs from HCQ, paracetamol to Covid-19 vaccine without any quid pro quo.
India today not only shares the collective concerns of QUAD, who are natural rule-based democracies but also has become a credible force in the Indo-Pacific.

The QUAD summit tomorrow signifies 3 things:

The democratic world cannot afford to ignore India as it is a principal player on the global stage, which has the confidence to converge with other countries to serve its national interest. The days of wishy-washy non-aligned are gone as India demonstrated during the East Ladakh stand-off with PLA that it can stand up to any country if its national security is threatened.
The QUAD summit is also an indicator of a humbler America, which is now keen to forge cooperative mechanisms with like-minded countries to serve larger global interests.
The QUAD summit clearly sends a message that it cannot allow an expansionist China to have a veto on foreign policies of democratic countries.

A. While the global community was unsure of Chinese political objectives in 2007, the 2008 crackdown on Buddhists in Tibet, Uighurs in Xinjiang, incorporation of Hong Kong, the ruthless domination of South China Sea, its moves to co-opt Taiwan have shown the true colors of Communist rulers of Beijing.

B. Besides, the trade action on Australia, coercive moves against the US in the South China Sea against the US navy, expanding the Senkaku Island dispute with Japan and aggression on East Ladakh against India under the garb of a sweeping global coronavirus pandemic have shown that the Middle Kingdom wants to move to be the center-stage of the world.

While the many strategists debate whether the QUAD will be institutionalized or not and Chinese supporters among them will say that India has dumped old ally Russia for QUAD, the fact is that QUAD is a forceful idea whose time has come.

The White House on Wed said elevating the Quad – which comprises India, the US, Australia and Japan – to a first summit-level meeting is an American initiative, adding that it has been convened by President Joe Biden.

However, Indian experts says Biden is diluting the China threat, look at the agenda for the Quad. Note this will be a repeat pattern:

Talk big on China but dilute action against it
Get a fawning press to focus on words
Use the embassy in Delhi to undermine GoI

India now as autocratic as Pakistan, worse than Bangladesh: Sweden institute’s Democracy Report

After Freedom House report said India is only ‘partly free’ now, V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report has downgraded India from ‘world’s largest democracy’ to ‘electoral autocracy’.
The 5^th annual democracy report by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, titled ‘Autocratisation goes viral’, has downgraded India from “the world’s largest democracy” to an “electoral autocracy”, citing “muzzling” of the media, and overuse of defamation and sedition laws.
V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) claims to produce the largest dataset on democracy with almost 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2020.
While India’s score was at an all-time high at 0.57 (on a scale of 0-1) in 2013, it had declined to 0.34 by the end of 2020. “Most of the decline occurred following BJP’s victory in 2014 and their Hindu nationalist agenda,” says the report.

Govt seeks to firewall telecom infra from Chinese threat

In a move that will restrict the business of top Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE in India’s 4G/5G telecom expansion, the Govt on Wed took decisive steps towards securing the mobile eco-system.
Post-June 15, the Govt has mandated the equipment can be procured only from ‘trusted’ sources that have been approved by a Designated Authority.

ISRO ships radar to NASA for world's 1st twin-radar Sat Mission

Seven years after India and the US signed an agreement in 2014 to jointly develop the world’s first earth observation satellite with two different radars that can produce very high-resolution images, ISRO has achieved a key milestone by making the S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar and shipping it to NASA for integration with the L-band payload being developed by the US agency.
Once the integration of the two radars is done, NASA will send them to India where other parts of the Nasa-ISRO SAR (NISAR) satellite will be built.
ISRO will then use its GSLV Mk-II rocket to launch NISAR from the Sriharikota Launchpad.
The satellite will be the world’s first-of-its-kind that will operate on two radio frequencies with capability to collect data day and night and in all weather, including during cloudy days.
Besides supporting a host of applications, NISAR, which will be able to “measure changes in the Earth’s surface less than a centimeter across”, will also help measure and study dynamic surfaces, ice masses like Himalayan glaciers, sea level rise and groundwater level.
On Mar 4^th, the Isro chairman flagged off the S-band SAR from the agency’s Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre through virtual mode to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California’s Pasadena.
Isro chairman K Sivan told TOI: “Nasa will integrate our S-band and their L-band radars and sent the integrated module back to India in the first quarter of next year and the complete satellite will be ready by 2022-end. We will then target to launch NISAR in early 2023.”
NISAR will have an imaging band — the width of the strip of data collected along the length of the orbit track — greater than 240 km and will therefore observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity.
Over the course of multiple orbits, the radar images will allow users to track changes in crop-lands and hazard sites, as well as monitor ongoing crises such as volcanic eruptions.
A 2800 kg NISAR, is estimated to be the world’s most expensive imaging satellite, which total cost includes Isro’s work share cost of about Rs 788 crore and about $808 million of NASA.
As per the partnership, Nasa has to provide the satellite mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload data subsystem while ISRO will make arrangement for the spacecraft bus, S-band radar, the launch vehicle (GSLV) and associated launch services for the mission. NASA administrator Charles Bolden and the then Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan had signed the NISAR partnership agreement in Toronto on Sept 30, 2014.
Since then, both space agencies have been working hard on this sophisticated satellite mission.

Visit of US Secretary of Defense to India

Secretary of Defense of United States of America, General Lloyd J Austin will visit India from Mar 19-21.
During his visit, Secretary Austin is expected to meet Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh and other senior dignitaries of the Govt of India.
Secretary Austin’s visit to India as part of his first overseas travel emphasizes the strength of the India-US strategic partnership.

On call with Saudi’s Mohammed bin Salman, PM Modi talks trade, investment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud discussed bilateral ties between India and the Gulf nation during a phone call on Wed.
The two leaders agreed on continued support for each other against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement.
The PM and Crown Prince reviewed the functioning of the bilateral Strategic Partnership Council established in 2019 and expressed satisfaction over the steady growth in the India-Saudi partnership, statement read.
During the call on Wed, Modi discussed with the Saudi leader his wish to further expand trade and investment between the two countries and also brought to spotlight the opportunities that the Indian economy offers to Saudi investors.
They also reviewed regional and international developments of mutual interest, according to PMO.
The PM reiterated his invitation to the Saudi Crown Prince to visit India at an early date.
The Saudi leader last visited India two years ago in Feb when in the joint statement, the two leaders emphasized the need to fight terror and “agreed” to put pressure on countries providing support to terrorism in any form.
The two leaders also met in 2018 in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, where they decided to set up a mechanism at the leadership level to scale up Saudi’s in energy, infrastructure, and defense sectors in India.
They had also discussed ways to further boost economic, cultural, and energy ties.

Two militants were killed in an encounter in Kadipura village in Anantnag.

They looked like local terrorists… Militancy isn’t rising, number of anti-terrorist operations are rising: IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar. militants eliminated by security forces in Anantnag have been identified as Adil Ahmad Bhatt and Zahir Ameen Rather, said CRPF.

Crude oil coming out of ground in few villages in Meghalaya: Congress MLA

A Congress MLA Hima Shangpliang on Wed told the Meghalaya Assembly that some people in his constituency are claiming that crude oil is coming out of the ground in a few villages
The MLA told the Govt to inquire into this matter and find out the efficacy of this claim by the people and see if Meghalaya could also be in the list of oil producing states in the country.
In his reply, Taxation Minister James PK Sangma said, “This is a matter of the Central Govt.
Later, Shangpliang told PTI that villagers in Umlynter and Weisohpiang area are claiming that crude oil is coming out of the ground.

Interpol notice against self-styled godman for sexually abusing minor girls in Delhi in 2017

79-year-old self-styled godman Virendra Deo Dixit who is accused of confining and sexually assaulting minors is suspected to be hiding in Nepal. An Interpol notice has been issued against him.
The case came to light in June 2017 when two complainants approached the Delhi Police about sexual and physical abuse of women at Adhyatamik Vishwa Vidyalaya in Vijay Vihar area of North Delhi.

Poll bound, WB CM, Mamata Banerjee, got injured after car door slammed her leg, claims eyewitness

Nimai Maiti, owner of a sweet shop near which the incident happened, claimed that the TMC supremo got injured after the door of the car she was travelling in slammed her leg.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed she suffered injurieson being pushed by a group of “4/5 people” in Nandigram, eyewitnesses said no attack took place and termed it a mishap.
Bengal BJP Vice President Pratap Banerjee said BJP will demand a high-level probe into the attack on Mamata Banerjee, will demand suspension of local police.
Who will take responsibility for attack on Mamata Banerjee, when EC is in charge of administration: TMC leader Partha Chatterjee.
I sustained injuries in hand, leg and ligament. I was standing near the car when I was pushed against it. I am on medication & will soon leave from Kolkata: Ms Banerjee said in her 1^st message from hospital.

NEIGHBORHOOD/ WORLD

US will speak out forcefully against China committing ‘genocide’ against Uyghur Muslims: Blinken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US will speak out forcefully against China committing “genocide” against the Uyghur Muslims in its Xinjiang province, as several lawmakers expressed concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the communist nation, ahead of the first face-to-face meeting of top American and Chinese officials next week since President Joe Biden took office.
The White House and State Department said on Wed that Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will see China’s top foreign policy officials, the foreign affairs chief of the ruling Communist Party of China, Yang Jiechi, and State Councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi on Mar 18 in Anchorage, Alaska.
Blinken told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a Congressional hearing that the US will continue to speak out forcefully and shine a light on “egregious violations of human rights” by China.
The meeting with the Chinese in Alaska will come just days after Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin see their Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo and Seoul to reaffirm US treaty alliances with those nations.
It will also come less than a week after Biden holds a virtual summit with the top leaders of India, Japan and Australia to discuss Indo-Pacific policy.
US-China relations nose-dived while Donald Trump was president, with his administration taking multiple actions against Beijing for its actions against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang and in Tibet, its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, aggressive actions toward Taiwan and staking claims to territory in the South China Sea.

Anchorage meeting to reset China-US ties cautiously; China welcomes problem solving rather than wrangling

An upcoming “2+2” meeting between China’s and the US’ chief diplomats and senior officials in charge of foreign affairs is scheduled to be held Mar 18-19.
Chinese state media, Global Times published by citing Chinese experts that China welcomed the intention for dialogue from the new administration led by Joe Biden, but stressed that such a high-level meeting should focus on solving problems.
Observers reached by the Global Times on Thu said that this first step for resetting China-US ties has been scheduled earlier than expected, which creates cautious optimism.
At the invitation of the US, Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Mar 18-19 in Anchorage, Alaska for a high-level strategic dialogue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced on Thu.

Myanmar’s military junta removes Rakhine rebels from list of terrorist groups

Myanmar’s military junta has removed Arakan Army (AA) insurgents from its list of terrorist groups in order to help establish peace across the country. The state media said on Thu that the Rakhine rebels, as the faction is referred to as, had stopped attacks in Myanmar.
The move also comes at a time when the army is struggling to contain daily protests against its Feb 1 coup in which elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown. The AA had been placed on the list of terrorist groups last year under Kyi’s Govt.