Japan and the Tamil Nadu government have signed a memorandum of understanding to take forward the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor project. Since 2000, Japanese companies have invested around US$5.3 billion in Tamil Nadu.
China’s largest networking and telecommunications equipment supplier is to invest US$500m in Tamil Nadu to set up an equipment manufacturing facility near Chennai. Huawei Telecommunications, one of the largest telecom equipment manufacturers in the world, expressed its intent to a delegation of Tamil Nadu officials which visited China last month, rediff reported.
In the past five years, the Sino-India Education and Technology Alliance (Sieta) has worked to place Chinese students into universities in south India, with a special focus on Tamil Nadu’s Vellore Institute of Technology, which admitted at least 360 Chinese students this year alone.
With the unequivocal backing of the United States for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, India’s two-year temporary term, due to end in December 2012, will continue well after that, the Hindustan Times reports . “We have no intention of leaving the Security Council. We are working to dovetail one into the other,” a senior Indian diplomat told the paper, referring to Delhi's present temporary and future permanent seats. India’s case will be bolstered by additional endorsements in the weeks ahead from both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the paper said. Meanwhile, interestingly, US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns wouldn't say if the US backed veto power for India, the Wall Street Journal reported .
China favours “democratic and patient consultations” on the question of reforming the United Nations Security Council, the government said a day after United States President Barack Obama endorsed a permanent seat for India, The Hindu newspaper reported Tuesday. While China supported "reasonable and necessary" reforms which “give priority to developing countries”, the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said it “understood India’s aspirations” to play a greater role in the UN, repeating its earlier position of not directly supporting India's candidature. China was “ready to keep contact with India...
US President Barack Obama Monday criticised India for shying away from condemning rights abuses in repressive states, saying those states with global aspirations should not remain silent and ignore "gross violations" in other countries. "If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often shied away from these issues," Mr. Obama said. “Speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It is not violating the rights of sovereign nations, it is staying true to our democratic principles."
Israel has cancelled its special strategic dialogue with London to protest a law that enables Britain to arrest visiting foreign officials for alleged war crimes, press reports in both countries said Wednesday. This week Israel's deputy prime minister Dan Meridor was forced to cancel a visit to London following warnings he could be arrested for alleged war crimes, the Daily Mail reported. He did so after Britain’s Foreign Office and Ministry of Justice warned him he could face an arrest warrant from pro-Palestinian activists.
New Delhi has an 'overriding strategic interest' in developing better relations with China, Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said this week. As we face the big issues, we do this in a cooperative manner so that we can negotiate solutions to the problems. We have an overriding strategic interest in letting relations grow in a healthy manner,” Menon was quoted as saying by IANS . He said it was impossible to believe that the two countries were unable to manage their ties, adding, that there is 'no zero sum game' among all major powers. Menon's comments follow a statement by...
Ahead of Tuesday’s mid-term elections in the United States, the question of what the outcome might mean for US foreign policy seems to have a consensus answer: no change. An analysis in the GlobalPost website says most political analysts believe there will likely be no significant change in the direction of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. Indeed, some analysts predict that if the Republicans take control of Congress, President Obama, just as President Clinton did, will place greater emphasis on foreign policy. Ms. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the director of policy planning for the US...
A Chinese company, Shanghai Electric Co Ltd, has secured a $10bn contract to supply coal-fired generators to India’s Reliance Power Ltd, in a deal financed by Chinese banks, business press reports said. Shanghai Electric is China’s biggest power-equipment maker by market value, and Reliance Power’s order may be the world’s largest for generators, Bloomberg reported .