International Polity - Current Affairs for May, 2015

On 27th May’15 India denied that it had asked the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) to retract portions of its interview with President Pranab Mukherjee where he had made references to the Bofors issue, because it could affect the state visit of the President. The newspaper also claimed that it refused to retract the statement, and stood by its decision to play the portion where Mr. Mukherjee said that since no Indian court has given its judgment on the Bofors issue, it cannot be called a “scandal.”

It has been announced by the Home Minister Rajnath Singh that India and Bangladesh will soon sign an agreement on Teesta water sharing issue.

The agreements were inked during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to South Korea.

The Nelong Valley is situated in the picturesque Gangotri National Park (GNP) in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The beautiful valley of Uttarakhand state was opened recently for tourists for the first time since the 1962 Indo-China war because of its proximity to the China border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks at Xian in China. The talks lasted for about 90 minutes during which the two leaders discussed wide ranging issues including peace and tranquility on the border, trade imbalance and investment climate.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promoted one of Britain's most prominent Indian-origin MPs Priti Patel by making her the new Employment Minister, as he unveiled the first all-Conservative Cabinet in nearly 20 years with his top four aides retaining their previous portfolios.

The Pentagon says that China's official defence budget last year was 136.3 billion dollars while that of India was 38.2 billion dollars. The Pentagon said in its annual report to the Congress that China has significantly increased its defence budget over the past several decades and now has reached a position to pose threat to the American national security interest in the region.

The Bill was passed with historic unanimity in the Upper House with 180 members giving their nod to the issue hanging fire since 1974.

He is the first Indian leader to open an account on the popular miocroblog with over 500 million users to reach out to the Chinese people.

Kazakhstan election officials announced on the 28th of April, that the incumbent, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev of the Nur Otan Party, won his fifth successive term, securing 97.7% of the vote. The two opposing candidates, Abelgazi Kasainov and Turgun Syzdykov, got 0.7% and 1.6% of the votes respectively.

The 14th edition of Indo-French naval exercise VARUNA concluded on 2nd May’15 in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, along with Vice Admiral SPS Cheema, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command reviewing the progress of the exercise form on board French Navy’s Aircraft Carrier, Charles de Gaulle. The Indian Navy and the French Navy have been conducting naval exercises since 1983 and following the establishment of a strategic partnership, these exercises were christened as VARUN in 2001.