July 2011
The President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil visited South Korea on 24-27 July 2011 as a part of her two-nation tour, which also includes Mongolia. The state visit of the Indian President was aimed at accelerating India’s cooperation with South Korea. During this visit, India and Korea signed the following agreements:
- Agreement between India and Korea for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
- MoU signed between the Ministry of External Affairs of India and the Ministry of Culture, sports and tourism of Korea on Media exchanges.
- Administrative Arrangement for Social Security arrangement.
- India and Mongolia signed three agreements, which includes defence cooperation, media exchanges and cooperation between their planning commissions during the visit of Indian President Prtibha Patil to Mongolia. India also announced that it would extend a 20 million US dollars line of credit for setting up an India - Mongolia Joint Information Technology, Education and Outsourcing Centre in Ulaanbaatar. Besides, India will also upgrade and modernize the Rajiv Gandhi Art and Production School and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology.This is the first Indian Presidential visit after a gap of 23 years; the last was by President R. Venkataraman. Mongolia is a land locked central Asian country. It is also described as land of the blue skies.
- The Government of India signed an Agreement and Protocol for Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital (DTAA) with Government of Lithuania in New Delhi. Lithuania is the first Baltic country with which DTAA has been signed by India. The Agreement further incorporates provisions for effective exchange of information between tax authorities of the two countries in line with latest international standard, including exchange of banking information and supplying of information without recourse to domestic interest.
- India and Britain on 26 July 2011 confirmed trade deals worth billions of pounds after the talks concluded between Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in London. The talks were a part of the Economic and Financial dialogue between the two countries. The commercial ties are growing between UK and India. Around 3000 British firms were either investing in or planning to invest in India.
- The Second annual meeting of the India-US strategic dialogue was held in New Delhi on 19 July 2011 to strengthen the India-US global strategic partnership. The dialogue was held during the official visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India. The two nations issued a joint statement at the end of the dialogue.
The main features of the statement are as following—
- India, the United States, and Japan plan to commence a trilateral dialogue at senior official level.
- The two sides reaffirmed their commitment for consultation, coordination, and cooperation on Afghanistan, and to work jointly in Afghanistan in capacity building, agriculture, and women’s empowerment, expanding on work already underway. Both sides agreed to Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and inclusive reconciliation.
- The United States looks forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
- India-USA reiterated their commitment to further strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation, including through intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, and access to advanced counter-terrorism technology and equipment.
- The two governments signed a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) on July 18.