1) India, Iran sign 12 key agreements
- Current Affirs India and Iran on 23rd May signed 12 key agreements in various fields. The agreements included pacts on developing Chabahar port. Also, pacts in fields of science and technology, transportation, academic cooperation, culture, economy and trade were inked
- The agreements were signed after Delegation-level talks held between the two countries on a wide range of issues.
- Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Iran on a bi-lateral visit in 15 years
- Prime Minister Modi said that agreement to develop the Chabahar port and related infrastructure as well as availability of about 500 million dollars from India is a key milestone.
- India and Iran exchanged views on the emerging regional situation and global issues of common concern. He said that the agenda and scope of our partnership is truly substantial.
2) Agreements with Iran
- The agreement to develop Phase I of Chabahar port is seen as India`s counter to the development of the deep-sea port of Gwadar, in Balochistan in Pakistan, located just 72 km away.
- The development of Chabahar port will allow India to circumvent Pakistan and open up an alternative land-sea route for its trade with Afghanistan and beyond to Central Asia.
- India has already spent $100 million in building the 220-km Zaranj-Delaram highway in Afghanistan, also known as Route 606, which connects to Chabahar.
- India committed around $500 million for the important port in Iran`s southern coast, which will serve as a "point of connectivity" between India, Afghanistan, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and East Europe.
- Terming terrorism as a "big problem running rife and rampant in the region", Rouhani said that both the nations have discussed the issue and agreed to share intelligence to combat the menace.
- The two countries discussed about political issues as well and how they can cooperate on intelligence sharing and how they can get closer to each other in the fight against terrorism and extremism and how they can contribute to peace and stability in the whole region
- As regards the economic cooperation, besides developing the Chabahar port, India and Iran also signed agreements in diverse fields like trade credit, culture, science and technology as well as railways.
3) President discusses issues including border, terrorism, nuclear with China
- Indian President Pranab Mukherjee had meeting with the top Chinese leader including his counterpart Mr. Xi Jinping and the Prime Minister LI keqiang on bilateral, multilateral and global issues in Beijing on 26th May
- Leaders from the both countries discussed expansion of finance and trade, flagship programmes, border issues, terrorism and nuclear issues
- The two countries resolved to cooperate in UN masoor Azhar issue. On border disputes both sides acknowledged that as neighbours, it is natural to have some differences but must find convergences to move ahead.
- India and China on 26th May signed eleven MOUs on academic co-operation.
- From Indian side, they included Nalanda university, IIT Delhi, IIM Calcutta, Central University of Gujrat, Visvesvarya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur and IIT, Bhubaneshwar with Peking University, Chang`an University, East china university of Political science and Law, Beijing Foreign University, Jinan university from China side.
- The area covered under the agreement include Science, engineering, research, academic exchange, computer science and engineering, urban planning and climate change.
4) Cabinet clears India, Japan pact on thermal power
- The Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to the MoU between India and Japan for promoting sustainable, stable and low-carbon thermal power development in India. The Cabinet also granted ex-post facto approval to the cadre review of the Indian Postal Service.
- The cadre review will enable the Department of Posts to meet the functional requirements and strengthening the cadre structure both in the headquarters and in the field on the basis of functional requirement.It will lead to creation of new posts at DG, ADG, SAG, JAG and JTS levels by decreasing Senior Time Scale posts.