1. Korea set to hold ASEAN maritime drills
• Two warships of the Indian Navy have reached the South Korean port city of Busan after participating at an international maritime parade off the coast of Qingdao in China.
• The Indian Navy said INS Kolkata and INS Shakti are in Busan as part of a deployment of the eastern fleet to the South China Sea.
• "In a demonstration of India`s Act East policy and the Indian Navy`s increasing footprint and operational reach, Indian naval ships Kolkata and Shakti have arrived at Busan, South Korea on a three-day visit as part of deployment of the Eastern Fleet to the South China Sea on April 28," it said in a statement.
• The two ships had gone to China to participate in the International Fleet Review (IFR), organised to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Navy.
• The Navy said the two ships will participate in the ADMM-Plus Maritime Security Field Training Exercise (FTX) at Busan.
• The ADMM-Plus is a platform of the 10-member bloc, ASEAN, and its eight dialogue partners. The aim of the ADMM-Plus is to strengthen the security and defence cooperation among the member countries of the grouping.
• In the United States, Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has accused President Donald Trump of abusing the powers of his office and ignoring everyone but his political base.
2. Global Food Policy Report (GFPR)
• According to the 2019 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR), rural areas continue to be in a state of crisis and threatening to slow the progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, global climate targets, and improved food and nutrition security due to hunger, malnutrition, poverty, environmental degradation. 821 mn people in the world are facing chronic food deprivation.
• The report was prepared by the Washington DC-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
• Rural transformation and revitalization have been the pre-eminent goal of India’s development efforts since independence, according to the report.
• It also points out the changing consumption patterns due to urbanization, increasing income, growing integration of food supply chains and food systems in India which offer new opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment in rural areas.
3. US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein submits his resignation
• US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate links between Russia and Donald Trump`s campaign in the Presidential elections, has submitted his resignation.
• In a letter to Mr Trump, Rosenstein said, he will leave his post on the 11th of next month. Attorney General William Barr confirmed in a statement that the letter had been submitted.
4. Belt and Road Initiative Progress
• The report titled, ‘The Belt and Road Initiative Progress, Contributions and Prospects’ released by the Leading Group for Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative had previously listed the BCIM as a BRI project. But, owing to the fact that India had skipped the Belt and Road Forum (BRF), the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor ran the possibility to be excluded from the list of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) umbrella.
• The BRI is a major initiative speared by China to reconstruct the ancient Silk Road connectivity across Eurasia and Africa.
• This has come to limelight after a document attached with the Joint Communique of the Leaders’ Roundtable of the BRF that concluded in Beijing, the website did not list the BCIM as a project under the BRI. South Asia is covered by 3 main undertakings, namely:
• the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC)
• the Nepal-China Trans-Himalayan Multi-dimensional Connectivity Network, inclusive of the Nepal-China cross-border railway
• the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
• For the 2nd time, India did not participate in the BRF since the CPEC passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
5. ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting
• INS Kolkata and INS Shakti arrived at Busan, South Korea to participate in ADMM-PLUS (ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting).
• Indian Navy’s 2 warships, INS Kolkata and INS Shakti had gone to Qingdao in China to participate in the International Fleet Review (IFR), which is an international maritime parade organised off the coast of China. It is celebrated to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Navy.
• After participating in the parade, the 2 warships, INS Kolkata and INS Shakti reached Busan, South Korean port city on a 5-day visit as part of a deployment of the Eastern Fleet to the South China Sea. The deployment was regarding demonstration of Act East policy of India and the Indian Navy’s rising footprint and operational reach.
• During the 5-day visit, the warships will develop professional interaction with ADMM-Plus Navies for boosting naval co-operation between the countries.
• The Indian Navy notified that the 2 warships, on arrival were welcomed into the harbour by Republic of Korea’s (ROK) Navy’s officials. The ships will participate in the ADMM-Plus Maritime Security Field Training Exercise (FTX) at Busan.
• The ships will depart on 1st May, 2019, after which they are scheduled to join a maritime security exercise with the participating navies. After the completion of this exercise, the warships will sail to Singapore to celebrate the closing ceremony of the ADMM-Plus exercise.
• The Navy also notified that INS Kolkata and INS Shakti will also participate in the International Maritime Defence Expo, IMDEX-19, and the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise, SIMBEX, both at Singapore.
• The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN, the 10-member bloc and its eight dialogue partners, namely, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russian Federation and the United States. The prime objective of the ADMM-Plus is to strengthen the security and defence cooperation for peace, stability and development in the region.
6. UN agency praises India on minimising loss of life from Cyclone Fani
• The UN agency for disaster reduction has commended the Indian Meteorological Department`s almost pinpoint accuracy of early warnings that helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimize the loss of life as extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall near the coastal city of Puri.
• Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Head of the Geneva-based UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Mami Mizutori said that India`s zero casualty approach to managing extreme weather events is a major contribution to the implementation of the Sendai Framework and the reduction of loss of life from such events.
• Mizutori was referring to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda. It is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the state has the primary role to reduce disaster risk.
• UN agencies are monitoring Fani`s movements closely and taking measures to protect families living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which is on .
7. Afghan President announces to release 175 Taliban prisoners
• Afghanistan`s president Ashraf Ghani has announced the release of 175 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture.
• The Taliban has so far refused to engage in direct peace talks with the government.
• The militants are negotiating directly with a US envoy in Qatar, as Washington seeks to wind up the longest war in its history, which began in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.
• The goodwill gesture is the result of the three-day huge peace meeting held in Kabul demanding immediate and permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan.
8. US lawmakers urge Trump administration not to end India`s trade privileges
• US lawmakers urge Trump administration not to end India`s trade privileges.
• Twenty-four US members of Congress sent a letter yesterday to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, urging him not to end a vital trade concession for India, a day before the Trump administration is likely to announce a decision on it.
• The lawmakers said that ending the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which allows preferential duty-free imports of up to 5.6 billion dollars from the South Asian nation, would impose “hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new taxes” on American companies. They urged the administration to continue negotiating a deal with India that would protect American jobs.
• A decision to scrap the trade privilege comes as President Donald Trump has vowed to cut the US trade deficit and repeatedly called out India for high tariffs. India is the world’s largest beneficiary of GSP.
9. GReVD: SIPRI launches Global Registry of Violent Deaths
• Stockholm International peace research institute (SIPRI) has launched a new initiative named Global Registry of Violent Deaths (GReVD) to establish the annual number of violent deaths worldwide.GReVD will count deaths caused by all forms of violence and display these in an open-source database and enable monitoring of progress on the world’s commitment to ‘significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere’ by 2030 as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—Goal 16.
• The database will enable policymakers and researchers and the general public to track trends in violence at global, regional, national, provincial, city and municipal levels.
• GReVD will hold a single entry for every violent death, including perpetrator, time, location, victim and type of violence.
• The sources will be verifiable news reports of lethal events and processing will involve machine coding to manage the volume of entries, as well as human coding to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• The first phase of the project is financed by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and Swedish Postcode Foundation.