Seven Agreements with Qatar to Boost Bilateral Ties
- India and Qatar signed seven agreements on June 5, 2016 to strengthen ties, bilateral trade between two countries reached $ 15.7 billion in 2014-2015.
- Finance intelligence to check money laundering and terrorism financing, foreign investment in the infrastructure sector from the gas-rich Gulf State.
- Cooperation and investment in areas of skill development and education, health, tourism and sports between the two countries were the agreements.
Prime Minister Inaugurated Afghan-India Friendship Dam
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the $ 290 million Afghan-India Friendship Dam on June 4, 2016.
- The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier ! known as Salma Dam, on the river Chist-e-Sharif in western Herat neighbouring Iran, will irrigate 75000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power.
- The project executed and implemented by WAPCOS Limited, a government of India undertaking under Ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.
India became Co-chair of Working Group on Maritime Situational Awareness
- India was chosen through consensus to chair the working group on Improving Maritime Situational Awareness (MSA) in the region at the 19th Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) held in Mahe, Seychelles during May 31 to June 3, 2016.
- The session was chaired by Joel Morgan, the Foreign Minister of the Seychelles and more than 60 countries and organisations participated in the meeting.
- The CGPCS was set-up as a group of Interested and affected nations, industry associations and multilateral agencies to take pro-active steps for checking piracy 1 in the Indian Ocean region through a UN Security Council resolution, Seychelles Is the current Chairman of the CGPCS for the biennium 2016-17.
Agreement with USA to Share Data on Terrorists
- The Home Ministry signed an j agreement on June 2, 2016 to join the global terror database maintained by the Terrorist J Screening Centre (TSC) of the USA.
- Under this arrangement, both sides will give each other access to terrorism screening information through designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations.
- Both countries will be benefited because USA has expertise in this field. Similarly, USA has scant knowledge of India’s neighbourhood where India with help in assessing the problem.
Agreement with USA to Enhance Cooperation in Wildlife Conservation
- The Union Cabinet approved MoU between the USA and India to enhance cooperation in the field of wildlife conservation and combating wildlife trafficking on June 1. 2016.
- India and the USA have rich biodiversity and natural heritage and established network of Protected Areas in their respective territories.
- As there is scope fur both the countries to share professional expertise to address priority wildlife conservation concerns vo that both countries would be benefited.
- Under this Pact, both countries will cooperate in various areas like wildlife fhrensics and conservation genetkv natural world heritage conservation, nature interpretation and conservation awaareness.
