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]]>According to the official, negotiations have entered the final phase, and discussions are currently focused on finalizing the wording and structure of the agreement. “We are very close to sealing the deal,” the official noted, emphasizing that only minor differences remain to be resolved.
The talks, which have been progressing steadily, no longer face any major obstacles. “Both sides are converging on most matters, and there are no new contentious issues,” the official added.
So far, five rounds of discussions have been completed between New Delhi and Washington as part of the first phase of the trade pact. The agreement is expected to strengthen economic cooperation and boost bilateral trade relations between the two countries.
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]]>The post India Will Not Rush Trade Deals, Says Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>“We are engaged in active discussions with the European Union (EU) and the United States, but India never enters into agreements hastily or under coercion,” Goyal stated. “We do not finalize deals with a gun to our head. Every agreement must be carefully considered and beneficial for the country in the long run,” he added.
The minister highlighted that India is exploring new global markets to manage the challenges posed by high import tariffs and to diversify its trade portfolio. When asked whether India was receiving fair and sustainable trade offers, Goyal said, “India’s partnerships are always driven by national interest. No external power can dictate whom we choose to collaborate with. If someone says we can’t work with the EU or Kenya, that’s simply not acceptable.”
He also emphasized that global trade decisions, such as the purchase of particular commodities, should be made based on collective reasoning and mutual benefit. His comments come amid reports of US pressure on India to reduce or halt crude oil imports from Russia, highlighting the growing complexity of international trade relations.
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]]>“We are now in recession, it is worse than the global financial crisis,” news agency Xinhua quoted Georgiwa’s statement at a joint press conference with the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday.
The Managing Director of the IMF while talking about the ‘double crisis’ like health and economic said that this is unprecedented in the history of IMF due to the increasing outbreak of covid-19.
Georgieva stressed that there is a need to work together to save lives and livelihoods in the midst of fighting the covid-19 around the world. According to data from the World Health Organization, currently more than 1 million people worldwide have been infected with covid-19 infection, of which more than 50,000 people have lost their lives.
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]]>The post China Fires Its ‘Aircraft-Carrier Killer Missile’ Amid US Spy Planes Reconnaissance appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarizing its man-made islands in the past few years, which it says it has the right to defend.
Beijing claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea. But Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims. In the East China Sea, China has territorial disputes with Japan. The South China Sea and the East China Sea are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade.
China launched two missiles, including an “aircraft-carrier killer”, into the South China Sea (SCS) on Wednesday morning, a day after US U-2 spy plane entered a no-fly zone during a Chinese live-fire naval drill in the Bohai Sea off its north coast, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
One of the missiles, a DF-26B, was launched from the north-western province of Qinghai, while the other, a DF-21D, (aircraft-carrier killer missile) lifted off from Zhejiang province in the east.
Both were fired into an area between Hainan province and the Paracel Islands, the Post quoted Chinese military sources as saying. Paracel Islands fall in the disputed part of the South China Sea.
The DF-26 dual-capable missile is a type of weapon banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the US and Soviet Union towards the end of the Cold War.
When the US withdrew from the treaty last year, it cited China’s deployment of such weapons as justification, the report said.
The DF-26 has a range of 4,000 kilometres and can be used in nuclear or conventional strikes against ground and naval targets. The DF-21 has a range of around 1,800 kilometres, with the state media describing it the most advanced in the series, and the DF-21D, as the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile.
The missile launch was aimed at improving China’s ability to deny other forces access to the South China Sea, the report quoted sources as saying. “This is China’s response to the potential risks brought by the increasingly frequent incoming US warplanes and military vessels in the South China Sea. China doesn’t want the neighboring countries to misunderstand Beijing’s goals,” the report said.
Asked for his comment on the missile launches at an online media briefing, Chinese Defence spokesman Sr. Col Wu Qian said China will not dance to the US tune or tolerate its reckless provocations. Wu slammed the recent US provocations in the South China Sea, stressing China is not afraid of such actions, state-run CGTN TV reported.
Besides sending the spy planes to the area of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills, the US added 24 Chinese companies to the Entity List on Wednesday for their role in China’s construction works in the South China Sea. China refuted the US accusations, terming the sanctions unjust.
Wu said the Chinese armed forces will take forceful measures to protect the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country and safeguard world and regional peace. “We advise some US politicians to recognize the realities, remain rational and stop provocation, so as to push the bilateral military relations back to the right track,” Wu said.
China lodged a diplomatic protest with the US on Wednesday objecting a second spy plane, specializing in gathering data on missile launches “intruded” into its “no-fly zone”, snooping over the ongoing military exercises by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the disputed South China Sea.
The US is increasing the frequency of its close-up reconnaissance of the PLA drills in order to pry about its capabilities, which is provocative, brings the risk of accidents, and could lead to escalation, Chinese experts told the state-run Global Times.
The US, which is piling up pressure on China on trade and diplomatic fronts during the past few months, also stepped up air and naval patrols in the South China Sea where USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Groups conducted a dual-carrier operation in the area last month in a show of strength.
Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based military commentator, said the missile launches were clearly meant to send a signal to the US. “The US continues to test China’s bottom line in Taiwan and South China Sea issues, and this pushed China to showcase its military strength to let Washington know that even US aircraft carriers cannot flex their full muscle near China’s coast,” Song told the Post.
-PTI
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