Manmohan-Zardari Talks: Pakistani President on Dargah Diplomacy

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari paid day-long private visit to India on April 8. During his stay and talks with Indian leaders, he offered prayers at the Ajmer Sharif did help the two South Asian neighbors reduce mutual tension and consider practical ways to speedily settle some of the less contentious issues such as Sir Creek and Siachen.
At his one-on-one meeting with Zardari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, made it a point to highlight the issue of terrorism upfront and unequivocally told the Pakistani leader that action must be initiated against Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and other perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
The Pakistani president offered prayers at the historic 13th century dargah of sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer after which a $1 million donation for the shrine was announced.
Friendly and Constructive Progress
After a warm handshake and clasp and smiles for the media, the two leaders sat down for talks, which Singh said were "very constructive and friendly."
The prime minister clearly told the Pakistani president at their talks that progress in bilateral relations rested entirely on the way Islamabad handled terrorism, stressing that those behind the 26/11 Mumbai attack must be brought to justice.
Manmohan Singh also accepted Zardari’s invitation to visit Pakistan, and hoped such a visit would take the peace process forward. Singh also brought up the activities of Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 mastermind, on whom the US has recently put a $10 million bounty.
Singh also told Zardari that Pakistan must prevent terrorist activities against India from its soil. The two leaders discussed the problem of terrorism, which is a major issue by which the Indian people will judge progress in the bilateral relationship.
Reflecting the view of Islamabad, the Pakistani president said the issue of Hafiz Saeed, on whose head the US recently declared a bounty of $10 million, needed to be discussed between the Home/Interior secretaries of the two countries who would meet shortly in Islamabad. He also stated that there were legal processes in Pakistan without going through which the civilian government could not move against the masterminds of the Mumbai attack.
Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek Issues
On “core issues” such as Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, the two sides noted Sir Creek was “doable.”
Zardari raised issues such as Sir Creek, Siachen and Jammu and Kashmir and stressed the need for resolving them. To this, the prime minister said both sides needed to move step by step and that the bilateral dialogue was in the mutual interest of the two countries.
India-China Model Emulated

However, for the first time perhaps, Islamabad indicated that it was seriously looking at the India-China model of bilateral relations wherein the two countries have put contentious issue on the backburner and made significant gains in their trade and commercial ties.
The Pakistani president said though India had several issues of discord with China, their trade relations were booming. Zardari suggested that the India-China model could help improve the relations between India and Pakistan.
High-level officials have been pointing out that more than action against Hafiz Saeed, this visit could begin the trend of top leaders meeting each other more frequently so that issues that appear to be getting nowhere in talks with bureaucrats — such as the stapled visa issue with China — could be resolved to reduce ill will.
Prime Minister Accepts Invitation To Visit Islamabad
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan, with India indicating that concrete actions against anti-India terrorists.
Only recently, he had told Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that the time to visit should be when there is a substantive announcement to make — something “solid” on the table. There is, therefore, a nuanced shift here. Since Pakistan has entered its election year, it is to be seen if the prime minister will seek to visit before the elections are announced. To that extent, he may have put himself under some pressure to decide unless he does indeed intend to go to Pakistan soon. After the election, the invitation will have to be renewed by the next government if Singh is to contemplate a visit.

China Lauds Development

China has lauded Zardari's visit to New Delhi, stating better ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbors would benefit both countries and bring stability in the region. Better ties between Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed heavyweight neighbors on the South Asian subcontinent, will benefit both countries and regional stability. The two countries’ efforts in warming up their ties certainly are welcomed and applauded by the international community including China, which neighbors both nations and maintains significant ties with them.China and Pakistan have been all-weather friends over the past decades, while both China and India have been members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), a bloc of five major emerging economies that also includes Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
After the improvement in trade relations, marked by Pakistan recently agreeing to India’s long-standing demand of barring only those Indian goods that are on a negative list, Zardari’s lunch with the Prime Minister in a conducive atmosphere in the Indian capital will push the sense along that the mood is not one of hostility, although Islamabad has done little to bring the Mumbai attackers to justice.

India-Russia Summit: Efforts To Resolve Bilateral and International Issues

The India-Russia summit has recently been concluded in Moscow. During his discussions with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an emphatic point about the utility, execution and expansion of the Russia-assisted Koodankulam nuclear power project, underlines the unerring durability of the relations between the two countries. The value of the relationship for both has transcended changes of government in New Delhi and the changed character of the state from communist to capitalist in Moscow. There were contretemps in Russia when the switch-over to capitalism was in progress, but the dispelling of doubts was swift as the new masters in the Kremlin looked around their region and the globe.
India’s continued pairing with Russia on a range of issues — to do with national security on the political as well as the hardware side, science and technology, and now possibly the education sector in terms of the understanding reached at the just-ended summit — plays a role of balance at a time when India’s relations have been fruitfully advanced with the West, especially the United States. Anxieties in the minds of not a few that the United States is invading every sphere of policymaking in this country appear misplaced when the significance of the Russian connection is understood in its widest meaning. The coming into being of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) bloc in international affairs in recent years further cements India-Russia relations, which are not bedeviled by irritants in the bilateral sphere.
Areas of Mutual Interest
The agreements covered all the key areas that underpin the “special and privileged” strategic partnership between the two countries — energy, defence, space, trade and investment, and working together on the international scene. While a formal agreement on Units 3 and 4 at Kudankulam nuclear power project was not signed, pending the resolution of the safety issue controversy in India, the sides moved forward with the project. They agreed on exceptional soft loan terms for the new reactors that will ease the financial burden for India at the time of a global economic slowdown. The talks in Moscow also firmed up prospects for India to expand its presence in Russian oil and gas through joint ventures with Gazprom and Novatek.
Besides the global and regional issues, India and Russia have to further expand their bilateral cooperation in different areas of mutual interest like trade and industry, defense-related matters and civilian nuclear energy.
The two countries do not have a mere buyer-seller relationship. The prime minister has to ensure that more joint ventures, particularly in the area of defense, are undertaken so that India gets cutting-edge technologies from Russia.
Defense Supplies and Technology
In the four decades since the Indo-Soviet treaty the global political, strategic and economic landscapes have changed dramatically, but the core of the bilateral relationship was (and remains) cooperation in defense supplies and technology. In the years following the treaty, Moscow became a very dependable source of defense sales and technology transfer. To be sure, there was uncertainty and disruption of supplies and spares after the implosion of the Soviet Union. But these proved manageable.
Following India’s nuclear tests of 1998 and the ensuing international censure and sanctions, New Delhi and Moscow began moving closer. After Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, Russia and India concluded a fresh strategic partnership agreement.Bilateral Trade TiesDefense and nuclear energy will figure prominently in the prime minister’s discussions in Moscow. Yet it is equally important that both sides resolve at the highest levels to upgrade their economic relations. Bilateral trade has risen from a mere $1.67 billion in 2003-04 to $8.75 billion in 2010. But this fell short of even the modest projection of $10 billion.
An inter-governmental commission has been considering a range of measures to redress this state of affairs, including a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement and revival of the north-south transport corridor through Iran. Unless the two countries are able to add a solid economic layer to their relationship, its strategic dimension cannot be fully leveraged.
Strategic Partnership
Diverse areas of cooperation, from pharmaceuticals and hydrocarbons to information technology and aerospace engineering, which are yet to be explored, allow for optimism. Also, increased defense cooperation between the two countries has provided noteworthy results. At the start of the previous decade, India was only concerned with buying military technology from Russia.
The strategic partnership agreement has also facilitated cooperation in the energy sector. As a net importer of energy, India has increasingly turned to Russia as a major source of oil and natural gas. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh has a 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-I oil and gas fields. New Delhi has also been keen on acquiring a comparable stake in the Sakhalin-III projects. India has been pursuing this for nearly six years now, but Russia is yet to respond favorably.
International Challenges
Putin takes over as president the following year and India can be assured of Russia’s continuing support with him around. After all, Putin has taken India-Russia relations to a new level since 2000, following the dry years of Boris Yeltsin. The real challenge is to reconcile the positions taken by India and Russia on the Afghanistan issue. While India believes that the US-led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces should stay in Afghanistan until local forces are adequately equipped to take over, Russia insists that they should leave by 2014.
Moreover, the two countries are also faced with the challenge of evolving complimentary responses to a host of international challenges. The most pressing of these stems from Afghanistan. Even as the US and its allies prepare to drawdown their military presence in Afghanistan, the insurgency remains strong.
Both India and Russia are concerned about continuing instability, but their emphases are somewhat different. India is keen to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a haven for terrorists, whereas Russia is more concerned about the problem of drugs flowing from that country. Moscow’s somewhat narrow approach is understandable in the light of its troubled history of involvement in Afghanistan. But it will be interesting to see how Russia’s policy shapes up in the aftermath of the US drawdown. The endgame in Afghanistan will unfold at a time when Russia’s relations with the United States are dipping.

WEF Global Competitiveness Index

South Africa has improved its ranking and remains the highest-ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa on the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Competitiveness Index, released on 7 September.
Switzerland tops the overall rankings. Singapore overtakes Sweden for second position. Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with Sweden (3rd), Finland (4th), the United States (6th), Germany (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Denmark (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th). Japan remains the second-ranked Asian economy at 9th place, despite falling three places since 2010-11. Two Asian giants -- India and Pakistan -- were placed at 56th and 118th positions, respectively. Their positions in last year were 51st and 123rd, respectively.
South Africa moves up by four places to attain 50th position this year, remaining the highest-ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa and the second-placed among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economies," according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012.
The report found that South Africa benefits from the large size of its economy, particularly by regional standards -- it is ranked 25th in market size. It also does well on measures of the quality of institutions and factor allocation, such as intellectual property protection (30th), property rights (30th), the accountability of its private institutions (3rd), and its goods market efficiency (32nd)."
The report stated that South Africa's financial market development -- in which it ranked fourth -- was particularly impressive" and showed "high confidence in South Africa's financial markets at a time when trust is returning only slowly in many other parts of the world.
Labor Market Efficiency
South Africa also does reasonably well in more complex areas such as business sophistication (38th) and innovation (41st), benefiting from good scientific research institutions (30th) and strong collaboration between universities and the business sector in innovation (26th). This made South Africa the most competitive economy in the region. The country would, however, need to address some weaknesses, particularly on labor issues, to improve its competitiveness.
South Africa ranks 95th in labor market efficiency, with rigid hiring and firing practices (139th), a lack of flexibility in wage determination by companies (138th), and significant tensions in labor-employer relations (138th).
The report said university enrolment rates were too low. Efforts must also be made to increase the university enrolment rate of only 15 percent, which places the country 97th overall, to better develop its innovation potential. Infrastructure was good by regional standards, but needed upgrading.
Crime and Violence
The poor security situation remains another important obstacle to doing business in South Africa. The business costs of crime and violence (136th) and the sense that the police are unable to provide protection from crime (95th) do not contribute to an environment that fosters competitiveness. The report also found that the health of the workforce, which is ranked 129th out of 142 economies, was concerning.
In compiling the report, the WEF's Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance looks at the business operating environment and competitiveness of over 130 economies worldwide.

Manmohan Singh's Foreign Visit

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had detailed discussions with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during his foreign visit, and many agreements were signed between India and Kazakhstan.

The prime minister's tour started with China, where members of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) met at a summit held at the Chinese coastal city of Sanya. An important decision reached at the BRICS conference was that these countries would use their own currencies for making grants and settling debts among themselves, and continue to use US dollar for international trade. The faster their economies rise further, the sooner they would manage to get rid of the use of Dollar, and the better it will be for them.

Encouraging Point

Toward the end of the BRICS Summit, Manmohan Singh met Chinese President Hu Jintao. This must be considered a very important meeting, where the issue of separate visas to Kashmiris was discussed. Jintao did not give any definite assurances to Manmohan Singh. It may be recalled that China started issuing visa on a separate piece of paper to Kashmiris. An encouraging point in this regard was that China issued visas to Kashmiri journalists accompanying the prime minister on their passports itself. Because the prime minister's trip was under the aegis of BRICS Summit, there was no expectation of discussion of any bilateral issues.

Many agreements were reached between the countries during the prime minister's visit to Kazakhstan. This will definitely be considered to be very far reaching. The basis of improvement in relations had already been reached during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's India visit in 2009. The most important of these agreements was the civil nuclear energy agreement, under which Kazakhstan will supply 2,100 tons of uranium to India to keep active two nuclear reactors in the country. It was to keep these reactors active that the India-US nuclear agreement had been reached. Supply of uranium from Kazakhstan will be considered to be a relief for India. Apart from other issues, maintenance of the reactors has been included in this agreement.

After the recent tsunami and earthquake in Japan, dangerous consequences of such a disaster have emerged. All nuclear capable countries have heard the alarm bells. Despite the progress in the nuclear field, if humanity wants to escape from a nuclear holocaust, it will have to take firm steps in this regard. The prime minister has offered to set up a technology center in Ursus University in Kazakhstan. India is progressing rapidly in the IT field. It can be said that the prime minister's Kazakhstan visit has been successful.

India's Position in World

India has had deep and long relations with the former Soviet Union. The USSR valued relations with India. After the Soviet Union's disintegration, many independent countries emerged from this area, and it has been to our advantage to have good relations with these democracies. But if we examine these countries closely, we will find that they are still attached to the Soviet Union in some way or the other. That is why we have good relations with former Soviet republics. This has proved to be to our advantage.

With the advent of "globalization," the entire world has become one large village. This has also led to alterations in international relations to some extent. India is carving out a place for itself on the global economic stage as a rising power. Leaning toward China is a dangerous trend, which has been mentioned before. Any country's position in this world is dependent on its economic clout. There can be no two opinions that eternal vigilance is called for in guarding our interests.

China Invites RSA To Join BRIC States As Full Member

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane informed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Yang Jiechi that BRIC (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China) invites Republic of South Africa into BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) as a full member.

Agreement Reached
The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, received a telephone call from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Yang Jiechi informing her that China, in its capacity as the rotating chairperson of the BRIC formation, based on agreement reached between the BRIC Member States, invites South Africa as a full member into BRICS.

He further indicated that President Hu Jintao also issued a letter of invitation to President Jacob Zuma to attend the 3rd BRICS Leaders' Summit to be held in China. Minister Yang conveyed that China believed that South Africa's accession would promote the development of BRICS and enhance cooperation among emerging market economies.

Communication and Coordination
On behalf of President Zuma and the South African Government, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane expressed South Africa's sincere appreciation for the invitation to join BRICS, as well as the invitation from President Hu to attend the Summit. The Minister emphasized that South Africa was ready to step up communication and coordination with China and other BRICS Member States for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane wrote to her BRIC counterparts in 2009 to raise the possibility of South Africa's BRIC membership. President Zuma subsequently met with BRIC leaders in the course of 2010. The rationale for South Africa's approach was in consideration of a matter of crucial importance to BRICS Member States, namely the role of emerging economies in advancing the restructuring of the global political, economic and financial architecture into one that is more equitable, balanced and rests on the important pillar of multilateralism.

Relations With Emerging Powers
In fact, the approach to intensifying relations with emerging powers and other countries of the South is, of course, through active and strong bilateral engagement. In addition, however, BRICS also see the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and the G77 as important for South-South interaction, especially within the framework of the United Nations.

At another level, it is seen the formation of the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) and our membership of that body as a mechanism not only for enhancing our trilateral partnership with India and Brazil, but also as an important pillar for strengthening the muscle of the South in global affairs.

Enhanced Cooperation Efforts
It is believed that the IBSA will get a better balance, and become even stronger, with South Africa now as a member of the BRICS. However, it remains convinced that South Africa's diversified foreign policy objectives and interests allow for both groupings (IBSA and BRICS) to co-exist. It is the belief that the mandates of BRICS and IBSA are highly complementary.

South Africa and BRICS Member States already collaborated and will continue to collaborate closely in various international organizations and formations such as the United Nations, the G20 and the IBSA Dialogue Forum. All BRICS countries will serve on the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] in 2011 as permanent (China, Russian Federation) or non-permanent members (Brazil, India and South Africa), which augurs positively for enhanced cooperation efforts in terms of the salient issues of common interest.