Editor's Note
The current edition carries an important interview—the Vice Minister for Trade and Industry of the Czech Republic Milan Hovorka visited India last month and he spent time with Diplomatist, for an interview. The minister outlined the emerging avenues of investment in India particularly in the energy sector where global companies can take part. His observations are important.   Read the Note.  
  

US-INDIA STRATEGIC DIALOGUE: Of Warm Gestures and Irreconcilable Positions
Strategic partnership mandates compromise and vision from both the partners
The United States and India are among the world’s top five greenhouse gas emitters and have been victims of extremism, and are thus vital to solutions on climate change and terrorism.   Read the Article.  
  

India is a Top Priority Country: Milan Hovorka
Mr. Milan Hovorka, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic visited India recently. In an exclusive interview with G. Kalyan Kumar, Editor-in-Chief, Diplomatist, the Minister looks at the various avenues of cooperation between the two countries. Subscribe to Read.  
  

Indian Vice President Visits Czech Republic  
India’s Vice President M. Hamid Ansari paid a state visit to Czech Republic for three days from 7 June and gave a new impetus to the bilateral engagement between the two countries. During the visit, three agreements were signed in Prague.   Subscribe to Read. 
   

Inclusive Face of Global Economy and More     
In today’s world, G20 has emerged as the most inclusive face of global economy. Since its inception in the mid-1970s, the G7 acted as the informal club steering global economic and financial issues. However, the last couple of decades saw the world veering around to the view that G7 lacked political legitimacy as representation from the emerging players in the world economy was skewed. These critics have claimed that although the G7 was an informal global steering committee, it needed to reflect the shift in global economic power in recent decades.   Subscribe to Read.  
 

G20 & ECONOMIC RECOVERY: The Long Road to Toronto
Key G20 Leaders Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, Lee Myung- Bak, President of Korea, Barack Obama, President of the United States, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France outlined a broad agenda for the G20 Summit in which faster economic recovery is priority number one.  Subscribe to Read.      
     

G20 and TRADE ISSUES: Revamping Positions on Doha Round Critical
For the past several months, the G20 Summit countries have worked together to contain the global economic crisis and encourage a sustainable economic recovery. As part of these efforts, the G20 leaders have sought to constrain the protectionist pressures that invariably arise during times of economic stress and to maintain an open international trading regime. The G20 trade agenda as enunciated in the three summit declarations has covered two specific trade actions: a ‘standstill’ on new protectionism and a charge to complete the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.  Subscribe to Read.  
 

India for Tighter Regulations: Resists Bank Tax   
India’s stand is that instead of a bank tax, regulations for the banking sector should be strengthened. Finance Ministry sources said that since Indian banking regulations were quite prudent, the view was that there was no need for imposing any tax on banks in the country.   Subscribe to Read.
  

India-Sri Lanka Bilateral Relations: The Indian Reality in Sri Lanka’s Existence
The importance of the Indian factor in Sri Lanka’s external relations is best evidenced in the fact that Sri Lanka is simply indescribable without reference to India. An island in the Indian Ocean, just south of (or off) the Southern shores of India, all descriptions of Sri Lanka are a variant of this because none else is possible. The island of Sri Lanka is defined by its placing, and that placing is in relation to and proximity to India.  Subscribe to Read.  
     

BILATERAL NOTES
India-Thailand trade to touch US$10 billion in 2012
Colombia Polls: Juan Manuel Santos Elected President
India, South Korea may sign Nuke Deal
India-Australia hold talks on Energy Sector
Canada, India to sign key agreements during PM’s Visit
India-Syria to Increase Bilateral Trade
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25th AFRICA-FRANCE SUMMIT: A New Brotherhood
The 25th France-Africa held in Nice was a grand event. About 40 heads of state including South Africa attended the two-day Summit that began on 31st of May and ended on 1st of June. Besides the French speaking African countries (former French colonies), the African Union Commission, the EU, La Francophonie, the FAO and the World Bank attended the summit at the beatific ambience of Nice in southern France. The summit coincided with the 50th anniversary of independence for 14 former French colonies.    Subscribe to Read..  
   

TURKMENISTAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT: Focus on Cooperation in Energy Sector   
Mr. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan, paid a State Visit to India from 24- 26 May 2010, during which the President of India and the President of Turkmenistan held discussions on matters of mutual interest. The visiting President and the Prime Minister of India chaired delegation level talks and exchanged views on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues. The Vice President of India and other senior political leaders called on the President of Turkmenistan. Subscribe to Read..
  

South African President Jacob Zuma Visits India 
President of South Africa Jacob Zuma paid a three day visit to India from 2 June, starting from Mumbai. This was his first visit to Asia, after coming to power. After holding talks in New Delhi on 4 June, South African President Jacob Zuma and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh expressed that the two countries would cooperate more closely on issues such as Climate change, Reform of global institutions and Economic issues. President Zuma said he wanted to build on “historic ties with India, which was a strong supporter of the struggle waged against apartheid in South Africa”.   Subscribe to Read.  
 

INDIA-TAJIKISTAN: Enduring Partner in Central Asia
For India, all the five Central Asia states pose huge significance due to their vital geo-strategic location. The five landlocked republics – Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are in India’s extended neighbourhood. The Central Asian region as a whole not only connects Asia to Europe, but is also rich in natural resources. It occupies a special place in India’s foreign policy priorities. Its importance to India today is not only in their civilisational aspect but transcends to geopolitical and economic domains.  Subscribe to Read.
 

PHARMACEUTICALS: MNCs Tightening Grip
In the last couple of years, the pharma sector saw an increase in the number of acquisitions made by multinationals. In 2008, two Indian pharmaceutical companies were acquired from abroad, Ranbaxy by the Japanese firm Daichii, and Dabur Pharma by Singapore’s Fresenius Kabi. The buyouts, including acquisition of Piramal Healthcare’s generic medicine unit by US based Abbott Laboratories for US$3.7 billion seeded many gains for these companies, notably a market share that soared to 25 percent from 15 percent. Analysts expect that pharma MNCs will maintain this acquisition spree and soon control nearly 50 percent of the US$9.5 billion domestic retail drug market.  Subscribe to Read.
 

ELECTRICALS: SEEING GOOD TIMES
The electricity sector in India is one of the largest developing sectors. With the opening up of power generation and related services for the private sector investments, a huge market opportunity has been opened up. And the industry is seeing good times, after a lull of almost two years.    Subscribe to Read.