Ấn Độ và Nhật Bản loại bỏ trở ngại trong đàm phán về các thỏa thuận hạt nhân dân sự

India, Japan move to end deadlock on N-deal 

 

Indrani Bagchi

TNN
Dec 29, 2011

NEW DELHI: India and Japan have moved to break the deadlock in negotiations for a civil nuclear agreement. In November, New Delhi made a set of proposals to accommodate Japan's concerns on an agreement that is seen as being crucial for the development of India's civilian nuclear sector.

On Wednesday, Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda, on his maiden visit to India, put a positive spin on the N-deal. Welcoming the progress in an address in the Indian Council for World Affairs, he said, "At the working level, discussions on the civil nuclear deal have proceeded in right direction. I welcome this progress."

Indian negotiators have proposed what is euphemistically called "creative language" to address Japan's core concern - of New Delhi committing itself to no further nuclear tests. India has offered a statement, which was made by former foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Nuclear Suppliers Group when they voted for its waiver in 2008.

That has been the clearest enunciation of India's commitment to continue with its moratorium on nuclear testing. Japan had asked for this commitment to be "strengthened" in the agreement, which has been difficult for India. With the new proposals, however, sources said, it may be possible to overcome Japan's concerns. Noda on Wednesday praised India's moratorium on tests, and hoped it would continue. It was seen as a positive signal.

Noda stressed on Japan's unique N-history. "Japan is the only country attacked by a nuclear weapon," he reminded the gathering.

Nguồn: The Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-Japan-move-to-end-deadlock-on-N-deal/articleshow/11285800.cms

Sức mạnh của Hải quân Ấn Độ

Presidential Fleet Review: India showcases maritime might

 

Rajat Pandit,
TNN

Dec 21, 2011

MUMBAI: India on Tuesday showcased its growing maritime might, in all its three-dimensional power with potent warships, lethal submarines and maritime strike supersonic fighters, underlining its intent to safeguard its geo-political interests stretching from Hormuz Strait till Malacca Strait in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond.

Though the Presidential Fleet Review (PFR) held with much fanfare off here was largely a ceremonial occasion, the strategic underpinning was all too clear. India does not want to be reduced to playing catch-up with China in IOR, in a repeat of New Delhi's ongoing belated attempts to counter Beijing's massive build-up of military infrastructure all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control.

"The Navy, today, is poised to achieve new milestones with the imminent induction of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (refitted Admiral Gorshkov slated for inducted by early-2013), the Kolkata-class stealth destroyers, the follow-on Talwar-class frigates, the indigenous anti-submarine warfare corvettes and an impressive number of submarines and aircraft,'' said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

"Indian Navy is one of the most capable in the region, and with its well-thought out modernization plans, is destined to grow even further,'' said Patil, after taking the salute at the impressive PFR with 81 warships and 44 aircraft displaying their war-waging capabilities.

The Navy will indeed grow. But it will not come cheap, especially if India has to defend its economic interests far way from its shores. The recent exploration stand-off with China in South China Sea, with an Indian warship even being threatened by Beijing in the region, is a case in point.

Consequently, India plans to spend well upwards of Rs 3 lakh crore over the next 15 years to transform the force into, as Admiral Nirmal Verma himself puts it, "a brand new multi-dimensional Navy'' with "reach and sustainability''. India has 49 new warships and submarines as well as 45 MiG-29K fighters and 12 P-8I long-range reconnaissance aircraft on order, with several new projects in the pipeline.

All this is crucial to counter China's ever-expanding footprint in IOR. After forging extensive maritime links from east Africa to Cambodia, which includes help in construction of ports like Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Kyaukphyu in Myanmar, China has recently established a full-fledged embassy in the Maldives, and also announced "a new turn-around'' naval facility in Seychelles.

India has 132 warships, including 50 "major combatants'' and 14 ageing submarines, 80 aircraft, 122 helicopters and 14 spy drones.

In sharp contrast, in terms of surface and sub-surface warfare, China has over 75 "principal combatants'', 55 large and medium amphibious ships, 85 missile-equipped smaller warships and over 60 submarines, a dozen of them nuclear ones.

Indian Navy, however, is much more experienced in "blue-water'' operations. But it still has to keep a hawk-eye on the Chinese Navy, which is spreading its wings now, driven though as of now it may be by its desperate need to secure its energy and other needs being transported through sea routes.

India's economic growth, too, is inextricably linked to the seas, which in turn requires a potent Navy capable of tackling any exigency. Over 90% of India's trade by volume and 77% by value are transported over the seas.

India has to be prepared for the high-intensity shadow boxing unfolding on the high seas with China, in their hunt for the same strategic space in IOR, far away from their disputed land borders. The PFR signaled India's intent not to cede maritime ground easily.

Nguồn: The Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Presidential-Fleet-Review-India-showcases-maritime-might/articleshow/11187148.cms

Ấn Độ: bất bình đẳng thu nhập tăng gấp đôi trong vòng 20 năm

India's income inequality has doubled in 20 years

 

TNN
Dec 7, 2011

NEW DELHI: Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s.

Moreover, wages are not smoothly spread out even through the middle of the distribution. The top 10% of earners make almost five times more than the median 10%, but this median 10% makes just 0.4 times more than the bottom 10%.

"The main driver has been an increase in wage inequality between regular wage earners-contractual employees hired over a period of time," says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a new report on inequality in the developed world and emerging economies. "By contrast, inequality in the casual wage sector-workers employed on a day-to-day basis-has remained more stable," the report said.

South Africa is the only emerging economy with worse earnings inequality, but it has halved this number since the last decade. "The combination of marked spatial divides, persistently high shares of informal sector jobs and disparities in access to education accounts for much of the widespread variation in earnings from work in the EEs," the report said.

Wage inequality has driven more general income inequality in the country. India has got more unequal over the last two decades-India's Gini coefficient, the official measure of income inequality, has gone from 0.32 to 0.38, with 0 being the ideal score. In the early 1990s, income inequality in India was close to that of developed countries; however, its performance on inequality has diverged greatly since then, bringing it closer to China on inequality than the developed world.

There is evidence of growing concentration of wealth among the elite. The consumption of the top 20% of households grew at almost 3% per year in the 2000s as compared to 2% in the 1990s, while the growth in consumption of the bottom 20% of households remained unchanged at 1% per year.

In comparison, the income of the bottom 20% of households in China grew at double the rate in the 2000s as compared to the 1990s, while the increase for the top 20% of households was much slower. In Brazil, household incomes have been growing faster among the poorest households than among the richest for the last two decades.

Of all the emerging economies, India has by far the highest proportion of informal employment, by any national or international measure. "In India...informal employment includes a disproportionate number of women, home-based workers, street sellers and workers sub-contracted by firms in the formal sector," the OECD report said.

India spends less than 5% of its GDP on social protection schemes as compared to Brazil's more than 15%. Its tax revenue as a proportion of GDP is under 20%-the lowest of all emerging economies, and just half that of developed countries.

Source: The Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indias-income-inequality-has-doubled-in-20-years/articleshow/11012855.cms

 

Tuần tới Thứ trưởng Ngoại giao Mỹ Burns sẽ thăm Ấn Độ

Burns to visit India next week

PTI
Washington, December 6, 2011

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is scheduled to visit New Delhi next week to discuss a “whole gamut” of relationship with top Indian leaders.

On his maiden trip to India as the Deputy Secretary of State — the most powerful position in the U.S. State Department after the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton — Mr. Burns’ visit is reflective of the high-level engagement between the two countries in the aftermath of the Bali meet between the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the U.S. President, Barack Obama.

Mr. Burns, who is expected to leave on December 10, is likely to have his official meetings in New Delhi on December 12 with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, sources said.

The top American diplomat, who personally sees ‘India file’ at the State Department, is expected to discuss with the Indian leaders a “whole gamut” of relationship, which includes the bilateral ties and the situation in the region including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr. Burns would leave for a quick trip of South East Asia, including Vietnam before returning to India for the second leg of his visit.

Mr. Burns, sources said, is expected to return to India in less than a week to Mumbai and Pune for the second leg of his trip which is likely to focus on economic and education aspects of the bi-lateral ties.

Source: The Hindu,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2691476.ece

Ấn, Mỹ, Nhật gặp nhau thảo luận về khu vực châu Á Thái Bình Dương

India, US, Japan to meet on Asia Pacific region

Indo-Asian News Service
Washington, December 06, 2011

The United States, India and Japan will hold their first trilateral meeting in Washigton on December 19 to discuss "a range of Asia Pacific regional issues" among three leading "Pacific democracies."

"This meeting is going to be an opportunity to hold comprehensive discussion on a range of Asia-Pacific regional issues," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Monday.

The specific agenda is still being determined, "but obviously, as the three leading Pacific democracies, we look forward to productive exchanges with India and Japan," he said.

Asked why India, an Indian Ocean country, was invited to the meeting as one of the "Pacific democracies," Toner said, "This is a chance for us to discuss regional issues."

In response to a question that why Australia was not invited to the meeting, Toner explained that it "isn't all-inclusive."

"I don't know about Australia. All these talks don't have to be completely inclusive. Again, this is a chance for us to meet with three leading democracies in the region."

The dialogue earlier scheduled for October 8 in Tokyo was postponed at US request.

Driven by Tokyo and finalised during then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's visit to Japan in April 2010, the dialogue is also part of New Delhi's effort to go beyond the stated Look East policy and engage North Asia as well.

From the US perspective, the dialogue is seen as part of what is described as a policy "pivot" toward Asia as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

President Barack Obama recently returned from an Asian tour that stressed US interests in the region.

Source: Hindustan Times,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Americas/India-US-Japan-to-meet-on-Asia-Pacific-region/Article1-778395.aspx

Đối thoại chiến lược ba bên Mỹ-Ấn-Nhật sẽ diễn ra vào 19/12/2011 tại Washington

United States, India and Japan to meet and discuss China

Shishir Gupta,

Hindustan Times
New Delhi, December 05, 2011

In the backdrop of China's increasing assertiveness, Washington will for the first time host a trilateral official-level dialogue with Japanese, Indian and US diplomats on December 19 to build convergence over regional maritime security and non-proliferation in East Asia and Pacific region.

The dialogue earlier scheduled for October 8 in Tokyo was postponed on a US request.

Government sources said top Indian officials from the disarmament and non-proliferation, East Asia and America divisions of the ministry of external affairs will interact with their US counterparts such as assistant secretary (South Asia) Robert Blake and assistant secretary (East Asia and Pacific Affairs) and their equivalents from Japan's foreign ministry.

The dialogue will ramp up to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to India on December 28.

While major bilateral initiatives like an agriculture corridor and trans-Asian Buddhist circuit are in the pipeline during Noda's visit, New Delhi and Tokyo will for the first time explore the possibility of joint research in the defence sector.

Driven by Tokyo and finalised during then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's visit to Japan in April 2010, the dialogue is also part of New Delhi's effort to go beyond the stated Look East policy and engage North Asia as well.

US President Barack Obama and recently secretary of state Hillary Clinton had talked about the need for India to reach out to East Asia.

While Japan is a treaty ally of the US, India is being approached by South-East Asian countries and even Australia for trilateral initiatives in the face of Beijing's claims over the oil-rich South China Sea at the East Asia Summit in Bali last month.

New Delhi on its part plans to calibrate this trilateral initiative in a way that it is not seen as a platform against China.

However, the regional strategic environment and Chinese moves in the area will be part of the discussions.

Nguồn: Hindustan Times,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/United-States-India-and-Japan-to-meet-and-discuss-China/Article1-777932.aspx

Làm gì có liên minh Ấn-Trung hay Tam giác Nga-Ấn-Trung!

Up close and very personal

Hindustan Times
November 30, 2011

It is in the nature of large nations to step on each other’s toes. It is also in the nature of large nations that they quickly shake hands and move on. There is a simple reason for this: if they let the small things get them excited, they will be endlessly and expensively preparing for will-o’-the-wisp geopolitical conflicts. India and China understand this theoretically but are struggling to ingrain this in the timber of their day-to-day relations. The recent cancellation of the bilateral border negotiations because the Dalai Lama was about to speak in New Delhi at the same time is a case in point. The incident is politically of little importance. Why it became a cause celebre is more interesting. The answer, it seems, is that the frayed relationship between India and China has made public opinion in both countries hypersensitive to any incident where there is no unanimity between the two countries.

This is a dangerous development. In the minds of Indians and Chinese, the two have now sparred over India’s negligible presence in the South China Sea, over a Chinese diplomat’s argument with a journalist, various internet maps and now a religious conference. While symbolically significant, none of these impinge on core security concerns and barely count as the stuff of realpolitik. This is not to say there are no major outstanding issues between the two Asian giants. China has provided no clarity as to why it shifted a five-decade old policy on Kashmir and began issuing stapled visas. It has given no explanation as to why it scaled up its rhetoric on Arunachal Pradesh over the past three years. These are the sort of issues India and China need to be focusing on. The two sides have become so thin-skinned that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the two governments to seek conventional diplomatic solutions to their differences.

There is little evidence that India and China will ever be very close. Those in India who have called for a Chindia alliance or seen promise in such absurdities as the Russia-India-China triangle are mentally based on a planet that is not Earth. However, this does not mean India and China are destined to be enemies or rivals in any sense other than the economic. Both governments would prefer not to complicate their local geopolitical situation by making a hostile entity of the other. What would be best would be a major political breakthrough on both sides over one of their many outstanding disputes. The other would be a focus on managing toe-stepping incidents in a more transparent and less excitable manner — both at the State and civil society levels.

Source: Hindustan Times,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/editorial-views-on/Edits/Up-close-and-very-personal/Article1-776194.aspx