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Germany-Spain: Foreign Ministers meet over looming crisis in the region
Source: https://newsfallout.com/tag/sidelines/
On 15 February 2022, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met her Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares to strengthen their collaboration and exchange of views on foreign policy and crisis in the European region. The two European nations share mutual interests in the area of foreign policy. They, therefore, are committed to cooperation within the mutually agreed framework to address the issues like global climate change, European migration policy, southern European neighbourhood, thus providing a new impetus for the region's development.
Foreign policy issues, the ecological transition of the economy, cultural and economic cooperation, and interaction with the public prosecutor office for violence against women were the highlights of Minister Annalena's agenda to visit Spain.
Both the ministers held a brief discussion on the current Ukrainian crisis due to the Russian military invasion. Foreign Minister Annalena, before her departure, highlighted that the tensions across the Ukrainian borders are created by Russia, and it is the sole responsibility of Moscow to withdraw its troops to deescalate the border tensions. Foreign ministers Jose and Annalena assured their Ukrainian counterpart of their support in the current crisis.
By Hitendra Boradey - Batch 20-22
German Chancellor's Inaugural visit to Moscow
Source: https://static.dw.com/image/60785471_401.jpg
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his first official visit to Russia on Tuesday, 15 February 2022, amid the ambiguous yet potential tensions at the Ukraine- Russia border. Russia was reported to have called back some of its troops from the border. In the press conference held after the meeting, both President Putin and Chancellor Scholz emphasized on solving the security matters diplomatically through talks. Putin further added that ‘Russia does not want war in Europe’.
Geopolitical and economic factors play an essential role in this matter. Germany is Russia’s second-biggest trade partner following China, thus jeopardizing ties with Germany would impact Russia’s already moderate economy. Regarding the most contended Nord Stream 2 Pipeline between Russia and Germany, Putin assured ‘to continue shipping gas through Ukraine beyond 2024’, a move that may calm the western anxieties about Russia dodging Ukraine, which relies significantly on gas transportation revenue.
However, the US and its NATO allies still hold the Russian threat as ‘highly risky’ and believe there are still 150,000+ troops deployed at the border, far from ready to deescalate. Russian reservation against Ukraine’s NATO membership is yet another concern for Moscow, on which the German Chancellor responded that it was not on the agenda and that Europe cannot afford a military conflict over it.
By Riddhi Kothawale - Batch 20-22
Dalal Street experiencing Ukraine-Russia border heat
Source: Businesstoday.in
On Monday morning, the Indian stock market witnessed another red day, Nifty breached the 16,900 mark, and the Sensex tanked 1747 points. Without any exceptions, all the indexes saw losses; banking and energy were the most significant loss-maker of the day overall. The market fell by 3%.
The Dalal street was tracking global cues as investors and traders took note of heightened geopolitical risks in eastern Europe amid the Ukraine-Russia border crisis; US intelligence reports suggesting Russia may invade on 16 Feb 2022 made investors cash out of equity. To add more tension, global crude oil prices also witnessed a steep hike amid the uncertainty that the US Senate may bring “mother of all sanction” on one of the biggest oil exporters.
India imports 70% of its energy requirement. Like any other economy, inflation in oil has its negative impact; therefore, it is not difficult to understand that such geopolitical development raises a red flag in a post-Covid recovering economy.
The Indian stock market is also sceptical of the upcoming US Feds meeting, which may bring a hike in US interest rate, which has been pending for a long period of time, it will further become the reason for foreign investors cashing out from the Indian Stock market, as the Indian market would be far less attractive.
By Pradyut Das - Batch 20-22
New Energy in India - Sri Lanka Relations
Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/fresh-opportunity-for-india-sri-lanka-to-enhance-bilateral-engagement-says-indian-high-commission/story-kWaMJnzjSGhiGbms76ZpxO.html
Recently, several high-level ministerial meetings and diplomatic exchanges have got new energy between India and Sri Lanka. During these meetings, discussions were held on various areas like improving and strengthing the relations between the two countries and exploring new areas of opportunities.
Since Sri Lanka is facing one of the worst economic crises because of the sudden shift to 100% organic farming and tourism industry which contributes around 10% in GDP suffered the most because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In such a scenario, India provides a helping hand.
India adopted the `Neighbourhood first policy’ to focus on and strengthen the development process in Sri Lanka. Likewise, Sri Lanka also adopted the `India First Policy’. India has given USD 2 Billion to Sri Lanka through various lines of credit for the improvement in railways connectivity, infrastructure, counter-terrorism, solar projects, among others. Recently, the agreement to jointly develop the Trincomalee oil tank farm, which was signed on January 6 2022, is a good example.
Although, there are two areas of discussion that need to be conducted between the two countries. First, the fisheries issues and second, the Tamil issue as various Tamil political parties have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his conciliation.
By Shantam Gupta - Batch 21-23
Resurfacing Ghost Town: Effects of Climate Change
Source:https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2022/02/13/ghost-village-appears-from-a-spanish-reservoir-in-galicia/
Aceredo was one of the five villages in north-western Spain that were deliberately abandoned and submerged in 1992 to enable the construction of the Alto Lindoso reservoir. However, due to Spain’s experience of extreme drought for the past few months, the reservoir has been rapidly drying up, having come down to 15% of its capacity, at last count. This has caused the unexpected and dramatic reappearance of the ruins of Aceredo.
Although the severe lack of rainfall in the region in January (which is normally a ‘wet’ month) is being cited by the government of Spain as the reason for these happenings, the blame has also fallen on Energias de Portugal (EDP), the organization that controls power utilities in the country, for its diversion of water sources from dams and reservoirs to balance the lack of water for human consumption (which was also caused by droughts).
While this event has indeed caused an influx of tourists in the region, people all over the world have finally been presented with undeniable visual proof of the wrath of climate change.
By Pooja Krishna H A - Batch 20-22