(Current Affairs) International Events | September : 2017

International Events

U.S. conducts missile test off Hawaii

  • The U.S. military shot down a medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast of Hawaii, in a successful test of a missile interception system Japan is seeking to bolster its defence.
  • The test was performed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy from the USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer.
  • Using Standard Missile-6 guided missiles, the test intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii by using the USS John Paul Jones’s onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. This marks the second time that an SM-6 has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target.

Rohingya crises

  • The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) said that about 18,500 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in the Rakhine State six days ago, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or scrambling to reach it.
  • Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the U.S. to put pressure on Myanmar to stop the exodus of their nationals.
  • “We have given shelter to a huge number of Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds and it’s a big problem for us... So I call upon you to mount pressure on Myanmar in this regard,” state news agency BSS quoted Ms. Hasina
  • About five lakh Rohingyas have already taken shelter in Bangladesh over the last two decades.
  • Meanwhile, the two major parties have taken different positions on the Rohingya issue. While the ruling Awami League has urged Myanmar to take back the refugees, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia has called upon the government to open the border for the refugees.
  • At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes with insurgents, Myanmar says, most of them militants but also members of the security forces and civilians.
  • Further, at least 4,000 people are stranded in no man’s land between the two countries, with temporary shelters stretching for several hundred metres on a narrow strip between the Naf river and Myanmar’s border fence.
  • Meanwhile, Rohingya refugees in Malaysia protested against the violence in northwest Myanmar.
  • Some 1,200 mostly Rohingya Muslims — holding placards that read ‘Stop killing Rohingya’ — took to the streets of Malaysia’s capital to appeal for an end to the violence.
  • About 155 demonstrators were arrested as Malaysian police stopped the protest. Police said one man tried to set himself on fire with petrol.
  • Muslim-majority Malaysia is home to nearly 60,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of the Rohingya minority, who suffer persecution in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

Islamabad in a tight spot after new Afghanistan policy of US

  • The new Afghan strategy announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, which attacked Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorists and offered India a greater role in Afghanistan, has put Islamabad in a tight spot.
  • The political and military leaderships, usually divided on every governing issue, have come on “one page” to strongly condemn Mr. Trump’s remarks.
  • Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi called for a joint session of Parliament to discuss the issue. He also chaired a National Security Committee meeting, which rejected President Trump’s Afghan strategy, and stated that Indian policies were inimical to peace in the region.
  • Pakistan fought two wars for the U.S. in Afghanistan, both under military regimes. In the 1980s, during General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s rule, the military went into covert operations in Afghanistan, along with the CIA, to fight the Soviet Red Army.
  • Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan and India has historically been dominated by the military. After the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the U.S. lost interest in the country.
  • But not Pakistan. Former military chief General Aslam Beg and former Inter-Service Intelligence chief Hameed Gul came up with a plan to make Afghanistan its proxy through jihadist organisations.
  • The Americans know that to put pressure on Pakistan, all they need to do is to take a pro-India line. Greater role the Trump administration is offering India in South Asia could prompt Pakistan to rethink its decades-old policy.
  • Yet, Pakistan is left with no choice but to continue to fight the war in Afghanistan, said the official. “If the U.S. is angry, Pakistan has got a new master and financier — China.”

United States proxy war in Africa goes through Germany

  • While the world is focussing on Donald Trump’s foreign policy plans in Afghanistan and West Asia, the U.S. is continuing, without much media scrutiny, its proxy wars in Africa.
  • Recently, it became evident that the U.S. military’s newest ally in the region could be the genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan. This is not surprising. In fact, the U.S. has already allied with dozens of dictatorial regimes and militias on the African continent.
  • All of them are part of the ongoing shadow war in the region, including regular air strikes by drones or conventional jets, and secret operations of commando units on the ground.
  • The heart of U.S. secret wars in Africa lies in Stuttgart, Germany, where AFRICOM (the United States Africa Command) has been based since 2007.
  • The Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart-Moehringen is known as AFRICOM’s command centre with 1,500 personnel, including military and U.S. federal civilian employees.
  • In October 2016, it was reported that AFRICOM was expanding its drone warfare in Africa when military personnel and unmanned aerial vehicles were transferred to a base in Tunisia.
  • In 2016, U.S. drones carried out 14 strikes in Somalia, killing up to 292 people, including five civilians. Libya, another war-torn African country, was bombed by the U.S. 496 times last year.
  • The U.S. has drone bases in Niger and Djibouti as well, while the American shadow wars are being fought in almost 50 African nations.
  • Most of these operations are planned in and coordinated from Stuttgart, but not many locals seem to be aware of it.
  • The German government itself doesn’t appear to be bothered much about AFRICOM’s activities. When it was revealed that illegal drone operations were taking place from German soil, Berlin’s reaction was practically non-existent.
  • Not just the AFRICOM in Stuttgart is involved in these wars but also the Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany, which is considered the “heart of U.S. drone warfare”.

U.S. linked a proposal for India playing a bigger role in Afghanistan

  • President Donald Trump, who announced his new Afghan strategy, linked a proposal for India playing a bigger role in the war-torn country to its trade surplus with the United States.
  • “We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development,” he said.
  • By inviting India to be a partner in Afghanistan, Mr. Trump has entirely overruled Pakistan’s position that India’s involvement to its west is part of the problem.
  • The President, who repeatedly took potshots at his predecessor, Barack Obama, without naming him, however, appeared to follow the previous administration’s understanding of South Asia as a nuclear flash point.
  • Defense Secretary James Mattis had recently said America was “not winning” in Afghanistan.
  • The President said America will fight the war to victory and defined victory in terms similar to his predecessors — to prevent a terrorist attack originating from the region, and to politically stabilise Afghanistan.
  • The new strategy in Afghanistan, which seeks troops increase in the country, is an effort to reverse the gains made by the Taliban in the last year or so.
  • Once the Afghan government regains the upper hand, the U.S. will seek a political settlement, the President said.
  • Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained the new U.S policy as an effort to force the Taliban to negotiation.

All neighbors are watching Doklam standoff between India and China

  • From Nepal to Japan, countries in South and Southeast Asia are keenly observing the Doklam standoff between India and China, some taking sides, some staying neutral.
  • Pakistan has thrown its weight behind China, its “iron brother”. During a visit to Islamabad by China’s Vice-Premier Wang Yang on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, Islamabad backed all positions adopted by China, ranging from Doklam to South China Sea.
  • Japan has become the first G-7 country to support India’s position on the Doklam issue. Nepal, which shares border with both India and China, has expressed neutrality, and called for a diplomatic solution.
  • But in the Asia-Pacific, the Doklam face-off is being conflated with regional contests between China and several members of the Association of South East Asian Nations.
  • The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post has reported that the border dispute between China and India “has created a ‘spillover effect’ as China’s neighbours become unsettled by its tough handling of the escalating conflict between the two Asian giants”.

Hizbul Mujahideen labelled a ‘terror group’

  • The U.S. designated militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, nearly two months after declaring the group’s chief Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist.
  • The designation, which slaps a series of U.S. sanctions on the outfit, came against the backdrop of an upsurge in terror activities by the militant group in Kashmir in recent months.
  • All of Hizbul Mujahideen’s property and interests subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and people in the U.S. are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the group.
  • The decision marks a severe blow to Pakistan which has been projecting the militant group as a voice of the Kashmiri people.
  • Pakistan’s Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have both repeatedly praised the militant group’s slain commander Burhan Wani who was killed in July last year in an encounter in Kashmir.

U.K. Government says it is all prepared for Brexit

  • The British government tried to fight back against criticisms that it is divided and unprepared for Brexit, saying it will set out detailed plans for the U.K.’s exit from the European Union and issuing a joint statement by two Cabinet rivals over Europe.
  • The government said it wants to increase pressure on the 27 other EU nations to start negotiating a future relationship that would include a free trade deal between Britain and the EU.
  • The EU says those negotiations can’t start until sufficient progress has been made on three initial issues — how much money the U.K. will have to pay to settle its outstanding commitments to the bloc; whether security checks and customs duties will be instituted on the Irish border; and the status of 3 million EU nationals living in Britain.
  • The government’s Brexit department said Britain wants to show that progress on the preliminary issues has been made.

Russia, China push plan to defuse tension

  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned that the risks of escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea were “very high” following the recent war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.
  • “I believe the risks are very high, especially considering this rhetoric, when direct threats of using force are voiced,” Mr. Lavrov said at a youth forum in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.
  • Mr. Lavrov did not refer to President Donald Trump’s “locked and loaded” remark in the event of a misstep by North Korea, but said Moscow was “very alarmed” at Washington’s rhetoric of pre-emptive military action.
  • He added that the United States, as a more powerful state than North Korea, should take the first step to cool tensions. “When a fight has nearly broken out, the first step away from the dangerous threshold should be taken by the side that is stronger and smarter,” Mr. Lavrov said.
  • Moscow has joined China to push an initiative that would see Pyongyang halt missile tests in return for the US ending military drills in the region.
  • The “double freeze” plan would be a step toward the goal of “de-nuclearising the Korean peninsula,” he said. “Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is starting to go over the top," he said. “We hope that common sense will prevail.” He added that Moscow “does not accept a nuclear North Korea”.
  • Earlier, Global Times , a state-run newspaper, said that China should remain neutral if North Korea launches an attack that threatens the U.S. China’s Foreign Ministry called on all sides to speak and act with caution.
  • Reacting to Mr. Trump’s statements, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that she opposed any use of force to resolve the conflict. “I don’t envision a military solution to this conflict but rather consistent work as we’ve observed at the United Nations Security Council,” she said.

Tensions between government and judiciary in Bangladesh

  • The Bangladesh Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the 16th amendment to the Constitution, which empowered the country’s Parliament to remove top court judges, has triggered strong criticism from the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
  • The verdict, the full text of which was released, also drew flak from Awami League MPs as well as the country’s Law Commission Chairman.
  • Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Haq told reporters that the government was “aggrieved” by the verdict, and that it was considering whether to appeal the ruling.
  • ‘In the 799-page verdict, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha focussed on a host of issues such as military rule, the Election Commission, corruption, governance and the independence of the judiciary.
  • On an observation in the verdict by the Chief Justice that the “credit of for independence does not go to a single person” — an oblique reference to country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the Law Minister said: “It’s indeed painful for us to reiterate the truth 47 years after independence. That’s why we decided for measures to expunge the offensive and irrelevant statements.”
  • Several MPs in Parliament have also raised concerns over the “motive” behind some observations made by the Chief Justice. A.B.M. Khairul Haque, a former Chief Justice, said the Constitution of Bangladesh says this is the people’s republic, “but after this verdict, it seems our country is going to be the judges’ republic of Bangladesh”.

President Trump followed up his incendiary warning to North Korea

  • President Donald Trump followed up his incendiary warning to North Korea against threatening the U.S. with a boast about the strength of the American nuclear arsenal, although he expressed hope it would not need to be used.
  • Mr. Trump's Twitter messages about the nuclear arsenal came after North Korea said it was considering plans for a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
  • That in turn followed Mr. Trump's comments on Tuesday that any North Korean threat to the U.S. would be met with “fire and fury.”
  • The sharp increase in tensions between a country that has one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals and an aspiring nuclear power rattled financial markets and prompted U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to try to play down the rhetoric.
  • North Korea said it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike Guam, which is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an airbase and a Coast Guard group.
  • The plan would be put into practice at any moment, once Mr. Kim made a decision, a Korean People's Army spokesman said in a statement carried by state-run KCNA news agency.
  • North Korea, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programmes in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, also accused the U.S. of devising a “preventive war” and said in another statement that any plans to execute this would be met with an “all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the U.S. mainland.”
  • Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes but that it prefers global diplomatic action, including sanctions.
  • The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea.
  • China, North Korea’s closest ally despite Beijing’s anger at Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programmes, described the situation as “complex and sensitive,” and urged calm and a return to talks.
  • North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile able to strike the U.S. and has ignored all calls to halt its weapons programmes.
  • Pyongyang says its intercontinental ballistic missiles are a legitimate means of defence against perceived U.S. hostility, including joint military drills with South Korea.
  • South Korea and the U.S. remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Average temp. in U.S. has risen rapidly since 1980

  • The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980, and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a sweeping federal climate change report awaiting approval.
  • The draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies, which has not yet been made public, concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now.
  • It directly contradicts claims by President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.
  • The authors note that thousands of studies, conducted by tens of thousands of scientists, have documented climate changes on land and in the air.
  • The report was completed this year and is a special science section of the National Climate Assessment, which is congressionally mandated every four years.
  • The report concludes that even if humans immediately stopped emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the world would still feel at least an additional 0.30 degrees Celsius of warming over this century compared with today.
  • The projected actual rise, scientists say, will be as much as 2 degrees Celsius.
  • A small difference in global temperatures can make a big difference in the climate: the difference between a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and one of 2 degrees Celsius, for example, could mean longer heat waves, more intense rainstorms and the faster disintegration of coral reefs.

China will fiercely protect its sovereignty against any organisation says Xi

  • China will fiercely protect its sovereignty against “any people, organisation or political party”, President Xi Jinping warned, as the country celebrated the 90th anniversary of its military.
  • The message comes as the ruling CCP faces political resistance in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where many locals fear Beijing is tightening its grip, and in self-ruled Taiwan, which China views as a rebel province awaiting reunification.
  • The Asian giant is also mired in several bitter border disputes with its neighbours, including an ongoing stand-off with India over territory on China’s border with Bhutan.
  • Beijing has of late begun to indulge in more frequent, pointed demonstrations of its power. It held a rare military parade in Inner Mongolia in which Mr. Xi stressed the need to build a world-class Army loyal to the CCP, and capable of “defeating all invading enemies”.
  • In Hong Kong in June, Mr. Xi helmed the largest military parade there in decades to mark the 20th anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to China.
  • The country in December also sailed its first aircraft carrier near Taiwan, where the ruling political party has angered Beijing by refusing to acknowledge that both sides are part of “one China”.
  • Since coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi has trumpeted the need to build a stronger combat-ready military, while leading efforts to centralise the Communist Party's control over it.
  • Maintaining control is key for Mr. Xi ahead of a crucial party congress later this year, at which he is expected to further consolidate his grip on power.

US and Russia’s relationship turns from bad to worst despite President Trump

  • A little more than a year after the alleged Russian effort to interfere in the U.S. presidential election came to light, the diplomatic fallout — an unravelling of the relationship between Moscow and Washington on a scale not seen in decades — is taking its toll.
  • President Vladimir Putin bet that Donald Trump, who had spoken fondly of Russia and its authoritarian leader for years, would treat his nation as Mr. Putin has longed to have it treated by the West.
  • That is, as the superpower it once was, or at least a major force to be reckoned with, from Syria to Europe, and boasting a military revived after two decades of neglect.
  • That bet has backfired, spectacularly. If the sanctions overwhelmingly passed by Congress last week sent any message to Moscow, it was that Mr. Trump’s hands are now tied in dealing with Moscow, probably for years to come.
  • Congress is not ready to forgive the annexation of Crimea, nor allow extensive reinvestment in Russian energy.
  • The new sanctions were passed by a coalition of Democrats who blame Mr. Putin for contributing to Hillary Clinton’s defeat and Republicans fearful that their President misunderstands who he is dealing with in Moscow.
  • Putin seems to believe his greater leverage lies in escalating the dispute, Cold War-style, rather than subtly trying to manipulate events with a mix of subterfuge, cyberattacks and information warfare.
  • But it is unclear how much the announcement will affect day-to-day relations. While the Russian media said 755 diplomats would be barred from working, and presumably expelled, there do not appear to be anything close to 755 U.S. diplomats working in Russia.
  • That figure almost certainly includes Russian nationals working at the embassy, usually in nonsensitive jobs.

Click Here to Join Online Coaching for IAS (Pre.) Exam

<< Go Back To International Events Main Page

Current Affairs
International Issues
Civil Services EXAM
Civil Services Preliminary
Civil Services Mains
UPSC