THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 08 January 2020 (Amidst a tragedy, an opportunity (The Hindu))

Amidst a tragedy, an opportunity (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: India-Australia
Mains level: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests.

Context:

• The writer David Horne once described Australia as “the lucky country”, with its abundance of natural resources, good weather, and its relative geographical isolation from the turbulence of the world.
• Today, with wildfires burning more than 12 million hectares of land, destroying native flora, killing thousands of wild animals, including endangered species, and displacing residents and tourists.

Dialogue on energy:

• At this moment of crisis, and while the tragedy of the bushfires is still unfolding, New Delhi and Canberra have a rare opportunity: to translate their rapidly converging interests and coalescing of values into a formidable partnership for the 21st century.
• There is a scope for the future in diverse areas, including the grand challenges facing our planet.
• Australia today is ground zero for the climate catastrophe.
• As evidence, he pointed out that the Great Barrier Reef is dying.
• The world-heritage rain forests are burning.
• The giant kelp forests have disappeared.
• Numerous towns have run out of water or are about to, and now the vast continent is burning on a scale never before seen.

Challenges for two economies:

• The campaign against fossil fuels and the export of coal is sure to intensify in the days to come.
• As two economies with a great stakeholding in fossil fuels, it is critical for India and Australia to ensure that their dialogue on energy acquires momentum.
• This will require a joint scientific task force to disinter the latest evidence linking climate change and extreme climatic events with fossil fuels and to study the promise and potential of “clean” coal technology.
• Both countries must simultaneously strengthen the International Solar Alliance and the search for other alternative green fuels.
• Fortunately, in New Delhi there is a near consensus within the political leadership and the strategic community that the Australia-India relationship is an idea whose time has well and truly come.
• From water management to trauma research to skills and higher education, from maritime and cybersecurity to counterterrorism, a world of opportunities awaits the two countries if they can work in coordination.
• A few years ago, the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne, in partnership with the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, commissioned one of the most comprehensive surveys of Indian public opinion on key foreign policy issues and critical challenges of governance.
• Indians ranked Australia in the top four nations towards which they feel most warmly.
• Only the U.S., Singapore and Japan ranked higher.
• Today, Indians feel warmer towards Australia than towards European countries and BRICS nations.
• In addition, Indians are today the largest source of skilled migrants in Australia and the economic relationship, already robust, could potentially be transformed.
• In Canberra, there is considerable sensitivity to India’s concerns over the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership while there is still hope that there is an early conclusion of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement.

An important partner:

• After more than six decades characterised by misperception, lack of trust, neglect, missed opportunities and even hostility, a new chapter in India’s relations with Australia has well and truly begun.
• Consider this: in 1955, Prime Minister Robert Menzies decided that Australia should not take part in the Bandung Afro-Asian conference.
• By distancing Australia from the ‘new world’, Menzies (who would later confess that Occidentals did not understand India) alienated Indians, offended Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and left Australia unsure for decades about its Asian identity.
• India and Australia should bring this chequered past to a closure, and herald a new united front for the Indo-Pacific.
• One of Australia’s most formidable diplomats, wrote in 1965 to his Foreign Minister, Paul Hasluck, that there was fertile ground between the two countries, but “no one seems to know what seed to plant”.
• More than 50 years on, there are not only many seeds waiting to be planted, but also ripe fruit ready to harvest.

Way ahead:

• Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who postponed his visit to India because of the bushfires, will be missed at the Raisina Dialogue.
• One hopes that one immediate decision that be will taken by New Delhi and Canberra is to elevate the ‘two plus two’ format for talks from the secretary level to the level of foreign and defence ministers.
• That should signal that New Delhi recognises Canberra as important a partner as Washington and Tokyo.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Dornier 228 aircraft, consider the following statements:
1. It is a multi-purpose, fuel efficient, rugged, light weight twin turboprop aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear.
2. The modified Dornier 228 aircraft have been acquired to undertake in-house calibration of Navigational aids available after implementation of Modernised Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) at IAF bases.

Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) None

Ans: C
Mains Questions:
Q.1) Australia and India share converging interest and similar values. Discuss the potential of India and Australia partnership.