International Polity - Current Affairs for December, 2015

Giorgi Kvirikashvili was on 29th December 2015 elected as the Prime Minister of Georgia succeeding Irakli Garibashvili, who resigned from the post on 23 December 2015. His appointment will now be ratified by the Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili. He fetched 86 votes of 114 deputies and 28 deputies voted against him. Parliamentary vote also ratified his choice of cabinet. He will head the campaign headquarters of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia and the electoral list of the coalition Georgian Dream.

Union Cabinet provided approval for signing an MoU between BRICS nations on BRICS Network University during the 3rd BRICS Education Minister’s Meeting and Senior Officials held in Moscow, Russia in November 2015. MoU will assist in developing pro-active cooperation among BRICS nations for enhancing scientific research, information exchange, analysis and implementation of best practices.

Former NY Governor George Pataki has indicated he is ending the bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with just one month before the start of the nomination contests. 70 year old Pataki is a centrist Republican who led NY through the September 11, 2001 attacks.

China on 27th December 2015 adopted the first counter-terrorism law granting massive powers to security agencies. National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted the draft law earlier approved by ruling Communist Party of China. New law comes for the world at large following the increasing growth of terrorism.

Pentagon has indicated that US hit Islamic State group targets in Iraq and Syria with 17 airborne strikes on Christmas day targeting IS fighters, facilities and vehicles carried out by fighter aircraft, bombers and remotely controlled aircraft. 5 of the strikes were in Syria and 12 in Iraq.

Amidst deepening demographic crisis of a shrinking workforce and old population, China the world’s second largest economy has junked its controversial one child policy. Chinese lawmakers have now allowed couples to have 2 children ending the 3.5 decade old policy that prevented close to 400 million births in the nation. The new law was passed by the 159 strong National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which is a top organ of China’s parliament. China facd a demographic crisis with severe labour shortages leading to reversal of the law.

Saudi Arabia has on 15th December 2015 announced that 34 nations have joined hands to form a Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism with joint operations in the capital city of Riyadh. The alliance will be Saudi led and aims to fight terrorism by all means to eliminate it. Coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen. African nations which have been targeted by terrorists are also part of the network such as Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria.

This report was released on 14th December 2015 with the title “Work for Human Development in Ethiopia”. This report also said that 2 billion people were lifted out of low human development within the past 25 years. As per the 2015 report, India attained a score of 0.609 thereby ranked 130 of 188 nations in terms of the HDI. In the 2014 report, India’s report was 135 out of 187.

Despite being ranked as France’s most popular party, the far right Front National has failed to win the regional local elections. The party is led by Marine Le Pen. Socialist PM Manual Valls has refrained from commenting on the loss.

Saudi Arabians voted 17 women into public office in municipal elections in the conservative Islamic kingdom on Saturday, the first for allowing female participation. This election is a landmark step because women can now vote and run as candidates. This is a major step forward from the time that women were barred from driving and dependent on male relatives for all life decisions.

Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has declared the tiny West African country an Islamic republic in an effort to break from its colonial past and said it protects the rights of the minorities and majority (90% Muslims) in the nation.

Mauricio Macri Blanco was on 10th December 2015 sworn in as the Argentina President succeeding Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner who held office for two terms- 2007 and 2015. Macri is the leader of the Centre Right Let’s Change Coalition which secured 51.5 percent of votes in elections held in November 2015.

United States has updated a policy on gas turbine engine technology transfer with India leading to expanded cooperation in production and design of jet engine components. This will lead to expansion of cooperation in production and design of jet engine components. US is one of the main sources of weapons in the Indian military. This will lead to collaboration under higher end technologies as per DTTI.

Luxembourg on 8th December 2015 became the 10th country to ratify the Articles of Agreement (AoA) that will lay the legal framework for the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Australia, Austria, Brunei Darussalam, China, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Singapore and United Kingdom ratified the 60-article agreement so far. 10 nations are among the 57 member founder countries of the multilateral bank. Its headquarters are in Beijing.

R. Nabil has resigned from the National Directorate of Security in Afghanistan over lack of agreement on policy matters. He is said to have resigned w.e.f 10th December over disagreements with Afghan president A. Ghani. A rapprochement with Pakistan was strongly disapproved by Nabil.

US House of representatives on 8th December 2015 passed the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015 amending the US visa travel practices. Votes were 407 in favour of the Bill which imposes restrictions on persons who have visited Iraq, Syria and countries supporting terrorism to travel visa free in the United States. Bill will also bar people who traveled after March 1 2011 to Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Iran from participating in the visa free program. Biometric passports will now be issued to such persons as well.

The first female PM of Latvia, Laimdota Straujuma has resigned on 7th December 2015. Straujuma will head the three-party coalition that includes centre-right Unity party, the Greens and Farmers party and the far-right National Alliance in a caretaker capacity. Her resignation came after firing the transport minister in November 2015.

Venezuela’s opposition won control of the National Assembly by a landslide, stunning the ruling party and altering the balance of power 17 years after the socialist revolution began in the country. Opposition coalition won a total of 99 seats in the incoming 167-seat legislature according to electoral authorities. Ruling party won less than half of the seats won by the Opposition coalition.

Singapore replaced Mauritius as top source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India during April-September of 2015-16 financial year, as per an announcement made by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of Ministry of Commerce and industry. Between April to September 15 2015, India has received INR 43096 crore as FDI from Singapore during the same period, FDI from Mauritius was INR 23490 crore. Netherlands occupied the third spot while the US came fourth.

The preliminary results of the Burkina Faso election provided Roch March Christian Kabore with an outright win. He is the winner of the freest election since this West African country won independence from France in 1960, dedicated his victory to those who died overthrowing strongman Blaise Compaore last year and during a failed military coup in September. Kabore avoided a runoff by winning 53 percent of the vote. Second closest contender Diabre had nearly 30 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results. Fourteen candidates took part in presidential elections.

Bangladesh’s ex premier and key-opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia was on 30th November granted bail after she surrendered before a court here over a nearly USD 2 billion graft case dating back to 2007 when she exhausted all legal options to evade the trial. The ruling was issued after she filed the petition while it was subsequently upheld by the apex court as the statutory Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) challenged the High Court order.