AV 26th july 2014

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th July 2014

COMMENT

BRICS: Modi on global stage

BRICS, acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is an economic grouping on a roll. Its time has surely come. It is likely to be taken with increasing seriousness with time, given the weight of its immense geography, vast population, strong emerging economies and market size.

Western governments, their political classes and media may prefer to pooh-pooh BRICS, but denial in the face of reality is not something the gods above will accept. Truth is that for all President Obama’s homilies on prayers, political freedom and economic opportunity, the inhabitants of Planet Earth (the bulk of them at least) see many of its determining contours cast in early post-war stone. Thus the IMF still has an obligatory European as its operating head, while the World Bank continues in the tender care of an American chief. The United Nations Security Council still has its wartime great powers (including France and China more by courtesy than right since their contributions to the Allied war effort were fitful and fragmentary at best). Assurances of change are a yearly ritual in Washington, but of change that matters there has been no sign. The natives have been restive at their subordinate role and have taken concrete steps to make history. Hence the emergence of BRICS. Political discourse translated into financial muscle has weight.

BRICS was born a political entity; it now has acquired financial wings with a capitalized BRICS bank worth $100 billion to which its members will make an equal contribution. The bank is to be headquartered in Shanghai and its first head is to be an Indian, with a tenure of six years; the next head will be a Brazilian with a five-year tenure, as will be case of his Russian successor. The venture will be up and running in the next two years.

The recent BRICS summit in Brazil was an outstanding success. Its footprint in South America is certain to grow, as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff invited the top leaders of the continent to meet with BRICS heads of state on the sidelines of the summit. The BRICS bank will be in existence to render financial aid to those deserving of it in any part of the world. The getto-know-you session should facilitate trade and

investment between new partners, with the sky as the limit. That said, BRICS leaders had much to discuss themselves as a group, and in one-to-one meetings. This was Narendra Modi’s international debut as Indian Prime Minister, and he carried himself with the grace and assurance of an experienced practitioner. India’s BRICS partners got to know him personally and get a firsthand account of the contours and direction of Indian foreign policy, of its regional goals and of bilateral visions for the future. Prime Minister Modi’s exchanges with Chinese President Xi Jinping are carried on page 12; his talks with his host Dilma Rousseff were cordial and will yield results in a number of fields, from space to increased trade and mutual investments. Brazil will be India’s gateway to the South American continent.

But it was Prime Minister Modi’s conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was the cynosure of most eyes. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, during a preliminary visit to Delhi was told by Mr Modi that he intended to take Indo-Russian ties to a higher level. In a notably relaxed conversation with President Putin, Mr Modi uttered these ringing words: “If you [Putin] ask anyone among the more than one billion people living in India who is our country’s greatest friend, every person, every child knows that it is Russia.” Mr Putin was invited to visit the Russian-designed Kundakulam nuclear power plant during his next visit to India in November for the annual India-Russia summit, an invitation that was immediately accepted; both leaders pledged to deepen their countries’ defence ties, cooperate further on India’s nuclear power projects, address India’s conventional energy needs (oil and gas), and undertake joint endeavours in space, and increase mutual investment and trade. Mr Putin said he was pleased that India and Russia were “in full consensus” working together on the international stage.

India cannot be afraid of its own shadow, as it faces myriad security challenges at home and abroad.. The BRICS summit was where Narendra Modi kept his tryst with destiny as an emergent world statesman.

It doesn’t say much for the planet we inhabit that even 298 deaths, including those of women and children, is turned into an obscene political joust.

The vast majority of the dead on a Malaysian Airlines flight were Dutch, but Malaysians, Australians, Indonesians, Americans and Britons made up the total tally. The aircraft, on its way from the Netherlands to Australia, where many of the passengers were due to participate in an AIDS prevention conference, was shot down by a missile. Why was the plane flying over a conflict zone, which may other airlines chose to avoid for reasons of safety? Why also was the pilot instructed to change course by Ukrainian air controllers and fly over this dangerous area? Why was he told to reduce the height of the plane’s flight path? These are questions that will have to explored and answered. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the principal voice of sanity in West, has called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, followed by unfettered access to the crash site and an independent inquiry into the tragedy. She and President Putin have agreed that this would be the best way forward. President Obama and his EU satraps would have been on firmer ground in their attacks on Moscow for allegedly arming the rebels in eastern Ukraine,

when the indulgent supplies of US and Nato arms to various jihadi groups in the Middle East have reduced much of the region to a howling desolation. These same powers have armed and encouraged the Kiev regime of Petro Poroshenko to seek a military solution to his nation’s ethnic crisis in eastern Ukraine, in which hundreds of innocent lives have been lost and many thousands displaced and forced to flee their home for safe sanctuary across their country’s borders. Do the US and its allies appear to have no recollection of an incident, in 1988, when an Iranian passenger plane was destroyed in midair by a missile fired from an American warship in the Persian Gulf. All the passengers and crew were killed, among them Indian diplomats and their families. Washington issued a curt “regret,” and there the matter ended.

Today, the international community would be best served by grieving with the bereaved. This would be a display of common humanity. Meanwhile, expert investigators from all corners of the world, now assembling in Kiev, should be allowed to go about their work without hindrance and throw whatever light they can on the dark corners of the tragedy.

Sometimes in such shocking tragedies, a cooler appreciation could be much more appropriate.

Former US President Bill Clinton made a considerable splash when he met with students in Jaipur, Rajasthan, after visiting the kitchen of the “Akshaya Patra” Foundation, an NGO that seeks to facilitate children’s education by providing them with school mid-day meals. Mr Clinton witnessed a machine churning out 40,000 chapattis per hour; and he joined by serving the kids of a government school. He was greeted on his arrival with a song and dance routine in which staff and students participated. Mr Clinton told his audience: “I want to thank the students and teachers for the warm welcome. This is a part of efforts that involve more than 10,000 schools in 10 states in India and feeds 1.3 million people a year. This, he said, is a remark-

able partnership between the government, private sector business community and non-government organizations.” The students gave Mr Clinton handmade baby garments for his expected grandchild, his daughter Chelsea’s first offspring. He was deeply moved by his experience and hoped the children, most from deprived backgrounds, would fulfill their dreams of a better and more rewarding life through access to education.

Mr Clinton then travelled to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where he visited a health clinic specializing in respiratory and intestinal diseases. His visit to India, part of a wider Asia-Pacific tour to oversee the work of the Clinton Foundation, was a signal success.

Tragedy of downed Malaysian airliner

Bill Clinton makes waves in Jaipur, Lucknow

3 “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you?

Not much.”

- Jim Rohn

Baroness Zahida Manzoor CBE of Knightsbridge

The road to peace is always under construction The Middle East is in turmoil. Years of conflict, corruption and poor government have destabilised the region. Now we face the threat of new extremist states emerging in the vacuum left by failing nations. The ongoing crisis is dragging vulnerable children from our communities.

The Arab Spring and the ongoing conflicts across the region have led my Lib Dem colleague Paddy Ashdown to predict the collapse of the Sykes-Picot agreement.

The borders are being redrawn dangerously quickly and without the input of those that they most affect.

The emergence of ISIL in Northern Iraq is a serious turn in the ongoing story of the region.

There have been many questions raised about the influence of the 2003 Iraq Invasion and given recent events, I’m very proud the Lib Dems opposed this war.

I am deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis, with large numbers of Iraqis displaced. They need urgent support, so that the humanitarian situation does not deteriorate further. I am pleased that the UK Coalition Government have already provided £5m in immediate assistance, but more still needs to be done. I also welcome the humanitarian aid local communities and individuals are giving in the UK. But, the conflict in the region, and the increasingly sectarian nature of the fighting is causing some young people to leave our country to fight abroad. Surely there can be no glory in any bloodshed particularly when it is the vulnerable put in harm’s way.

The young girls that have now been heading

abroad to fight on the front line are particularly vulnerable. As a Lib Dem I am always concerned by stories of the exploitation of women and it is particularly frightening to hear from the reports Manchester Police which suggest that these girls are subject to sexual exploitation.

I am concerned that this war is becoming another theatre in which those with power are seeking to exploit the innocent and vulnerable.

Those that are leaving our country clearly have some disconnect with our community and society, this is something that we must improve. We need to do more to embrace these disconnected teenagers and make them feel a part of modern Britain and of their local communities. What is happening to these young people now is the worst example of what can happen when we fail to create an inclusive and cohesive society for all.

This conflict is tearing up the Middle East, causing fractures across national boundaries and allowing dangerous, and undemocratically elected people to grab power.

Furthermore, it is allowing the further exploitation of the young and vulnerable. In the Lib Dems we strive to create a more inclusive society for all, allowing the most vulnerable to get on in life. This goal should not stop at our own borders, it makes sense to work with others towards a stable Middle East. It benefits no one whilst this conflict persists.

Nevertheless, I fear I must agree with a colleague’s recent comment that “the road to peace is always under construction.”

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