VIF Information Alerts - 12th June 2019

Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar want progress in building economic corridor
Published: The Independent

11 Jun 2019

Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) on Tuesday felt the necessity to further deepen cooperation and promote substantial progress in building the BCIM Economic Corridor (BCIM EC) to promote regional peace, stability and development. The countries came up with the understanding at the13th meeting of Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Regional Cooperation Forum held along the Fuxian Lake here. Representatives of the four countries signed a 12-point joint statement after the meeting.Click here to read... [2]

Government finalises broad contours of defence space agency
Published: The Economic Times

11 Jun 2019

The government has finalised the broad contours of a new defence space agency which will develop capabilities to protect India's interests in outer space and deal with threats of space wars, officials sources said Tuesday. The agency is being tasked with developing a range of platforms and co-orbital weapons to protect Indian assets in space and to have deterrence, they said.Click here to read... [3]

India, Maldives, Lanka to restart NSA-level talks
Published: The Economic Times

12 Jun 2019

India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are planning to revive their tri-nation national security adviser-level security dialogue, in the backdrop of Colombo terrorist strikes and following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to Male and Colombo, the first foreign destinations he chose to visit in his second term. The talks had been put on hold five years ago, because of the approach of the then Yameen regime in the Maldives. Mauritius and the Seychelles might also be included in this dialogue at a later stage as was originally envisaged.

Budget 2019-20: IMF hand clearly visible in budget proposals
Published: The Dawn

IN its first full-year budget for the next fiscal year, the Imran Khan government is aiming to bring down the primary (budget) deficit to 0.6 per cent of GDP by focusing on plugging the loopholes in the indirect tax regime, withdrawing the tax exemptions to exporters and others, going after retailers, and blocking avenues of whitening illegal money through investments in property. The primary deficit is the difference between expenditures (net of debt servicing) and net federal revenues (after adding provincial surpluses). The overall fiscal deficit, however, is envisaged to remain at nearly the same level as this year’s.Click here to read... [4]

China appoints veteran diplomat Sun Weidong as new envoy to India
Published: The Tribune
12 Jun 2019

China has appointed veteran diplomat Sun Weidong, an expert in South Asian affairs and worked closely with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his tenure as Ambassador in Beijing, as its new envoy to India. Sun, who also served as the ambassador to Pakistan, is currently the Director General of the Policy and Planning Department of the Foreign Ministry.Click here to read... [5]