Bilateral Agreements

1.       The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announces to provide about Rs.800 crore more for the Hogenekkal Water Supply and Fluorosis Mitigation Project.

2.      United States based Satellier - Scream point International a leading digital city solutions provider globally, brings its latest “5D Digital City” solutions and technology services to India.

3.      Under a multimillion dollar long-term nuclear fuel supply deal between Moscow and New Delhi, Russia delivers the first batch of 30 tonnes of uranium pellets to India.

4.      Tata Communications has announced its participations in the $600 million new West African Cable System (WACS) – the submarine fibre optic cable that will link countries in Southern Africa, Western Africa and Europe, with at least 3.84 terabits a second of international bandwidth.

5.      India and Spain sign a trade agreement expected to boost bilateral ties in six crucial sectors of infrastructure development, renewable energy, agriculture, research and development, tourism, and cooperation in Latin America, where Spain has a sphere of influence.

6.      India-U.S.-Japan Planned Malabar-2009 Naval Exercises.Japan has joined India and the United States in trilateral naval exercises from April 26 to May 3. The exercise, named Malabar 2009, was conducted east of Okinawa islands.

7.      The professional objective was to “deepen mutual understanding and trust” among the navies of the three countries. The political aim was to “enhance friendly ties.”

8.      India-Poland pacts on healthcare and tourism.India and the European country Poland signed two agreements: one on cooperation in healthcare and medicine, and the other on tourism. This bilateral trade is $1 billion.

9.      Iran and Pakistan signed an agreement for the construction of gas pipeline which will carry natural gas from Asalouyeh and stretch over 1100 kilometres through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sind which stretches 1000km. In India it runs around 600km. 150 million Cubic meters natural gas would be transported through this pipeline per day.

10. India became the first country in South Asia to own an AWACS, Airborne Early Warning and Control System, called 'an eye in the sky', with the Israeli-made Phalcon. It arrived at the Jamnagar airbase on the country's western coast.The Phalcons will be inducted into the Indian Air Force on May 28 by Defense Minister A K Antony at the Palam airbase in New Delhi.

11. India and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in production and marketing of bio fuels in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner and in accordance with national priorities and socio economic development goals.

12. India to set up IT lab in Indonesia.India will help set up an Information Technology Lab at Indonesia’s Military Academy and participate in a defence exercise, “Garuda Shield”, for United Nations peace support operations.

13. India-ASEAN summit cancelled: The India-ASEAN summit has been delayed following anti-government demonstrations in Thailand.

14. G8, G5 leaders met in L’Aquila, Italy on economic issues and climate change .

15. India, U.S. Sign Space-defense Deals.The new Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) will cover launches involving satellites owned by U.S. government or academic institutions or by third country space agencies and universities which have U.S. equipment on board. Since the components and satellites will have to be integrated with Indian Space Research Organization's launch vehicles, the TSA will provide for monitoring by the U.S. side to ensure against diversion or misuse of equipment.

16. A second agreement was signed on a framework for "robust result-oriented cooperation" in science and technology for "collaborative research and its commercialization."

17. The signing of the end-use monitoring shall enable India to procure sophisticated U.S. defense technology and equipment.

18. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to implement Avahan, an initiative of the foundation to check the spread of HIV/AIDS in India. Avahan funds targeted HIV-prevention programmes in six Indian States and along the national trucking routes.

19. Mauritius to use AP e-procurement technology.The Government of Mauritius has signed a formal memorandum of agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Government to source e-procurement solutions. The Mauritius Government would use the Andhra Pradesh Government’s e-procurement platform in order to aggregate demand from various Government departments and ensure reduced inventory costs. Also, this would result in lower cost of procurement, transparency and help achieve effective tendering process. Andhra Pradesh, one of the front runners in implementing the e-governance initiatives, had so far concluded 61,534 tenders worth Rs 1.08 lakh crore, involving 206 departments and agencies.

20. India has signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that will include tariff cuts on an estimated 4,000 products. The FTA is expected to boost trade between the two to US$50 billion by next year. The agreement will be implemented beginning January 1, 2010 and will take out duties on about 3,200 products by December 2013, while duties on the remaining 800 products will be brought down to zero or near zero levels by December 2016.

21. India, China to set up hotline.India and China have decided to set up a hotline between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Wen Jiabao as a confidence building measure. The decision was taken during the 13th Round of India-China Special Representatives talks on the boundary question.

22. India-Singapore Joint Venture For Tourism Promotion.According to the plan, the tourists who visit Singapore will be given an option to include a four-five day trip to India in their itinerary.

23. India, South Korea signed bilateral trade agreement.South Korea and India signed a bilateral trade agreement to cut duties on  goods as auto parts and electronics and to boost cooperation between the two Asian economic powerhouses.Both sides started negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in March, 2006, committing them to drastically lower import tariffs on cars and other manufactured items.The CEPA is similar to the free trade agreements (FTA) South Korea has signed with the U.S. and other trading partners, but phases out tariffs more slowly.

24. During the visit of Indian President, India and Tajikistan decide to cooperate in the fields of energy, food and regional security. India invested $20 million in the reconstruction of the Ayni Air Base near Dushanbe in 2008 and has made significant investments in other Tajik projects, including the reconstruction of the Varzob hydropower plant. 

25. India and Russia agreed to raise the volume of the trade between them to USD ten billion by 2010. Russia and India would cooperate in energy, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, knowledge-intensive industries, ongoing construction of Kudankulam nuclear power plant and ONGC's participation in the Sakhalin-I project. 

Source:Sakshi.