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Category: Trade

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan

    Source: ASEAN – Association of SouthEast Asian Nations

    Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, this afternoon met with H.E. Yoshida Nobuhiro, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan, on the margins of the 56th AEM Meeting and Related Meetings in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

    They discussed ways to strengthen economic ties and enhance trade and investment between ASEAN and Japan through continued collaboration under the Future Design and Action Plan for Innovative and Sustainable ASEAN-Japan Economic Co-Creation 2023-2033 as well as the effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.

    The post Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea

    Source: ASEAN

    Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, this afternoon met with H.E. Inkyo Cheong, Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea, on the sidelines of the 56th AEM Meeting and Related Meetings. They discussed, among others, the progress of implementing the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Area (AKFTA), the AKFTA upgrade, and other measures to enhance ASEAN-Korea economic relations.

    The post Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Joint Fact Sheet: The United  States and India Continue to Expand Comprehensive and Global Strategic  Partnership

    Source: The White House

    Today, United States President Joseph R. Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed that the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership, the defining partnership of the 21st century, is decisively delivering on an ambitious agenda that serves the global good.  The Leaders reflected on a historic period that has seen the United States and India reach unprecedented levels of trust and collaboration.  The Leaders affirmed that the U.S.-India partnership must be anchored in upholding democracy, freedom, the rule of law, human rights, pluralism, and equal opportunities for all as our countries strive to become more perfect unions and meet our shared destiny.  The Leaders commended the progress that has made the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership a pillar of global security and peace, highlighting the benefits of increased operational coordination, information-sharing, and defense industrial innovation.  President Biden and Prime Minister Modi expressed unrelenting optimism and the utmost confidence that the tireless efforts of our peoples, our civic and private sectors, and our governments to forge deeper bonds have set the U.S.-India partnership on a path toward even greater heights in the decades ahead.
     
    President Biden expressed his immense appreciation for India’s leadership on the world stage, particularly Prime Minister Modi’s leadership in the G-20 and in the Global South and his commitment to strengthen the Quad to ensure a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. India is at the forefront of efforts to seek solutions to the most pressing challenges, from supporting the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic to addressing the devastating consequences of conflicts around the world. President Biden commended Prime Minister Modi for his historic visits to Poland and Ukraine, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in decades, and for his message of peace and ongoing humanitarian support for Ukraine, including its energy sector, and on the importance of international law, including the UN charter.  The Leaders reaffirmed their support for the freedom of navigation and the protection of commerce, including critical maritime routes in the Middle East where India will assume co-lead in 2025 of the Combined Task Force 150 to work with Combined Maritime Forces to secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.  President Biden shared with Prime Minister Modi that the United States supports initiatives to reform global institutions to reflect India’s important voice, including permanent membership for India in a reformed U.N. Security Council.  The Leaders voiced their view that a closer U.S.-India partnership is vital to the success of efforts to build a cleaner, inclusive, more secure, and more prosperous future for the planet.   
     
    President Biden and Prime Minister Modi applauded the success of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in deepening and expanding strategic cooperation across key technology sectors, including space, semiconductors, and advanced telecommunications. Both Leaders committed to enhance regular engagements to improve the momentum of collaboration in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum, biotechnology, and clean energy. They highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration with like-minded partners, including through the Quad and a U.S.-India-ROK Trilateral Technology initiative launched earlier this year to build more secure and resilient supply chains for critical industries and ensure we collectively remain at the leading edge of innovation.  The Leaders directed their governments to redouble efforts to address export controls, enhance high technology commerce, and reduce barriers to technology transfer between our two countries, while addressing technology security, including through the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue.  Leaders also endorsed new mechanisms for deeper cyberspace cooperation through the bilateral cybersecurity dialogue. The Leaders recommitted to expand the manufacturing and deployment of clean energy, including finding opportunities to expand U.S.-India cooperation in solar, wind and nuclear energy and the development of small modular reactor technologies.
     
    Charting a Technology Partnership for the Future
     

    • President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next generation telecommunications, and green energy applications. The fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the U.S. Space Force.
    • The Leaders praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries’ (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata, India that will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing and enable game-changing advances for zero and low emission as well as connected vehicles, internet of things devices, AI, and data centers. They noted GF’s plans to explore longer term, cross-border manufacturing and technology partnerships with India which will deliver high-quality jobs in both of our countries.  They also celebrated the new strategic partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the India Semiconductor Mission, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in connection with the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund. 
    • The Leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for U.S., Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company’s submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets.  
    • The Leaders welcomed progress toward the first joint effort by NASA and ISRO to conduct scientific research onboard the International Space Station in 2025. They appreciated the initiatives and exchange of ideas under the Civil Space Joint Working Group and expressed hope that its next meeting in early 2025 will open additional avenues of cooperation.  They pledged to pursue opportunities to deepen joint innovation and strategic collaborations, including by exploring new platforms in civil and commercial space domains.  
    • The Leaders also welcomed efforts to enhance collaboration between our research and development ecosystems. The Leaders also welcomed efforts to enhance collaboration between our research and development ecosystems. The Leaders also welcomed efforts to enhance collaboration between our research and development ecosystems.  They plan to mobilize up to $90+ million in U.S. and Indian government funding over the next five years for the U.S.-India Global Challenges Institute to support high-impact R&D partnerships between U.S. and Indian universities and research institutions, including through identifying options to implement the Statement of Intent signed at the June 2024 iCET meeting.  The Leaders also welcomed the launch of a new U.S.-India Advanced Materials R&D Forum to expand collaboration between American and Indian universities, national laboratories, and private sector researchers. The Leaders also welcomed the launch of a new U.S.-India Advanced Materials R&D Forum to expand collaboration between American and Indian universities, national laboratories, and private sector researchers. 
    • The Leaders announced the selection of 11 funding awards between the National Science Foundation and India’s Department of Science and Technology, supported by a combined $5+ million grant to enable joint U.S.-India research projects in areas such as next-generation telecommunications, connected vehicles, machine learning.  The Leaders announced the award of 12 funding awards under the National Science Foundation and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, research collaboration with a combined outlay of nearly $10 million to enable joint U.S.-India basic and applied research in the areas of semiconductors, next generation communication systems, sustainability & green technologies and intelligent transportation systems.  Furthermore, NSF and MeitY are exploring new opportunities for research collaboration to enhance and synergize the basic and applied research ecosystem on both sides.
    • The Leaders celebrated that India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) along with National Science Foundation of the United States announced the first joint call for collaborative research projects in February 2024 to address complex scientific challenges and innovate novel solutions that leverage advances in synthetic and engineering biology, systems and computational biology, and other associated fields that are foundational to developing future biomanufacturing solutions and advance the bioeconomy. Under the first call for proposals, joint research teams responded enthusiastically and results are likely to be announced by the end of 2024.
    • The Leaders also highlighted additional cooperation we are building across artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, and other critical technology areas. They highlighted the second convening of the U.S.-India Quantum Coordination Mechanism in Washington in August and welcomed the announcement of seventeen new awards for binational research and development cooperation on artificial intelligence and quantum via the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (IUSSTF).  They welcomed new private sector cooperation on emerging technologies, such as through IBM’s recent conclusion of memoranda of understanding with the Government of India, which will enable IBM’s watsonx platform on India’s Airawat supercomputer and drive new AI innovation opportunities, enhance R&D collaboration on advanced semiconductor processors, and increase support for India’s National Quantum Mission. 
    • The Leaders commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications; this includes the U.S. Agency for International Development’s plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial $7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.
    • The Leaders welcomed progress since the November 2023 signing of an MOU between the Commerce Department and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to enhance the two countries’ innovation ecosystems under the “Innovation Handshake” agenda.  Since then, the two sides have convened two industry roundtables in the U.S. and India to bring together startups, private equity and venture capital firms, corporate investment departments, and government officials to forge connections and to accelerate investment in innovation.

    Powering a Next Generation Defense Partnership

    • President Biden welcomed the progress towards India concluding procurement of 31 General Atomics MQ-9B (16 Sky Guardian and 15 Sea Guardian) remotely piloted aircraft and their associated equipment, which will enhance the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of India’s armed forces across all domains. 
    • The Leaders recognized the remarkable progress under the U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap, including ongoing collaboration to advance priority co-production arrangements for jet engines, munitions, and ground mobility systems.  They also welcomed efforts to expand defense industrial partnerships, including the teaming of Liquid Robotics and Sagar Defence Engineering for the co-development and co-production of unmanned surface vehicle systems that strengthen undersea and maritime domain awareness. The Leaders applauded the recent conclusion of the Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA), enhancing the mutual supply of defense goods and services. Both Leaders committed to advance ongoing discussions on aligning their respective defense procurement systems to further enable the reciprocal supply of defense goods and services.
    • President Biden welcomed India’s decision to set a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5 percent on the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector, including on all aircraft and aircraft engine parts thereby simplifying the tax structure and paving the way for building a strong ecosystem for MRO services in India. The Leaders also encouraged the industry to foster collaboration and drive innovation to support India’s efforts to become a leading aviation hub.  The Leaders welcomed commitments from U.S. industry to further increase India’s MRO capabilities, including for the repair of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
    • The Leaders hailed the teaming agreement on the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft recently signed between Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, the two companies that co-chair the U.S.-India CEO Forum.  Building on longstanding industry cooperation, this agreement will establish a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India to support the readiness of the Indian fleet and global partners who operate the C-130 Super Hercules aircraft.  This marks a significant step in U.S.-India defense and aerospace cooperation and reflects the two sides’ deepening strategic and technology partnership ties.
    • The Leaders lauded the growing defense innovation collaboration between our governments, businesses, and academic institutions fostered by the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) initiative launched in 2023, and noted progress achieved during the third INDUS-X Summit in Silicon Valley earlier this month. They welcomed the enhanced collaboration between the Indian Ministry of Defence’s Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and US Department of Defence’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) through the Memorandum of Understanding signed at the Silicon Valley Summit. The efforts via the INDUSWERX consortium to facilitate pathways for defense and dual-use companies in the INDUS-X network to access premier testing ranges in both countries, were appreciated.
    • The Leaders also recognized the clear fulfillment of the shared goal to build a defense innovation bridge under INDUS-X through the launch of “joint challenges” designed by the U.S. DoD’S DIU and the Indian MoD’s Defence Innovation Organization (DIO).  In 2024, our governments have separately awarded $1+ million to U.S. and Indian companies that developed technologies focused on undersea communications and maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).  Building on this success, a new challenge was announced at the most recent INDUS-X Summit that focused on Space Situational Awareness (SSA) in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).  
    • The Leaders welcomed ongoing efforts to deepen our military partnership and interoperability to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific, noting that India hosted our most complex, largest bilateral, tri-service exercise to date during the March 2024 TIGER TRIUMPH exercise.  They also welcomed the inclusion of new technologies and capabilities, including a first-ever demonstration of the Javelin and Stryker systems in India, on the margins of the ongoing bilateral Army YUDH ABHYAS exercise. 
    • The Leaders welcomed the conclusion of the Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Deployment of Liaison Officers, and the commencement of deployment process of the first Liaison Officer from India in US Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
    • The Leaders commended work to advance cooperation in advanced domains, including space and cyber, and looked forward towards the November 2024 bilateral cyber engagement to enhance the U.S.-India cyber cooperation framework. Areas of new cooperation will include threat information sharing, cybersecurity training, and collaboration on vulnerability mitigation in energy and telecommunications networks. The Leaders also noted the second U.S.-India Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue in May 2024, which included the first-ever bilateral defense space table-top exercise. 

    Catalyzing the Clean Energy Transition

    • President Biden and Prime Minister Modi welcomed the U.S.-India Roadmap to Build Safe and Secure Global Clean Energy Supply Chains, which launched a new initiative to accelerate the expansion of safe and secure clean energy supply chains through U.S. and Indian manufacturing of clean energy technologies and components.  In its initial phase, the U.S. and India would work together to unlock $1 billion of multilateral financing to support projects across the clean energy value chain for renewable energy, energy storage, power grid and transmission technologies, high efficiency cooling systems, zero emission vehicles, and other emerging clean technologies.
    • The Leaders also highlighted the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)’s partnership with India’s private sector to expand clean energy manufacturing and diversify supply chains.  To date, DFC has extended a $250 million loan to Tata Power Solar to construct a solar cell manufacturing facility and a $500 million loan to First Solar to construct and operate a solar module manufacturing facility in India.
    • The Leaders lauded the strong collaboration under the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP), most recently convened on September 16, 2024 in Washington DC to strengthen energy security, create opportunities for clean energy innovation, address climate change and create employment generation opportunities, including through capacity building, and collaboration between industry and R&D.
    • The Leaders welcomed collaboration on a new National Center for Hydrogen Safety in India and affirmed their intent to utilize the new Renewable Energy Technology Action Platform (RETAP) to enhance collaboration on clean energy manufacturing and global supply chains, including through public-private task forces on hydrogen and energy storage.
    • The Leaders also announced a new Memorandum of Cooperation between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the International Solar Alliance aimed at promoting more responsive and sustainable power systems that leverage diverse renewable energy sources. 
    • The Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the development of diverse and sustainable supply chains for critical minerals under the Minerals Security Partnership targeting strategic projects along the value chain.  The Leaders looked forward to the signing of the Critical Minerals Memorandum of Understanding at the forthcoming U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue and pledged to hasten bilateral collaboration to secure resilient critical minerals supply chains through enhanced technical assistance and greater commercial cooperation.
    • The Leaders welcomed the progress made on joint efforts since 2023 for India to work toward IEA membership in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on an International Energy Program.
    • The two Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to accelerating the manufacturing and deployment of renewable energy, battery storage and emerging clean technology in India. They welcomed the ongoing progress between India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to provide up to $500 million each to anchor the Green Transition Fund as well as encourage private sector investors to match these efforts. Both sides look forward to the expeditious operationalization of the Green Transition Fund.

    Empowering Future Generations and Promoting Global Health and Development

    • The Leaders welcomed India’s signature and ratification of the Agreements under Pillar III, Pillar IV and the overarching Agreement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The Leaders underscored that IPEF seeks to advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness of the economies of its signatories. They noted the economic diversity of the 14 IPEF partners that represents 40 percent of global GDP and 28 percent of global goods and services trade.
    • President Biden and Prime Minister Modi celebrated the new U.S.-India Drug Policy Framework for the 21st Century and its accompanying Memorandum of Understanding, which will deepen collaboration to disrupt the illicit production and international trafficking of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals, and deepen a holistic public health partnership. 
    • The two Leaders signaled their commitment to the objectives of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drugs Threats and work towards combatting the threat of synthetic drugs and their precursors through mutually agreed initiatives to promote public health through coordinated actions.
    • The Leaders applauded the first-ever U.S.-India Cancer Dialogue held in August 2024, which brought together experts from both countries to increase research and development to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer.  The Leaders applauded the recently launched Bio5 partnership between the United States, India, ROK, Japan, and the EU, driving closer cooperation on pharmaceutical supply chains.  The Leaders applauded the Development Finance Corporation’s $50 million loan to Indian company Panacea Biotech to manufacture hexavalent (six-in-one) vaccines for children, reaffirming our joint commitment to advance shared global health priorities, including bolstering support for primary healthcare.
    • The leaders welcomed the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Business Administration for promoting cooperation between U.S. and Indian small and medium-size enterprises by improving their participation in the global market place through capacity building workshops in areas such as trade and export finance, technology and digital trade, green economy and trade facilitation. The MoU also provides for the joint conduct of programs for women entrepreneurs to empower them and facilitate trade partnership between women-owned small businesses of the two countries.  The Leaders celebrated that, since the June 2023 State visit, the Development Finance Corporation has invested $177 million across eight projects to support Indian small businesses and drive economic growth.
    • The Leaders welcomed enhanced cooperation on agriculture between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in areas such as climate-smart agriculture, agriculture productivity growth, agriculture innovation, and sharing best practices related to crop risk protection and agriculture credit. The two sides will also enhance cooperation with the private sector through discussions on regulatory issues and innovation to enhance bilateral trade.
    • The Leaders welcomed the formal launch of the new U.S.-India Global Digital Development Partnership, which aims to bring together U.S. and Indian private sector companies, technology and resources to deploy the responsible use of emerging digital technologies in Asia and Africa.
    • The Leaders welcomed strengthened trilateral cooperation with Tanzania through the Triangular Development Partnership, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development and India’s Development Partnership Administration to jointly address global development challenges and foster prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The partnership focuses on advancing renewable energy projects, including solar energy, to enhance energy infrastructure and access in Tanzania, thereby bolstering energy cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.  They also desired to explore the expansion of the triangular development partnership in areas of health cooperation, particularly for critical technical areas of mutual interest including digital health and capacity building of nurses and other frontline health workers.
    • The Leaders acknowledged the July 2024 signing of a bilateral Cultural Property Agreement that will facilitate implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.  The agreement marked the culmination of years of diligent work by experts from both countries and fulfills President Biden’s and Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to enhance cooperation to protect cultural heritage highlighted in the joint statement when they met in June 2023. In this context, the leaders welcomed the repatriation of 297 Indian antiquities from the U.S. to India in 2024.
    • The Leaders look forward to building on India’s ambitious G20 presidency to deliver on shared priorities for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, including: bigger, better, and more effective MDBs, including by following through on Leaders’ pledges in New Delhi to boost the World Bank’s capacity to help developing countries address global challenges, while recognizing the imperative of achieving the sustainable development goals; a more predictable, orderly, timely and coordinated sovereign debt restructuring process; and a pathway to growth for high-ambition developing countries that are facing financing challenges amid mounting debt burdens by increasing access to finance and unlocking fiscal space taking into account country specific circumstances.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Readout of the Secretary-General’s meeting with H.E. Mr. Frederick Makamure Shava, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe

    Source: United Nations secretary general

    The Secretary-General met with H.E. Mr. Frederick Makamure Shava, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister discussed the pressing need for addressing the climate crisis, including the adverse impact of El Niño in Zimbabwe and Southern Afric

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: 2024 Quad Leaders’  Summit

    Source: The White House

    On September 21, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. hosted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Wilmington, Delaware, for the fourth Quad Leaders’ Summit.
     
    The Quad was established to be a global force for good. This year, the Quad is proudly executing tangible projects that benefit partner countries across the Indo-Pacific—including in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean Region. The Quad is working together at unprecedented scope and scale to deliver on Indo-Pacific partners’ priorities. Together, the Quad is leading ambitious projects to help partners address pandemics and disease; respond to natural disasters; strengthen their maritime domain awareness and maritime security; mobilize and build high-standard physical and digital infrastructure; invest in and benefit from critical and emerging technologies; confront the threat of climate change; bolster cyber security; and cultivate the next generation of technology leaders.
     
    ENDURING PARTNERS FOR THE INDO-PACIFIC
     
    Over the past four years, Quad Leaders have met six times, including twice virtually. Quad Foreign Ministers have met eight times, most recently in Tokyo in July. Quad country representatives convene on a regular basis, at all levels, to consult one another, exchange ideas to advance shared priorities, and deliver benefits for partners across the Indo-Pacific region. All Quad governments have institutionalized the Quad at all levels and across a diverse array of departments and agencies. Today, Quad Leaders announced new initiatives to solidify these habits of cooperation and to set up the Quad to endure for the long-term.
     

    • Each Quad government has committed to work through their respective budgetary processes to secure robust funding for Quad priorities in the Indo-Pacific region to ensure an enduring impact.
    • The Quad governments also intend to work with their respective legislatures to deepen interparliamentary exchanges, and encourage other stakeholders to deepen engagement with Quad counterparts. Yesterday, Members of Congress announced the creation of a bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Quad Caucus.
    • In the coming months, Quad Commerce and Industry ministers will meet for the first time.
    • Quad Leaders also welcome the leaders of the Quad Development Finance Institutions and Agencies deciding to meet to explore future investments by the four countries in the Indo-Pacific, including in health security, food security, clean energy, and quality infrastructure. This builds on a previous meeting in 2022 between the heads of the Export Finance Australia, the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, India Export-Import Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
    • The United States will host the 2025 Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting, and India will host the 2025 Quad Leaders Summit.

    GLOBAL HEALTH & HEALTH SECURITY

    In 2023, the Quad announced the Quad Health Security Partnership to strengthen coordination and collaboration in support of health security in the Indo-Pacific. The Quad Health Security Partnership is delivering on its commitments to strengthen the Indo-Pacific’s ability to detect and respond to outbreaks of diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential, including through a set of new initiatives announced today.

    Quad Cancer Moonshot

    • The Quad is launching the historic Quad Cancer Moonshot, a collective effort to leverage public and private resources to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer in the Indo-Pacific, with an initial focus on cervical cancer. Altogether, the Quad Cancer Moonshot announced today is projected to save hundreds of thousands of lives over the coming decades. More information can be found here.

    Pandemic Preparedness

    • Quad countries are committed to supporting health security and resiliency efforts across the region, including continued support for the Pandemic Fund.
    • The Quad reaffirms commitment to bolstering health security across the Indo-Pacific region. In 2024, the Quad Health Security Partnership advanced regional resilience through the second pandemic preparedness table top exercise, building on the success of the Quad Vaccine Partnership to enhance prevention, early detection, and response to potential disease outbreaks, and is exploring developing Standard Operating Procedures for Pandemic Response. The Quad’s collaborative efforts included training health specialists from the Indo-Pacific to strengthen regional capabilities for health emergencies.
    • India will host a workshop on pandemic preparedness and release a white paper outlining emergency public health responses.
    • Australia is increasing the pool of public health specialists who are ready to deploy, in-country or in the region, in response to disease outbreaks, with the first training session to commence in Darwin, Australia, in the coming days.
    • In coordination with Quad partners, the United States is pledging over $84.5 million to partner with fourteen countries in the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.

    Mpox

    • In response to the current clade I mpox outbreak, as well as the ongoing clade II mpox outbreak, the Quad plans to coordinate our efforts to promote equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured mpox vaccines, including where appropriate expanding vaccine manufacturing in low and middle-income countries.

    HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER RELIEF (HADR)

    Twenty years ago, the Quad first came together to respond to the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, surging humanitarian assistance to affected countries. In 2022, Quad Foreign Ministers signed the Guidelines for the Quad Partnership on HADR in the Indo-Pacific. In May 2024, following a tragic landslide in Papua New Guinea, Quad countries coordinated their response in accordance with these guidelines. The Quad collectively provided over $5 million in humanitarian assistance. Quad partners continue to support Papua New Guinea in its longer-term resiliency efforts. The Quad continues to deepen HADR coordination and support partners in the region in their longer-term resiliency efforts.

    • Quad governments are working to ensure readiness to rapidly respond, including through pre-positioning of essential relief supplies, in the event of a natural disaster; this effort extends from the Indian Ocean region, to Southeast Asia, to the Pacific.
    • In the coming months, Quad HADR experts will conduct a tabletop exercise to prepare for potential future disasters in the region.
    • Quad partners are working together to provide over $4 million in humanitarian assistance to support the people of Vietnam in light of the devastating consequences of Typhoon Yagi.

    MARITIME SECURITY

    Quad partners are working side-by-side with partners throughout the region to bolster maritime security, improve maritime domain awareness, and uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.

    Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness and Maritime Training

    • Quad Leaders launched the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) at the 2022 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo. This initiative provides partners with near-real-time, cost-effective, cutting-edge radio frequency data, enabling them to better monitor their waters; counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; respond to climate change and natural disasters; and enforce their laws within their waters.
    • Since the announcement, in consultation with partners, the Quad has successfully scaled the program across the Indo-Pacific region—through the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, with partners in Southeast Asia, to the Information Fusion Center—Indian Ocean Region, Gurugram. In doing so, the Quad has helped well over two dozen countries access dark vessel maritime domain awareness data, so they can better monitor the activities in their exclusive economic zones—including unlawful activity.
    • In the next phase of implementation, announced today, the Quad intends to layer new technology and data into IPMDA over the coming year, to continue to deliver cutting edge capability and information to the region. The Quad intends to leverage electro-optical data and advanced analytic software to sharpen the maritime domain awareness picture for partners.
    • Today the Quad announced a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI) to enable our partners in the region Indo-Pacific partners to maximize tools provided through IPMDA and other Quad partner initiatives, to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior. The Quad countries look forward to India hosting the inaugural MAITRI workshop in 2025. 
    • Quad countries are coordinating comprehensive and complementary training across the full suite of legal, operational, and technical maritime security and law enforcement knowledge domains. Quad partners have pledged to expand engagement with regional maritime law enforcement fora, share best practices, and improve civil maritime cooperation.

    Indo-Pacific Logistics Network

    • The Quad launches today a Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project, to pursue shared airlift capacity among the four nations and leverage collective logistics strengths, in order to support civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region. This effort will complement existing efforts with Indo-Pacific partners.

    Coast Guard Cooperation

    • The U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard plan to launch a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025 in the Indo-Pacific to improve interoperability. Through this effort, members of Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard will spend time on board a U.S. Coast Guard vessel operating in the Indo-Pacific.  The Quad intends to continue with further missions in the Indo-Pacific.

    QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE

    The Quad is delivering quality, resilient infrastructure to the region to increase connectivity, build regional capacity, and meet critical needs.

    • This year, the Quad countries’ export credit agencies (ECAs) signed and are implementing a Memorandum of Cooperation, which supports supply chain resilience, critical and emerging technologies, renewable energy, and other high-quality projects in the Indo-Pacific. Quad ECAs are strengthening communication on pipeline information and provision of relevant financing for projects in the Indo-Pacific region, and will pursue joint business promotion efforts that involve industry experts, project developers, and other major market players.
    • The Quad released joint Principles for Development and Deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure, underscoring the Quad’s commitment to an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe, reliable, and secure digital future to advance shared prosperity and sustainable development.
    • The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure organized a workshop in India to empower partners across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen power sector resilience.

    Quad Ports of the Future Partnership

    • The Quad Ports of the Future Partnership will harness the Quad’s expertise to support sustainable and resilient port infrastructure development across the Indo-Pacific, in collaboration with regional partners.
    • In 2025, Quad partners intend to hold the inaugural Regional Ports and Transportation Conference, hosted by India in Mumbai.
    • Through this new partnership, Quad partners intend to coordinate, exchange information, share best practices with partners in the region, and leverage resources to mobilize government and private sector investments in quality port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region.

    Quad Infrastructure Fellows

    • The Quad Infrastructure Fellowship was announced at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit to improve capacity and deepen professional networks across the region to design, manage, and attract investment in infrastructure projects. Over the past year, it has expanded to more than 2,200 experts, and Quad partners have already provided well over 1,300 fellowships.

    Undersea Cables and Digital Connectivity

    • Through the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, Quad partners continue to support and strengthen quality undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, the capacity, durability, and reliability of which are inextricably linked to the security and prosperity of the region and the world.
    • In support of these efforts, Australia launched the Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre in July, which is delivering workshops and policy and regulatory assistance in response to requests from across the region.
    • Japan has conducted capacity building trainings to enhance connectivity and resilience in the Indo-Pacific through cooperation with specialized agencies and international organizations. Japan intends to further extend technical cooperation to improve public information and communication technology infrastructure management capacity for an undersea cable in Nauru and Kiribati.
    • The United States has conducted over 1,300 capacity building trainings for telecommunication officials and executives from 25 countries in the Indo-Pacific; today the U.S. announces its intent, working with Congress, to invest an additional $3.4 million to extend and expand this training program.
    • Investments in cable projects by Quad partners will help support all Pacific island countries in achieving primary telecommunication cable connectivity by the end of 2025. Since the last Quad Leaders’ Summit, Quad partners have committed over $140 million to undersea cable builds in the Pacific, alongside contributions from other likeminded partners.
    • Complementing these investments in new undersea cables, India has commissioned a feasibility study to examine expansion of undersea cable maintenance and repair capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.

    CRITICAL AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

    The Quad is working in lockstep to stay at the forefront of technology innovation, and remains committed to harnessing emerging technologies for the benefit of people across the Indo-Pacific, and deploying these technologies to facilitate economic prosperity, openness, and connectivity.

    Open Radio Access Network (RAN) and 5G

    • In 2023, Quad partners announced the first-ever Open RAN deployment in the Pacific, in Palau, to support a secure, resilient, and interconnected telecommunications ecosystem. Since then, the Quad has committed approximately $20 million to this effort. Building on this initiative, the Quad announces an expansion of Open RAN collaboration to deliver trusted technology solutions.
    • The Quad plans to expand support for ongoing Open RAN field trials and the Asia Open RAN Academy (AORA) in the Philippines, building on the initial $8 million in support that the United States and Japan pledged earlier this year.
    • In addition, the United States plans to invest over $7 million to support the global expansion of AORA, including through establishing a first-of-its-kind Open RAN workforce training initiative at scale in South Asia, in partnership with Indian institutions.
    • Quad partners also welcome the opportunity to explore additional Open RAN projects in Southeast Asia.
    • Quad partners will also explore collaborating with the Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation to ensure the country’s readiness for nationwide 5G deployment.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Through the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) initiative announced at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit, Quad governments are deepening leading-edge collaborative research to harness artificial intelligence, robotics, and sensing, to transform agricultural approaches and empower farmers across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad announces an inaugural $7.5+ million in funding opportunities for joint research, and highlights the recent signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation among the four countries’ science agencies to connect research communities and advance shared research principles.
    • The Quad recognizes the importance of advancing international efforts to achieve safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, including through the outcomes of the Hiroshima AI Process, GPAI New Delhi Ministerial Declaration 2023, and UN General Assembly resolution 78/625 on “Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development.” The Quad seeks to further deepen international cooperation on artificial intelligence systems and interoperability among artificial intelligence governance frameworks.
    • Quad countries, through the Standards Sub-Group, launched two Track 1.5 dialogues on AI and Advanced Communications Technologies to promote international standardization cooperation, including frameworks for AI conformity assessment.

    Biotechnology

    • The Quad partners look forward to launching the BioExplore Initiative – a joint effort supported by an initial $2 million in funding to use AI technology to study and analyze biological ecosystems across all four countries. This initiative will help advance our ability to discover and use the diverse capabilities found in living organisms to yield new products and innovations with the potential to diagnose and treat disease, develop resilient crops, generate clean energy, and much more. The initiative will also aim to build technological capacity across the Quad nations. 
    • This project will also be underpinned by the forthcoming Quad Principles for Research and Development Collaborations in Critical and Emerging Technologies, which advances sustainable, responsible, safe and secure collaborations in biotechnologies and other critical technologies among the Quad and across the region.

    Semiconductors

    • Quad Leaders welcome the finalization of a Memorandum of Cooperation for the Semiconductor Supply Chains Contingency Network to facilitate collaboration in addressing semiconductor supply chain risks.

    The Quad Investors Network

    The Quad Investors Network (QUIN) is a nonprofit initiative launched at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit. The QUIN aims to accelerate investments in critical and emerging technologies across the Indo-Pacific region, bringing together investors, entrepreneurs, technologists, and public institutions from the Quad countries to support innovation that aligns with the Quad’s shared values and promotes economic growth, resilience, and regional stability. This year, the QUIN supported ten major strategic investments and partnerships across the Quad in the critical minerals, renewable energy, cybersecurity, and aerospace sectors.

    • The QUIN has advanced additional frameworks to foster the development of new technologies and facilitate investment partnerships for emerging startups, including through finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding for the creation of a startup campus in Tokyo, supported by the QUIN and the Chiba Institute of Technology’s Center for Radical Transformation.
    • The QUIN is also working to establish a new venture accelerator in Tokyo through a collaboration between the University of Tokyo, Northeastern University, and the QUIN.  These collaborations will not only fuel technological advancements but also strengthen the economic ties among the Quad nations, contributing to a more integrated and resilient Indo-Pacific region. 
    • Finally, the QUIN developed a Quantum Center of Excellence, which produced a report this year highlighting ways each Quad country’s Quantum ecosystems can work together to collectively leverage capital and expertise.

    CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY

    The Quad recognizes the existential threat climate change poses to the world, the Indo-Pacific, and in particular island nations in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean region, and is taking ambitious steps to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, promote clean energy innovation and adoption, and support sustainable development.

    Climate Adaptation

    • The Quad intends to expand its Early Warning Systems and the Climate Information Services Initiative (CIS), announced at the 2023 Leaders’ Summit. This will help improve Pacific Island countries’ access to high-quality climate data and services, and increase partners’ capacity to prepare for and respond to climate change and its impacts.
    • The United States plans to provide 3D-printed automatic weather stations to the Pacific in 2025 to support local weather and climate forecasts, and also train experts in Fiji with the goal of operating a regional center to develop and deploy this technology.
    • Australia is also strengthening Early Warning Systems through Weather Ready Pacific, a Pacific-led initiative supported by the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in 2021 that drives and delivers on the EWS4ALL UN initiative in the Pacific.
    • Japan is also enhancing cooperation with Pacific Island countries under its “Pacific Climate Resilience Initiative”, inter alia, by strengthening disaster risk reduction and preparedness through satellite technology and by promoting clean energy through capacity building and installation of renewable energies.
    • The Quad also plans to train experts in Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu to better monitor and forecast flash floods, for timely and accurate warnings, reducing human and economic losses from flash floods.

    Clean Energy

    • Our countries intend to strengthen our cooperation to align policies, incentives, standards, and investments around creating high-quality, diversified clean energy supply chains that will enhance our collective energy security, create new economic opportunities across the region, and benefit local workers and communities around the world, particularly across the Indo-Pacific. We will work together, through policy and public finance, to operationalize our commitment to catalyzing complementary and high-standard private sector investment in allied and partner clean energy supply chains. We note the uniquely complementary capabilities Quad partners share across the battery supply chain, and pledge to focus near-term efforts on strengthening mineral production, recycling, and battery manufacturing across our respective industries.
    • Quad Leaders announced a Quad Clean Energy Supply Chain Diversification Program last year, which aims to support the development of secure and diversified clean energy supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia will open applications for the Quad Clean Energy Supply Chains Diversification Program in November, providing AUD 50 million to support projects that develop and diversify solar panel, hydrogen electrolyzer and battery supply chains. Secure and diversified clean energy supply chains are an integral part of achieving the Indo-Pacific’s collective energy security, emissions reduction goals and transition to a net zero future.
    • India commits to invest $2 million in new solar projects in Fiji, Comoros, Madagascar, and Seychelles.
    • Japan has committed to $122 million grants and loans, both public and private, in renewable energy projects in the Indo-Pacific.
    • The United States, through the DFC, has extended a $250 million loan to Tata Power Solar to construct a solar cell manufacturing facility and a $500 million loan to First Solar to construct and operate a solar module manufacturing facility in India, and continues to seek opportunities to mobilize private capital to solar, as well as wind, cooling, batteries, and critical minerals to expand capacity and diversify supply chains.
    • The Quad announces an initiative to boost energy efficiency, including the deployment and manufacturing of affordable, high-efficiency, cooling systems, to enable climate-vulnerable communities to adapt to rising temperatures while simultaneously reducing strain on the electricity grid. The United States intends to invest an initial $1.25 million of technical assistance financing to this effort.

    CYBER SECURITY

    The Quad is working together to build a more resilient, secure, and complementary cyber security environment for Quad countries and partners.

    • The Quad has [developed/released] the Quad Action Plan to Protect Commercial Undersea Telecommunications Cables, to advance the Quad’s shared vision for future digital connectivity, global commerce, and prosperity.
    • Quad countries are also partnering with software manufacturers, industry trade groups, and research centers to expand the Quad’s commitment to pursuing secure software development standards and certification, as endorsed in the Quad’s 2023 Secure Software Joint Principles.
    • Quad partners will work to harmonize these standards to not only ensure that the development, procurement, and end-use of software for government networks is more secure, but that the cyber resilience of our supply chains, digital economies, and societies are collectively improved.
    • Throughout this fall, each Quad country plans to host events to mark the annual Quad Cyber Challenge promoting responsible cyber ecosystems, public resources, and cybersecurity awareness. This year’s Cyber Challenge campaigns will focus on establishing career pathway programs to increase the number and diversity of global cybersecurity professionals, including increased participation by women, in this rapidly growing field. Last year’s Quad Cyber Challenge included over 85,000 participants across the Indo-Pacific region.
    • Capacity building projects like the Quad Cyber Bootcamp and the international conference on cyber capacity building in the Philippines are important initiatives to enhance cybersecurity and workforce development in the Indo-Pacific region.
    • The Quad is undertaking joint efforts to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities to national security and protection of critical infrastructure networks, and coordinate more closely including on policy responses to sharing of cyber threat information on significant cybersecurity incidents affecting shared priorities.

    COUNTERING DISINFORMATION

    The Quad is working together to foster a resilient information environment, including through its Countering Disinformation Working Group, by supporting media freedom and addressing foreign information manipulation and interference, including disinformation, which undermines trust and sows discord in the international community.

    PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE TIES

    Quad countries are building enduring ties between their peoples. Stakeholders from Quad countries have participated in International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and other exchanges, on topics related to cyber security, workforce development for critical and emerging technologies, women in STEM, government transparency and accountability, combating disinformation, and regional maritime governance.

    The Quad Fellowship

    • Together with the Institute of International Education, which leads implementation of the Quad Fellowship, Quad governments welcome the second cohort of Quad Fellows and the expansion of the program to include students from ASEAN countries for the first time. The Government of Japan is supporting the program to enable Quad Fellows to study in Japan. The Quad welcomes the generous support of private sector partners for the next cohort of fellows, including Google, the Pratt Foundation, and Western Digital.
    • The Quad looks forward to the Quad Fellowship Summit in Washington, DC, in October, organized by the Institute of International Education.

    Additional People-to-People Initiatives

    • India announces a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue a 4-year undergraduate engineering program at a Government of India-funded technical institution.

    SPACE

    The Quad recognizes the essential contribution of space-related applications and technologies in the Indo-Pacific. The four countries plan to continue delivering Earth Observation data and other space-related applications to assist nations across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen climate early warning systems and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events.

    • The Quad welcomes India’s establishment of a space-based web portal for Mauritius to support the concept of open science for space-based monitoring of extreme weather events and climate impact.

    Space Situational Awareness Initiative

    • Quad partners intend to share expertise and experience in space situational awareness (SSA), contributing to long-term sustainability of the space environment. Cooperation is intended to leverage SSA and space traffic coordination capabilities in the civil domain, including to help avoid collisions in outer space and manage debris.

     
    COUNTERING TERRORISM
     
    The Quad hosted its first Counter Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) in 2023 and will meet annually to discuss CT threats, Quad CT good practices, and ways the Quad can work together to mitigate acts of terrorism through information sharing, consequence management and strategic messaging.  The Quad CTWG currently focuses on countering the use of unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear devices (CBRN), and the internet for terrorist purposes. The Quad CTWG discusses new CT lines of effort on which to collaborate, hosts technical workshops for establishing CT good practices, and explores ways to engage non-Quad members with Quad-established CT expertise.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Secretary-General of ASEAN attends 23rd AEM-MOFCOM Consultation

    Source: ASEAN

    Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, attended the 23rd ASEAN Economic Ministers – Ministry of Commerce (AEM-MOFCOM) Consultation, in Vientiane, Lao PDR, on 22 September 2024.

    The Meeting discussed the progress of ASEAN-China economic cooperation, including ASEAN-China FTA 3.0 Upgrade Negotiations and economic cooperation initiatives aimed at deepening trade and economic ties and fostering closer economic partnerships.

    The post Secretary-General of ASEAN attends 23rd AEM-MOFCOM Consultation appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Trade Ministers discuss next steps for CER

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Trade Minister Todd McClay hosted Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting in Rotorua this weekend. 

    “CER is a gold-standard agreement underpinning $32 billion in annual trade. Minister Farrell and I discussed how we can continue to build on its success to grow trade and investment between our countries and improve conditions for our exporting businesses around the world,” Mr McClay says.

    “We agreed on the importance of facilitating trans-Tasman trade, including through the work under way to strengthen the operation of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement and enhance regulatory coherence.

    “We discussed the benefits of addressing non-tariff barriers including restrictions on structural timber exports.

    “We also had a productive exchange of views on how we can pursue our shared interests on a range of international agreements and issues including the WTO, CPTPP and other regional trade initiatives.”

    The Ministers also met with a number of New Zealand and Australian businesses, facilitated by the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum. 

    “It is essential that we hear directly from businesses about what matters to them so that we can prioritise actions that make a real difference,” Mr McClay says.

    The Ministers released a joint statement following their meeting.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Myanmar to showcase 84 booths at 21st China-ASEAN Expo

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    Myanmar will showcase 84 booths at the 21st China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from Sept. 24 to 28, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported on Sunday.

    The booths will display a variety of products, including rice, Arabica coffee, aquatic products, fruits, tea, spices, woodwork, handicrafts, and gems, the report said.

    The expo aims to strengthen friendships and trade benefits, promote the development of the version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and boost high-quality development of the China-ASEAN region, it added.

    More than 100 people, including businesspeople and officials from the National University of Culture and Arts in Yangon, will participate in the event, the report said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Myanmar to showcase 84 booths at China-ASEAN Expo

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    Myanmar will showcase 84 booths at the 21st China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from Sept. 24 to 28, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported on Sunday.

    The booths will display a variety of products, including rice, Arabica coffee, aquatic products, fruits, tea, spices, woodwork, handicrafts, and gems, the report said.

    The expo aims to strengthen friendships and trade benefits, promote the development of the version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and boost high-quality development of the China-ASEAN region, it added.

    More than 100 people, including businesspeople and officials from the National University of Culture and Arts in Yangon, will participate in the event, the report said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Joint Statement on meeting between Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India and Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil on Cooperation between India and Brazil in the Energy Sector

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 21 SEP 2024 6:18AM by PIB Delhi

    The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas of the Republic of India, H.E. Mr. Hardeep S Puri, paid an official visit to the Federative Republic of Brazil from September 19th– 21ston the invitation of the Minister of Mines & Energy of the Federative Republic of Brazil, H.E. Mr. Alexandre Silveira. H.E. Hardeep Puri was accompanied by Indian Oil & Gas Companies representing both the upstream and downstream sector.

    During the visit, the sides reviewed the existing collaboration in the energy sector including Indian upstream investment, mutually beneficial relationship in bilateral trade and cooperation in sustainable fuels, particularly biofuels.

    In the oil & gas sector, the sides recognised the trust reposed by Indian companies in the Oil & gas sector which has resulted in Brazil being one of the largest destinations for investments by Indian Oil & Gas companies in the world.  The sides also reaffirmed their commitment to identify new possible mechanism for increasing the  presence of Indian companies in the country, including through new investment opportunities in producing assets. The sides, while recognising the complementarities in the trade sector, committed to identifying ways of enhancing the trade between the two countries, including through innovative mechanisms.

    As founding members of the Global Biofuels Alliance, both sides reiterated the crucial role the Alliance will play in positioning biofuels as a key component of the global energy transition, contributing not only to environmental sustainability but also to socioeconomic growth.

    The Indian side congratulated the Brazilian side on the hosting of the G20 and welcomed the emphasis being placed on sustainable fuels and social dimensions of energy transition.  The Indian side expressed confidence that Brazil’s leadership would further the G20’s agenda of inclusive and sustainable development, building on the momentum generated by India’s presidency in 2023.

    The sides looked forward to co-hosting an India-Brazil Clean Cooking Ministerial Meeting on the sidelines of India Energy Week 2025 in February 2025, which would provide an opportunity to explore collaborative pathways for enhancing clean cooking access globally.

    Both sides discussed collaboration in the domain of deep and ultradeep explorations in the Indian offshore Acreages.

    The two sides also initiated a discussion on cooperation in the area of critical minerals and their value chains.

    Joint Statement on Biofuels and Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF)

    The sides noted that India and Brazil, as two leading biofuel producers, are well-positioned to collaborate on production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) , by leveraging their existing ethanol and biodiesel production infrastructure, growing aviation market and vast feedstock potential, including their agricultural resources.

    In the context of SAF, the sides noted that currently SAF remains the major mature and viable pathway to decarbonise the aviation sector. At the same time, SAF only accounts for 0.3% of the current fuel use for aviation.

    The sides reaffirmed that the goal of net zero in the aviation sector would require joint and collaborative action between the two countries to resolve some of the major hurdles to SAF production, namely, feedstock-related challenges, high cost of SAF compared to other technologies, infrastructure for large-scale production and efficient waste management systems, low maturity of production pathways, etc.

    The sides highlighted the importance of the establishment of consistent international standards, such as the sustainability criteria defined within the scope of Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA/ICAO) and reinforced the principle of technological neutrality with regards to the different technological pathways and raw materials used in the sustainable production of aviation fuels.

    The sides recognised the role an India-Brazil partnership in SAF can play in the deployment and development of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Sector through  leveraging and catalysing of regional value chains to ramp up SAF production, trading, distribution and certification, which inter-alia will support the enhancement of availability, affordability and reliability of SAF.

    The sides noted that the modes for such cooperation could include the following:

    1. Leverage Ethanol Production from all sources;
    2. Promote technology exchange, joint research, and development initiatives, in order to optimize SAF production processes;
    3. Share regulatory and policy experience, with a view to create frameworks that encourage investment in SAF production;
    4. Cooperate in RD&I with a view to enhance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of production pathways;
    5. Collaborate in multilateral forums, such as ICAO, in order to promote the development of SAF.

    The sides acknowledged that collaboration between the two countries represents a strategic partnership in line with the sustainable development and carbon reduction goals of both countries.  By combining resources, expertise, and technology, India and Brazil can lead the global transition towards lower emission aviation. This collaboration will not only address pressing environmental challenges but also open new avenues for economic and technological advancement in the biofuels sector.

    The sides therefore reaffirmed their desire to strengthen cooperation between the two countries to usher in various advantages, which include economic growth, by creating jobs in the rural sector and fostering innovation in renewable energy technologies and energy security, by reducing reliance on imports. Importantly, bilateral cooperation in SAF production will contribute to global efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation.

    The ministers underscored that this comprehensive partnership represents a significant milestone in India-Brazil relations aligning with their shared sustainable development goals. By combining their resources, expertise, and technology, India and Brazil will not only lead the global transition towards lower emission aviation but also provide critical support to other Global Biofuels Alliance members in their decarbonization efforts, ultimately paving the way for a future with cleaner skies.

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India signs first-of-its-kind agreements focused on Clean Economy, Fair Economy, and the IPEF Overarching arrangement under Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for prosperity

    Source: Government of India

    India signs first-of-its-kind agreements focused on Clean Economy, Fair Economy, and the IPEF Overarching arrangement under Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for prosperity

    Agreements to facilitate development, access, and deployment of clean energy and climate-friendly technologies

    Agreements to catalyse investment and strengthen measures for anti-corruption, tax transparency etc. and improve business environment

    Posted On: 22 SEP 2024 11:25AM by PIB Delhi

    India signed and exchanged the first-of-its-kind agreements focused on Clean Economy, Fair Economy, and the IPEF Overarching arrangement under Indo -Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) for prosperity, on 21st September, 2024 at Delaware USA, in the presence of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi who is on 3-day visit to the US for the Quad Summit.

    IPEF Clean Economy Agreement (Pillar-III)

    The Agreement on Clean Economy intends to promote technical cooperation, workforce development, capacity building, and research collaborations; and collaborate to facilitate development, access, and deployment of clean energy and climate-friendly technologies with the aim to collectively accelerate efforts of IPEF partners towards energy security and transition, climate resilience and adaptation and GHG emissions mitigation.

    This Agreement will facilitate investments, project financing including concessional financing, joint collaborative projects, workforce development and Technical Assistance and Capacity Building for industries, in particular for the MSMEs, and facilitate further integration of Indian companies in the global value chains, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. These activities will be undertaken through joint collaborative actions such as Cooperative Work Programmes, the IPEF Catalytic Capital Fund, the IPEF Accelerator etc.

    IPEF Fair Economy Agreement (Pillar-IV)

    The Agreement aims to create a more transparent and predictable trade and investment environment across the Indo-Pacific. To achieve these goals, the IPEF partners will collaborate to enhance their efforts in preventing and combating corruption, including bribery, and supporting initiatives to improve tax transparency, the exchange of information, domestic resource mobilization, and tax administration.

    It focuses on enhancing information sharing among partners, facilitating asset recovery, and strengthening cross-border investigations and prosecutions. This will also support India’s efforts in fighting corruption, money laundering, and terror financing.

    Recognizing the critical role of technical assistance and capacity building (TACB) in achieving the commitments outlined in the proposed agreement and ensuring effective implementation and enforcement of anti-corruption measures, the partners are committed to identifying and implementing TACB initiatives. These initiatives will strengthen anti-corruption efforts and improve the efficiency of tax administration.

    Overarching IPEF Agreement

    The Overarching Agreement is an administrative agreement establishing an oversight Ministerial-level mechanism. This Agreement seeks to establish a high-level political oversight framework at the Ministerial level over the various individual IPEF agreements while setting general guidance and goals, and guiding Leaders’ vision and mandate for IPEF. This Agreement primarily includes administrative and institutional provisions.

    This agreement would provide identity to the group and longevity to the IPEF partnership, by creating a formal mechanism and establishing a forum for Ministerial discussions on emerging issues, etc. This agreement is expected to facilitate the effective implementation of subject agreements (Pillars II-IV), that have the potential to enhance India’s productive capacity, and integration into supply chains, and promote innovation, in line with the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

    The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, had accorded the approval earlier this month for signing and ratification of these three agreements focused on the Clean Economy, Fair Economy, and the overarching IPEF Agreement which were signed by other IPEF members on June 6, 2024 in IPEF Ministerial meeting in Singapore, however India did not formally sign the same then as the domestic approval process was still underway.

    IPEF to boost investment

    Investor Forum: Under Clear Economy (Pillar-III) Agreement, IPEF partners aim to catalyze investment in green technology and reduce GHG emissions through various means including annual business matching events under the Investor Forum.  The First Investor Forum was held in Singapore on 5-6 June, 2024.  One of such efforts was accelerated in the form of a MoU among companies from India, Singapore and Japan following which, Singapore-based Sembcorp will be investing ₹36,238 crore for state-of-the-art green ammonia plant in Thoothukudi.

    At the Inaugural Forum, IPEF partners identified USD 23 Billion (₹1.91 lakh crore) of priority infrastructure projects  ~USD 4 Billion (₹ 33,200 crore) from India which offered potential opportunities for investment in some Indian renewable energy companies. The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) committed a total of USD 1.5 Billion (₹12,450 crore) to support energy transition, climate investment, and digital inclusion.

    Funds under IPEF: IPEF also provides platforms for technical assistance, concessional funding, and viability gap funding. The IPEF Catalytic Capital Fund, with an initial grant of USD 33 million (₹273.9 crore) from Australia, Japan, Korea, and the United States, aims to catalyze private investments totaling USD 3.3 billion (₹27,390 crore). Additionally, the PGI Investment Accelerator under IPEF has received initial funding of USD 300 million (₹2,490 crore) from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

    Initiatives under IPEF

    IPEF Upskilling Initiative: IPEF Upskilling Initiative was launched in September 2022 to support sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development by providing primarily for women and girls in IPEF emerging and middle-income partner countries with access to digital skills training. Under the initiative, as communicated by the US, 14 participating US companies and the Asia Foundation provided 10.9 million upskilling opportunities in IPEF partners, primarily for women and girls, in the last 2 years, of which India availed 4 million of these opportunities.

    Critical Mineral Dialogue: This ongoing dialogue focuses on several key areas, including the comprehensive mapping of mineral resources across IPEF partners to develop an extensive database, promoting trade by mapping trade flows within the IPEF region and enhancing business engagements, and fostering technical collaboration for mineral recovery and recycling in the region. These initiatives are aimed at strengthening the critical mineral supply chain and ensuring sustainable mining practices in the region.

    Tech Council: The main objectives of this initiative are coordination and cooperation on key technologies by bringing together IPEF partners to share best practices and standards, enhance the resilience of digital infrastructure, promote investment, and foster innovation through workforce development. The key areas on which IPEF partners are currently collaborating include Cyber Security, Undersea Cables and Artificial Intelligence.

    Cooperative Work Program (CWP): Aim of CWP is to facilitate collaborative and cooperative efforts among the interested participating IPEF countries to advance the objectives of the Clean Economy Agreement. Till date, 8 CWP proposals, circulated by several IPEF countries, have been announced in the IPEF Ministerial meetings. These are related to hydrogen supply chains, carbon markets, clean electricity, sustainable aviation fuel, just transition, emissions intensity accounting, small modular reactors, and including India’s proposal on e-waste urban mining.

    About IPEF

    IPEF was launched on 23 May 2022 at Tokyo, Japan, comprising 14 countries – Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and USA. The IPEF seeks to strengthen economic engagement and cooperation among partner countries with the goal of advancing growth, economic stability and prosperity in the region.

    The framework is structured around four pillars relating to Trade (Pillar I); Supply Chain Resilience (Pillar II); Clean Economy (Pillar III); and Fair Economy (Pillar IV). India has ratified Agreement on Supply Chain Resilience (Pillar II) in February 2024 and has maintained an observer status in Pillar-I.

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India and Bhutan Deepen Cooperation on Food Safety and Regulatory Standards

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 22 SEP 2024 12:15PM by PIB Delhi

    The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducted a bilateral meeting with the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority (BFDA) on the sidelines of the Global Food Regulators Summit, at Bharat Mandapam, yesterday. The meeting focused on implementation protocol of the “Agreement” signed between India and BFDA on 21 March 2024, during the visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. This Agreement underscores a mutual commitment to enhance food safety, aligning regulatory frameworks, simplifying the Food Import Procedure and fostering technical collaboration.

    The Agreement aims to recognize the official control exercised by BFDA over food business operators (FBOs) by the FSSAI. The Agreement further seeks to enhance technical cooperation between FSSAI and BFDA, establishing a functional mechanism to facilitate and develop trade between the two countries.

    The meeting focused on Implementation of the said Agreement and steps taken by both FSSAI and BFDA in this regard. To further enhance this collaboration, various capacity building and technical collaboration for the BFDA officials were discussed.

    Shri G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, CEO, FSSAI, stated that “today’s meeting marks a pivotal development in our partnership with Bhutan in the area of food safety and trade facilitation. The Agreement and the outcomes of our discussions are set to streamline trade processes and enhance food safety standards. This collaboration highlights our shared commitment to maintaining the highest quality standards for consumers. By working closely with the BFDA, we are building a robust and effective food safety framework that will serve the interests of both the nations.”

    Ms. Gyem Bidha, Director, BFDA highlighted the importance of this Agreement in facilitating Safe Food Trade between the two countries and also acknowledged the leadership in food safety by the FSSAI, GoI. He said, “this bilateral meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the implementation challenges while exporting to India and on the areas of technical cooperation and capacity building to effectively implement the Agreement at the grassroot”. The Director thanked FSSAI for the invitation extended to BFDA for the Global Food Regulators Summit. 

    The meeting was attended by Ms. Gyem Bidha Director, Bhutan Food and Drug Authority (BFDA), and senior officials from Food Quality and Safety Division of BFDA. Ms. Tashi Peldon, Dy. Chief of Mission, Royal Bhutanese Embassy, New Delhi, and senior officials from Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India also attended the meeting.

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    HFW/ FSSAI India Bhutan Bilateral Meet /22nd September 2024/1

     

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Fact Sheet: 2024 Quad Leaders’ Summit

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 22 SEP 2024 8:58AM by PIB Delhi

    On September 21, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. hosted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Wilmington, Delaware, for the fourth Quad Leaders’ Summit.

    The Quad was established to be a global force for good. This year, the Quad is proudly executing tangible projects that benefit partner countries across the Indo-Pacific—including in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean Region. The Quad is working together at unprecedented scope and scale to deliver on Indo-Pacific partners’ priorities. Together, the Quad is leading ambitious projects to help partners address pandemics and disease; respond to natural disasters; strengthen their maritime domain awareness and maritime security; mobilize and build high-standard physical and digital infrastructure; invest in and benefit from critical and emerging technologies; confront the threat of climate change; bolster cyber security; and cultivate the next generation of technology leaders.

    ENDURING PARTNERS FOR THE INDO-PACIFIC

    Over the past four years, Quad Leaders have met six times, including twice virtually. Quad Foreign Ministers have met eight times, most recently in Tokyo in July. Quad country representatives convene on a regular basis, at all levels, to consult one another, exchange ideas to advance shared priorities, and deliver benefits for partners across the Indo-Pacific region. All Quad governments have institutionalized the Quad at all levels and across a diverse array of departments and agencies. Today, Quad Leaders announced new initiatives to solidify these habits of cooperation and to set up the Quad to endure for the long-term.

    Each Quad government has committed to work through their respective budgetary processes to secure robust funding for Quad priorities in the Indo-Pacific region to ensure an enduring impact.

    The Quad governments also intend to work with their respective legislatures to deepen interparliamentary exchanges, and encourage other stakeholders to deepen engagement with Quad counterparts. Yesterday, Members of Congress announced the creation of a bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Quad Caucus.

    In the coming months, Quad Commerce and Industry ministers will meet for the first time.

    Quad Leaders also welcome the leaders of the Quad Development Finance Institutions and Agencies deciding to meet to explore future investments by the four countries in the Indo-Pacific, including in health security, food security, clean energy, and quality infrastructure. This builds on a previous meeting in 2022 between the heads of the Export Finance Australia, the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, India Export-Import Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

    The United States will host the 2025 Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting, and India will host the 2025 Quad Leaders Summit.

    GLOBAL HEALTH & HEALTH SECURITY

    In 2023, the Quad announced the Quad Health Security Partnership to strengthen coordination and collaboration in support of health security in the Indo-Pacific. The Quad Health Security Partnership is delivering on its commitments to strengthen the Indo-Pacific’s ability to detect and respond to outbreaks of diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential, including through a set of new initiatives announced today.

    Quad Cancer Moonshot

    The Quad is launching the historic Quad Cancer Moonshot, a collective effort to leverage public and private resources to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer in the Indo-Pacific, with an initial focus on cervical cancer. Altogether, the Quad Cancer Moonshot announced today is projected to save hundreds of thousands of lives over the coming decades. More information can be found here.

    Pandemic Preparedness

    Quad countries are committed to supporting health security and resiliency efforts across the region, including continued support for the Pandemic Fund.

    The Quad reaffirms commitment to bolstering health security across the Indo-Pacific region. In 2024, the Quad Health Security Partnership advanced regional resilience through the second pandemic preparedness table top exercise, building on the success of the Quad Vaccine Partnership to enhance prevention, early detection, and response to potential disease outbreaks, and is exploring developing Standard Operating Procedures for Pandemic Response. The Quad’s collaborative efforts included training health specialists from the Indo-Pacific to strengthen regional capabilities for health emergencies.

    India will host a workshop on pandemic preparedness and release a white paper outlining emergency public health responses.

    Australia is increasing the pool of public health specialists who are ready to deploy, in-country or in the region, in response to disease outbreaks, with the first training session to commence in Darwin, Australia, in the coming days.

    In coordination with Quad partners, the United States is pledging over $84.5 million to partner with fourteen countries in the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.

    Mpox

    In response to the current clade I mpox outbreak, as well as the ongoing clade II mpox outbreak, the Quad plans to coordinate our efforts to promote equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured mpox vaccines, including where appropriate expanding vaccine manufacturing in low and middle-income countries.

    HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER RELIEF (HADR)

    Twenty years ago, the Quad first came together to respond to the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, surging humanitarian assistance to affected countries. In 2022, Quad Foreign Ministers signed the Guidelines for the Quad Partnership on HADR in the Indo-Pacific. In May 2024, following a tragic landslide in Papua New Guinea, Quad countries coordinated their response in accordance with these guidelines. The Quad collectively provided over $5 million in humanitarian assistance. Quad partners continue to support Papua New Guinea in its longer-term resiliency efforts. The Quad continues to deepen HADR coordination and support partners in the region in their longer-term resiliency efforts.

    Quad governments are working to ensure readiness to rapidly respond, including through pre-positioning of essential relief supplies, in the event of a natural disaster; this effort extends from the Indian Ocean region, to Southeast Asia, to the Pacific.

    In the coming months, Quad HADR experts will conduct a tabletop exercise to prepare for potential future disasters in the region.

    Quad partners are working together to provide over $4 million in humanitarian assistance to support the people of Vietnam in light of the devastating consequences of Typhoon Yagi.

    MARITIME SECURITY

    Quad partners are working side-by-side with partners throughout the region to bolster maritime security, improve maritime domain awareness, and uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.

    Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness and Maritime Training

    Quad Leaders launched the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) at the 2022 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo. This initiative provides partners with near-real-time, cost-effective, cutting-edge radio frequency data, enabling them to better monitor their waters; counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; respond to climate change and natural disasters; and enforce their laws within their waters.

    Since the announcement, in consultation with partners, the Quad has successfully scaled the program across the Indo-Pacific region—through the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, with partners in Southeast Asia, to the Information Fusion Center—Indian Ocean Region, Gurugram. In doing so, the Quad has helped well over two dozen countries access dark vessel maritime domain awareness data, so they can better monitor the activities in their exclusive economic zones—including unlawful activity.

    In the next phase of implementation, announced today, the Quad intends to layer new technology and data into IPMDA over the coming year, to continue to deliver cutting edge capability and information to the region. The Quad intends to leverage electro-optical data and advanced analytic software to sharpen the maritime domain awareness picture for partners.

    Today the Quad announced a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI) to enable our partners in the region Indo-Pacific partners to maximize tools provided through IPMDA and other Quad partner initiatives, to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior. The Quad countries look forward to India hosting the inaugural MAITRI workshop in 2025.

    Quad countries are coordinating comprehensive and complementary training across the full suite of legal, operational, and technical maritime security and law enforcement knowledge domains. Quad partners have pledged to expand engagement with regional maritime law enforcement fora, share best practices, and improve civil maritime cooperation.

    Indo-Pacific Logistics Network

    The Quad launches today a Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project, to pursue shared airlift capacity among the four nations and leverage collective logistics strengths, in order to support civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region. This effort will complement existing efforts with Indo-Pacific partners.

    Coast Guard Cooperation

    The U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard plan to launch a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025 in the Indo-Pacific to improve interoperability. Through this effort, members of Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard will spend time on board a U.S. Coast Guard vessel operating in the Indo-Pacific. The Quad intends to continue with further missions in the Indo-Pacific.

    QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE

    The Quad is delivering quality, resilient infrastructure to the region to increase connectivity, build regional capacity, and meet critical needs.

    This year, the Quad countries’ export credit agencies (ECAs) signed and are implementing a Memorandum of Cooperation, which supports supply chain resilience, critical and emerging technologies, renewable energy, and other high-quality projects in the Indo-Pacific. Quad ECAs are strengthening communication on pipeline information and provision of relevant financing for projects in the Indo-Pacific region, and will pursue joint business promotion efforts that involve industry experts, project developers, and other major market players.

    The Quad released joint Principles for Development and Deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure, underscoring the Quad’s commitment to an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe, reliable, and secure digital future to advance shared prosperity and sustainable development.

    The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure organized a workshop in India to empower partners across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen power sector resilience.

    Quad Ports of the Future Partnership

    The Quad Ports of the Future Partnership will harness the Quad’s expertise to support sustainable and resilient port infrastructure development across the Indo-Pacific, in collaboration with regional partners.

    In 2025, Quad partners intend to hold the inaugural Regional Ports and Transportation Conference, hosted by India in Mumbai.

    Through this new partnership, Quad partners intend to coordinate, exchange information, share best practices with partners in the region, and leverage resources to mobilize government and private sector investments in quality port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region.

    Quad Infrastructure Fellows

    The Quad Infrastructure Fellowship was announced at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit to improve capacity and deepen professional networks across the region to design, manage, and attract investment in infrastructure projects. Over the past year, it has expanded to more than 2,200 experts, and Quad partners have already provided well over 1,300 fellowships.

    Undersea Cables and Digital Connectivity

    Through the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, Quad partners continue to support and strengthen quality undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, the capacity, durability, and reliability of which are inextricably linked to the security and prosperity of the region and the world.

    In support of these efforts, Australia launched the Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre in July, which is delivering workshops and policy and regulatory assistance in response to requests from across the region.

    Japan has conducted capacity building trainings to enhance connectivity and resilience in the Indo-Pacific through cooperation with specialized agencies and international organizations. Japan intends to further extend technical cooperation to improve public information and communication technology infrastructure management capacity for an undersea cable in Nauru and Kiribati.

    The United States has conducted over 1,300 capacity building trainings for telecommunication officials and executives from 25 countries in the Indo-Pacific; today the U.S. announces its intent, working with Congress, to invest an additional $3.4 million to extend and expand this training program.

    Investments in cable projects by Quad partners will help support all Pacific island countries in achieving primary telecommunication cable connectivity by the end of 2025. Since the last Quad Leaders’ Summit, Quad partners have committed over $140 million to undersea cable builds in the Pacific, alongside contributions from other likeminded partners.

    Complementing these investments in new undersea cables, India has commissioned a feasibility study to examine expansion of undersea cable maintenance and repair capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.

    CRITICAL AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

    The Quad is working in lockstep to stay at the forefront of technology innovation, and remains committed to harnessing emerging technologies for the benefit of people across the Indo-Pacific, and deploying these technologies to facilitate economic prosperity, openness, and connectivity.

    Open Radio Access Network (RAN) and 5G

    In 2023, Quad partners announced the first-ever Open RAN deployment in the Pacific, in Palau, to support a secure, resilient, and interconnected telecommunications ecosystem. Since then, the Quad has committed approximately $20 million to this effort. Building on this initiative, the Quad announces an expansion of Open RAN collaboration to deliver trusted technology solutions.

    The Quad plans to expand support for ongoing Open RAN field trials and the Asia Open RAN Academy (AORA) in the Philippines, building on the initial $8 million in support that the United States and Japan pledged earlier this year.

    In addition, the United States plans to invest over $7 million to support the global expansion of AORA, including through establishing a first-of-its-kind Open RAN workforce training initiative at scale in South Asia, in partnership with Indian institutions.

    Quad partners also welcome the opportunity to explore additional Open RAN projects in Southeast Asia.

    Quad partners will also explore collaborating with the Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation to ensure the country’s readiness for nationwide 5G deployment.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Through the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) initiative announced at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit, Quad governments are deepening leading-edge collaborative research to harness artificial intelligence, robotics, and sensing, to transform agricultural approaches and empower farmers across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad announces an inaugural $7.5+ million in funding opportunities for joint research, and highlights the recent signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation among the four countries’ science agencies to connect research communities and advance shared research principles.

    The Quad recognizes the importance of advancing international efforts to achieve safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, including through the outcomes of the Hiroshima AI Process, GPAI New Delhi Ministerial Declaration 2023, and UN General Assembly resolution 78/625 on “Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development.” The Quad seeks to further deepen international cooperation on artificial intelligence systems and interoperability among artificial intelligence governance frameworks.

    Quad countries, through the Standards Sub-Group, launched two Track 1.5 dialogues on AI and Advanced Communications Technologies to promote international standardization cooperation, including frameworks for AI conformity assessment.

    Biotechnology

    The Quad partners look forward to launching the BioExplore Initiative – a joint effort supported by an initial $2 million in funding to use AI technology to study and analyze biological ecosystems across all four countries. This initiative will help advance our ability to discover and use the diverse capabilities found in living organisms to yield new products and innovations with the potential to diagnose and treat disease, develop resilient crops, generate clean energy, and much more. The initiative will also aim to build technological capacity across the Quad nations.

    This project will also be underpinned by the forthcoming Quad Principles for Research and Development Collaborations in Critical and Emerging Technologies, which advances sustainable, responsible, safe and secure collaborations in biotechnologies and other critical technologies among the Quad and across the region.

    Semiconductors

    Quad Leaders welcome the finalization of a Memorandum of Cooperation for the Semiconductor Supply Chains Contingency Network to facilitate collaboration in addressing semiconductor supply chain risks.

    The Quad Investors Network

    The Quad Investors Network (QUIN) is a nonprofit initiative launched at the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit. The QUIN aims to accelerate investments in critical and emerging technologies across the Indo-Pacific region, bringing together investors, entrepreneurs, technologists, and public institutions from the Quad countries to support innovation that aligns with the Quad’s shared values and promotes economic growth, resilience, and regional stability. This year, the QUIN supported ten major strategic investments and partnerships across the Quad in the critical minerals, renewable energy, cybersecurity, and aerospace sectors.

    The QUIN has advanced additional frameworks to foster the development of new technologies and facilitate investment partnerships for emerging startups, including through finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding for the creation of a startup campus in Tokyo, supported by the QUIN and the Chiba Institute of Technology’s Center for Radical Transformation.

    The QUIN is also working to establish a new venture accelerator in Tokyo through a collaboration between the University of Tokyo, Northeastern University, and the QUIN. These collaborations will not only fuel technological advancements but also strengthen the economic ties among the Quad nations, contributing to a more integrated and resilient Indo-Pacific region.

    Finally, the QUIN developed a Quantum Center of Excellence, which produced a report this year highlighting ways each Quad country’s Quantum ecosystems can work together to collectively leverage capital and expertise.

    CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY

    The Quad recognizes the existential threat climate change poses to the world, the Indo-Pacific, and in particular island nations in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean region, and is taking ambitious steps to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, promote clean energy innovation and adoption, and support sustainable development.

    Climate Adaptation

    The Quad intends to expand its Early Warning Systems and the Climate Information Services Initiative (CIS), announced at the 2023 Leaders’ Summit. This will help improve Pacific Island countries’ access to high-quality climate data and services, and increase partners’ capacity to prepare for and respond to climate change and its impacts.

    The United States plans to provide 3D-printed automatic weather stations to the Pacific in 2025 to support local weather and climate forecasts, and also train experts in Fiji with the goal of operating a regional center to develop and deploy this technology.

    Australia is also strengthening Early Warning Systems through Weather Ready Pacific, a Pacific-led initiative supported by the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in 2021 that drives and delivers on the EWS4ALL UN initiative in the Pacific.

    Japan is also enhancing cooperation with Pacific Island countries under its “Pacific Climate Resilience Initiative”, inter alia, by strengthening disaster risk reduction and preparedness through satellite technology and by promoting clean energy through capacity building and installation of renewable energies.

    The Quad also plans to train experts in Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu to better monitor and forecast flash floods, for timely and accurate warnings, reducing human and economic losses from flash floods.

    Clean Energy

    Our countries intend to strengthen our cooperation to align policies, incentives, standards, and investments around creating high-quality, diversified clean energy supply chains that will enhance our collective energy security, create new economic opportunities across the region, and benefit local workers and communities around the world, particularly across the Indo-Pacific. We will work together, through policy and public finance, to operationalize our commitment to catalyzing complementary and high-standard private sector investment in allied and partner clean energy supply chains. We note the uniquely complementary capabilities Quad partners share across the battery supply chain, and pledge to focus near-term efforts on strengthening mineral production, recycling, and battery manufacturing across our respective industries.

    Quad Leaders announced a Quad Clean Energy Supply Chain Diversification Program last year, which aims to support the development of secure and diversified clean energy supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia will open applications for the Quad Clean Energy Supply Chains Diversification Program in November, providing AUD 50 million to support projects that develop and diversify solar panel, hydrogen electrolyzer and battery supply chains. Secure and diversified clean energy supply chains are an integral part of achieving the Indo-Pacific’s collective energy security, emissions reduction goals and transition to a net zero future.

    India commits to invest $2 million in new solar projects in Fiji, Comoros, Madagascar, and Seychelles.

    Japan has committed to $122 million grants and loans, both public and private, in renewable energy projects in the Indo-Pacific.

    The United States, through the DFC, has extended a $250 million loan to Tata Power Solar to construct a solar cell manufacturing facility and a $500 million loan to First Solar to construct and operate a solar module manufacturing facility in India, and continues to seek opportunities to mobilize private capital to solar, as well as wind, cooling, batteries, and critical minerals to expand capacity and diversify supply chains.

    The Quad announces an initiative to boost energy efficiency, including the deployment and manufacturing of affordable, high-efficiency, cooling systems, to enable climate-vulnerable communities to adapt to rising temperatures while simultaneously reducing strain on the electricity grid. The United States intends to invest an initial $1.25 million of technical assistance financing to this effort.

    CYBER SECURITY

    The Quad is working together to build a more resilient, secure, and complementary cyber security environment for Quad countries and partners.

    The Quad has [developed/released] the Quad Action Plan to Protect Commercial Undersea Telecommunications Cables, to advance the Quad’s shared vision for future digital connectivity, global commerce, and prosperity.

    Quad countries are also partnering with software manufacturers, industry trade groups, and research centers to expand the Quad’s commitment to pursuing secure software development standards and certification, as endorsed in the Quad’s 2023 Secure Software Joint Principles.

    Quad partners will work to harmonize these standards to not only ensure that the development, procurement, and end-use of software for government networks is more secure, but that the cyber resilience of our supply chains, digital economies, and societies are collectively improved.

    Throughout this fall, each Quad country plans to host events to mark the annual Quad Cyber Challenge promoting responsible cyber ecosystems, public resources, and cybersecurity awareness. This year’s Cyber Challenge campaigns will focus on establishing career pathway programs to increase the number and diversity of global cybersecurity professionals, including increased participation by women, in this rapidly growing field. Last year’s Quad Cyber Challenge included over 85,000 participants across the Indo-Pacific region.

    Capacity building projects like the Quad Cyber Bootcamp and the international conference on cyber capacity building in the Philippines are important initiatives to enhance cybersecurity and workforce development in the Indo-Pacific region.

    The Quad is undertaking joint efforts to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities to national security and protection of critical infrastructure networks, and coordinate more closely including on policy responses to sharing of cyber threat information on significant cybersecurity incidents affecting shared priorities.

    COUNTERING DISINFORMATION

    The Quad is working together to foster a resilient information environment, including through its Countering Disinformation Working Group, by supporting media freedom and addressing foreign information manipulation and interference, including disinformation, which undermines trust and sows discord in the international community.

    PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE TIES

    Quad countries are building enduring ties between their peoples. Stakeholders from Quad countries have participated in International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and other exchanges, on topics related to cyber security, workforce development for critical and emerging technologies, women in STEM, government transparency and accountability, combating disinformation, and regional maritime governance.

    The Quad Fellowship

    Together with the Institute of International Education, which leads implementation of the Quad Fellowship, Quad governments welcome the second cohort of Quad Fellows and the expansion of the program to include students from ASEAN countries for the first time. The Government of Japan is supporting the program to enable Quad Fellows to study in Japan. The Quad welcomes the generous support of private sector partners for the next cohort of fellows, including Google, the Pratt Foundation, and Western Digital.

    The Quad looks forward to the Quad Fellowship Summit in Washington, DC, in October, organized by the Institute of International Education.

    Additional People-to-People Initiatives

    India announces a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue a 4-year undergraduate engineering program at a Government of India-funded technical institution.

    SPACE

    The Quad recognizes the essential contribution of space-related applications and technologies in the Indo-Pacific. The four countries plan to continue delivering Earth Observation data and other space-related applications to assist nations across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen climate early warning systems and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events.

    The Quad welcomes India’s establishment of a space-based web portal for Mauritius to support the concept of open science for space-based monitoring of extreme weather events and climate impact.

    Space Situational Awareness Initiative

    Quad partners intend to share expertise and experience in space situational awareness (SSA), contributing to long-term sustainability of the space environment. Cooperation is intended to leverage SSA and space traffic coordination capabilities in the civil domain, including to help avoid collisions in outer space and manage debris.

    COUNTERING TERRORISM

    The Quad hosted its first Counter Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) in 2023 and will meet annually to discuss CT threats, Quad CT good practices, and ways the Quad can work together to mitigate acts of terrorism through information sharing, consequence management and strategic messaging. The Quad CTWG currently focuses on countering the use of unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear devices (CBRN), and the internet for terrorist purposes. The Quad CTWG discusses new CT lines of effort on which to collaborate, hosts technical workshops for establishing CT good practices, and explores ways to engage non-Quad members with Quad-established CT expertise.

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Joint Fact Sheet: The United States and India Continue to Expand Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 22 SEP 2024 8:51AM by PIB Delhi

    Today, United States President Joseph R. Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed that the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership, the defining partnership of the 21st century, is decisively delivering on an ambitious agenda that serves the global good. The Leaders reflected on a historic period that has seen the United States and India reach unprecedented levels of trust and collaboration. The Leaders affirmed that the U.S.-India partnership must be anchored in upholding democracy, freedom, the rule of law, human rights, pluralism, and equal opportunities for all as our countries strive to become more perfect unions and meet our shared destiny. The Leaders commended the progress that has made the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership a pillar of global security and peace, highlighting the benefits of increased operational coordination, information-sharing, and defense industrial innovation. President Biden and Prime Minister Modi expressed unrelenting optimism and the utmost confidence that the tireless efforts of our peoples, our civic and private sectors, and our governments to forge deeper bonds have set the U.S.-India partnership on a path toward even greater heights in the decades ahead.

    President Biden expressed his immense appreciation for India’s leadership on the world stage, particularly Prime Minister Modi’s leadership in the G-20 and in the Global South and his commitment to strengthen the Quad to ensure a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. India is at the forefront of efforts to seek solutions to the most pressing challenges, from supporting the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic to addressing the devastating consequences of conflicts around the world. President Biden commended Prime Minister Modi for his historic visits to Poland and Ukraine, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in decades, and for his message of peace and ongoing humanitarian support for Ukraine, including its energy sector, and on the importance of international law, including the UN charter. The Leaders reaffirmed their support for the freedom of navigation and the protection of commerce, including critical maritime routes in the Middle East where India will assume co-lead in 2025 of the Combined Task Force 150 to work with Combined Maritime Forces to secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea. President Biden shared with Prime Minister Modi that the United States supports initiatives to reform global institutions to reflect India’s important voice, including permanent membership for India in a reformed U.N. Security Council. The Leaders voiced their view that a closer U.S.-India partnership is vital to the success of efforts to build a cleaner, inclusive, more secure, and more prosperous future for the planet.

    President Biden and Prime Minister Modi applauded the success of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in deepening and expanding strategic cooperation across key technology sectors, including space, semiconductors, and advanced telecommunications. Both Leaders committed to enhance regular engagements to improve the momentum of collaboration in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum, biotechnology, and clean energy. They highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration with like-minded partners, including through the Quad and a U.S.-India-ROK Trilateral Technology initiative launched earlier this year to build more secure and resilient supply chains for critical industries and ensure we collectively remain at the leading edge of innovation. The Leaders directed their governments to redouble efforts to address export controls, enhance high technology commerce, and reduce barriers to technology transfer between our two countries, while addressing technology security, including through the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue. Leaders also endorsed new mechanisms for deeper cyberspace cooperation through the bilateral cybersecurity dialogue. The Leaders recommitted to expand the manufacturing and deployment of clean energy, including finding opportunities to expand U.S.-India cooperation in solar, wind and nuclear energy and the development of small modular reactor technologies.

    Charting a Technology Partnership for the Future

    President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next generation telecommunications, and green energy applications. The fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the U.S. Space Force.

    The Leaders praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries’ (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata, India that will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing and enable game-changing advances for zero and low emission as well as connected vehicles, internet of things devices, AI, and data centers. They noted GF’s plans to explore longer term, cross-border manufacturing and technology partnerships with India which will deliver high-quality jobs in both of our countries. They also celebrated the new strategic partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the India Semiconductor Mission, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in connection with the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund.

    The Leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for U.S., Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company’s submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets.

    The Leaders welcomed progress toward the first joint effort by NASA and ISRO to conduct scientific research onboard the International Space Station in 2025. They appreciated the initiatives and exchange of ideas under the Civil Space Joint Working Group and expressed hope that its next meeting in early 2025 will open additional avenues of cooperation. They pledged to pursue opportunities to deepen joint innovation and strategic collaborations, including by exploring new platforms in civil and commercial space domains.

    The Leaders also welcomed efforts to enhance collaboration between our research and development ecosystems. They plan to mobilize up to $90+ million in U.S. and Indian government funding over the next five years for the U.S.-India Global Challenges Institute to support high-impact R&D partnerships between U.S. and Indian universities and research institutions, including through identifying options to implement the Statement of Intent signed at the June 2024 iCET meeting. The Leaders also welcomed the launch of a new U.S.-India Advanced Materials R&D Forum to expand collaboration between American and Indian universities, national laboratories, and private sector researchers.

    The Leaders announced the selection of 11 funding awards between the National Science Foundation and India’s Department of Science and Technology, supported by a combined $5+ million grant to enable joint U.S.-India research projects in areas such as next-generation telecommunications, connected vehicles, machine learning. The Leaders announced the award of 12 funding awards under the National Science Foundation and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, research collaboration with a combined outlay of nearly $10 million to enable joint U.S.-India basic and applied research in the areas of semiconductors, next generation communication systems, sustainability & green technologies and intelligent transportation systems. Furthermore, NSF and MeitY are exploring new opportunities for research collaboration to enhance and synergize the basic and applied research ecosystem on both sides.

    The Leaders celebrated that India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) along with National Science Foundation of the United States announced the first joint call for collaborative research projects in February 2024 to address complex scientific challenges and innovate novel solutions that leverage advances in synthetic and engineering biology, systems and computational biology, and other associated fields that are foundational to developing future biomanufacturing solutions and advance the bioeconomy. Under the first call for proposals, joint research teams responded enthusiastically and results are likely to be announced by the end of 2024.

    The Leaders also highlighted additional cooperation we are building across artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, and other critical technology areas. They highlighted the second convening of the U.S.-India Quantum Coordination Mechanism in Washington in August and welcomed the announcement of seventeen new awards for binational research and development cooperation on artificial intelligence and quantum via the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (IUSSTF). They welcomed new private sector cooperation on emerging technologies, such as through IBM’s recent conclusion of memoranda of understanding with the Government of India, which will enable IBM’s watsonx platform on India’s Airawat supercomputer and drive new AI innovation opportunities, enhance R&D collaboration on advanced semiconductor processors, and increase support for India’s National Quantum Mission.

    The Leaders commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications; this includes the U.S. Agency for International Development’s plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial $7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.

    The Leaders welcomed progress since the November 2023 signing of an MOU between the Commerce Department and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to enhance the two countries’ innovation ecosystems under the “Innovation Handshake” agenda. Since then, the two sides have convened two industry roundtables in the U.S. and India to bring together startups, private equity and venture capital firms, corporate investment departments, and government officials to forge connections and to accelerate investment in innovation.

    Powering a Next Generation Defense Partnership

    President Biden welcomed the progress towards India concluding procurement of 31 General Atomics MQ-9B (16 Sky Guardian and 15 Sea Guardian) remotely piloted aircraft and their associated equipment, which will enhance the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of India’s armed forces across all domains.

    The Leaders recognized the remarkable progress under the U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap, including ongoing collaboration to advance priority co-production arrangements for jet engines, munitions, and ground mobility systems. They also welcomed efforts to expand defense industrial partnerships, including the teaming of Liquid Robotics and Sagar Defence Engineering for the co-development and co-production of unmanned surface vehicle systems that strengthen undersea and maritime domain awareness. The Leaders applauded the recent conclusion of the Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA), enhancing the mutual supply of defense goods and services. Both Leaders committed to advance ongoing discussions on aligning their respective defense procurement systems to further enable the reciprocal supply of defense goods and services.

    President Biden welcomed India’s decision to set a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5 percent on the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector, including on all aircraft and aircraft engine parts thereby simplifying the tax structure and paving the way for building a strong ecosystem for MRO services in India. The Leaders also encouraged the industry to foster collaboration and drive innovation to support India’s efforts to become a leading aviation hub. The Leaders welcomed commitments from U.S. industry to further increase India’s MRO capabilities, including for the repair of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

    The Leaders hailed the teaming agreement on the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft recently signed between Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, the two companies that co-chair the U.S.-India CEO Forum. Building on longstanding industry cooperation, this agreement will establish a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India to support the readiness of the Indian fleet and global partners who operate the C-130 Super Hercules aircraft. This marks a significant step in U.S.-India defense and aerospace cooperation and reflects the two sides’ deepening strategic and technology partnership ties.

    The Leaders lauded the growing defense innovation collaboration between our governments, businesses, and academic institutions fostered by the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) initiative launched in 2023, and noted progress achieved during the third INDUS-X Summit in Silicon Valley earlier this month. They welcomed the enhanced collaboration between the Indian Ministry of Defence’s Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and US Department of Defence’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) through the Memorandum of Understanding signed at the Silicon Valley Summit. The efforts via the INDUSWERX consortium to facilitate pathways for defense and dual-use companies in the INDUS-X network to access premier testing ranges in both countries, were appreciated.

    The Leaders also recognized the clear fulfillment of the shared goal to build a defense innovation bridge under INDUS-X through the launch of “joint challenges” designed by the U.S. DoD’S DIU and the Indian MoD’s Defence Innovation Organization (DIO). In 2024, our governments have separately awarded $1+ million to U.S. and Indian companies that developed technologies focused on undersea communications and maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Building on this success, a new challenge was announced at the most recent INDUS-X Summit that focused on Space Situational Awareness (SSA) in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

    The Leaders welcomed ongoing efforts to deepen our military partnership and interoperability to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific, noting that India hosted our most complex, largest bilateral, tri-service exercise to date during the March 2024 TIGER TRIUMPH exercise. They also welcomed the inclusion of new technologies and capabilities, including a first-ever demonstration of the Javelin and Stryker systems in India, on the margins of the ongoing bilateral Army YUDH ABHYAS exercise.

    The Leaders welcomed the conclusion of the Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Deployment of Liaison Officers, and the commencement of deployment process of the first Liaison Officer from India in US Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

    The Leaders commended work to advance cooperation in advanced domains, including space and cyber, and looked forward towards the November 2024 bilateral cyber engagement to enhance the U.S.-India cyber cooperation framework. Areas of new cooperation will include threat information sharing, cybersecurity training, and collaboration on vulnerability mitigation in energy and telecommunications networks. The Leaders also noted the second U.S.-India Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue in May 2024, which included the first-ever bilateral defense space table-top exercise.

    Catalyzing the Clean Energy Transition

    President Biden and Prime Minister Modi welcomed the U.S.-India Roadmap to Build Safe and Secure Global Clean Energy Supply Chains, which launched a new initiative to accelerate the expansion of safe and secure clean energy supply chains through U.S. and Indian manufacturing of clean energy technologies and components. In its initial phase, the U.S. and India would work together to unlock $1 billion of multilateral financing to support projects across the clean energy value chain for renewable energy, energy storage, power grid and transmission technologies, high efficiency cooling systems, zero emission vehicles, and other emerging clean technologies.

    The Leaders also highlighted the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)’s partnership with India’s private sector to expand clean energy manufacturing and diversify supply chains. To date, DFC has extended a $250 million loan to Tata Power Solar to construct a solar cell manufacturing facility and a $500 million loan to First Solar to construct and operate a solar module manufacturing facility in India.

    The Leaders lauded the strong collaboration under the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP), most recently convened on September 16, 2024 in Washington DC to strengthen energy security, create opportunities for clean energy innovation, address climate change and create employment generation opportunities, including through capacity building, and collaboration between industry and R&D.

    The Leaders welcomed collaboration on a new National Center for Hydrogen Safety in India and affirmed their intent to utilize the new Renewable Energy Technology Action Platform (RETAP) to enhance collaboration on clean energy manufacturing and global supply chains, including through public-private task forces on hydrogen and energy storage.

    The Leaders also announced a new Memorandum of Cooperation between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the International Solar Alliance aimed at promoting more responsive and sustainable power systems that leverage diverse renewable energy sources.

    The Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the development of diverse and sustainable supply chains for critical minerals under the Minerals Security Partnership targeting strategic projects along the value chain. The Leaders looked forward to the signing of the Critical Minerals Memorandum of Understanding at the forthcoming U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue and pledged to hasten bilateral collaboration to secure resilient critical minerals supply chains through enhanced technical assistance and greater commercial cooperation.

    The Leaders welcomed the progress made on joint efforts since 2023 for India to work toward IEA membership in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on an International Energy Program.

    The two Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to accelerating the manufacturing and deployment of renewable energy, battery storage and emerging clean technology in India. They welcomed the ongoing progress between India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to provide up to $500 million each to anchor the Green Transition Fund as well as encourage private sector investors to match these efforts. Both sides look forward to the expeditious operationalization of the Green Transition Fund.

    Empowering Future Generations and Promoting Global Health and Development

    The Leaders welcomed India’s signature and ratification of the Agreements under Pillar III, Pillar IV and the overarching Agreement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The Leaders underscored that IPEF seeks to advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness of the economies of its signatories. They noted the economic diversity of the 14 IPEF partners that represents 40 percent of global GDP and 28 percent of global goods and services trade.

    President Biden and Prime Minister Modi celebrated the new U.S.-India Drug Policy Framework for the 21st Century and its accompanying Memorandum of Understanding, which will deepen collaboration to disrupt the illicit production and international trafficking of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals, and deepen a holistic public health partnership.

    The two Leaders signaled their commitment to the objectives of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drugs Threats and work towards combatting the threat of synthetic drugs and their precursors through mutually agreed initiatives to promote public health through coordinated actions.

    The Leaders applauded the first-ever U.S.-India Cancer Dialogue held in August 2024, which brought together experts from both countries to increase research and development to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. The Leaders applauded the recently launched Bio5 partnership between the United States, India, ROK, Japan, and the EU, driving closer cooperation on pharmaceutical supply chains. The Leaders applauded the Development Finance Corporation’s $50 million loan to Indian company Panacea Biotech to manufacture hexavalent (six-in-one) vaccines for children, reaffirming our joint commitment to advance shared global health priorities, including bolstering support for primary healthcare.

    The leaders welcomed the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Business Administration for promoting cooperation between U.S. and Indian small and medium-size enterprises by improving their participation in the global market place through capacity building workshops in areas such as trade and export finance, technology and digital trade, green economy and trade facilitation. The MoU also provides for the joint conduct of programs for women entrepreneurs to empower them and facilitate trade partnership between women-owned small businesses of the two countries. The Leaders celebrated that, since the June 2023 State visit, the Development Finance Corporation has invested $177 million across eight projects to support Indian small businesses and drive economic growth.

    The Leaders welcomed enhanced cooperation on agriculture between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in areas such as climate-smart agriculture, agriculture productivity growth, agriculture innovation, and sharing best practices related to crop risk protection and agriculture credit. The two sides will also enhance cooperation with the private sector through discussions on regulatory issues and innovation to enhance bilateral trade.

    The Leaders welcomed the formal launch of the new U.S.-India Global Digital Development Partnership, which aims to bring together U.S. and Indian private sector companies, technology and resources to deploy the responsible use of emerging digital technologies in Asia and Africa.

    The Leaders welcomed strengthened trilateral cooperation with Tanzania through the Triangular Development Partnership, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development and India’s Development Partnership Administration to jointly address global development challenges and foster prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The partnership focuses on advancing renewable energy projects, including solar energy, to enhance energy infrastructure and access in Tanzania, thereby bolstering energy cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. They also desired to explore the expansion of the triangular development partnership in areas of health cooperation, particularly for critical technical areas of mutual interest including digital health and capacity building of nurses and other frontline health workers.

    The Leaders acknowledged the July 2024 signing of a bilateral Cultural Property Agreement that will facilitate implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The agreement marked the culmination of years of diligent work by experts from both countries and fulfills President Biden’s and Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to enhance cooperation to protect cultural heritage highlighted in the joint statement when they met in June 2023. In this context, the leaders welcomed the repatriation of 297 Indian antiquities from the U.S. to India in 2024.

    The Leaders look forward to building on India’s ambitious G20 presidency to deliver on shared priorities for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, including: bigger, better, and more effective MDBs, including by following through on Leaders’ pledges in New Delhi to boost the World Bank’s capacity to help developing countries address global challenges, while recognizing the imperative of achieving the sustainable development goals; a more predictable, orderly, timely and coordinated sovereign debt restructuring process; and a pathway to growth for high-ambition developing countries that are facing financing challenges amid mounting debt burdens by increasing access to finance and unlocking fiscal space taking into account country specific circumstances.

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    MJPS/ST/SKS

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India participates in G7 Ministers’ meeting on Culture in Naples, Italy

    Source: Government of India (2)

    India participates in G7 Ministers’ meeting on Culture in Naples, Italy

    “Recognition of Culture as a Standalone Goal in Post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda marks a paradigm shift in how we view development”

    Posted On: 21 SEP 2024 10:08PM by PIB Delhi

    The Indian delegation led by Shri Arunish Chawla, Secretary Ministry of Culture, Government of India along with Ms. Lily Pandeya, Joint Secretary, participated in the Special Session of G7 Ministers meeting on Culture, held on 21st September 2024 in Naples, Italy. The meeting was also attended by Culture leaders of the African Union, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America together with the Heads of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the African Development Bank.

     

    Shri Arunish Chawla in his address emphasized on recognizing culture not as a static relic of our collective past, but as a dynamic catalyst for growth. He advocated that the recognition of culture as a ‘standalone goal’ within the post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is not merely a diplomatic triumph; it is a paradigm shift in our conceptualization of development itself. “As we stand on the cusp of the United Nations Summit of the Future, it is incumbent upon us to advocate vociferously for the inclusion of Culture as an autonomous goal within the Pact for the Future”, the Secretary said.  Shri Chawla mentioned that the Naples Conference on Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century, held last November, explored the synergies between the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the 2003 ICH Convention. It was during India’s G20 Presidency, that one of our expert-driven Global Thematic Webinars spotlighted the necessity of this synergy on a global platform for the first time.

     

    Shri Chawla apprised that India’s flourishing partnership with the African Union entails unprecedented economic, cultural, and strategic ties between the world’s largest democracy and the vibrant nations of Africa. The African Union’s recent admission as a permanent member of the G20 during India’s Presidency marks a significant milestone in this relationship. As India and Africa continue to collaborate on key areas like trade, education, healthcare, and sustainable development, our partnership is a powerful testament to mutual cooperation, solidarity, and collective progress. In the field of creative economy, the India-Africa Union partnership is poised to unleash numerous opportunities, harnessing the limitless potential of creativity – humanity’s most sustainable and inexhaustible resource, he added.

     

    The Culture Secretary also apprised that during 46th World Heritage Committee meeting, India proudly supported the nomination dossiers of several African nations. Additionally, India made a significant pledge of USD 1 million to strengthen capacity building in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and the African region, reaffirming its commitment to supporting Africa’s rich heritage initiatives.

    The Naples Statement was signed on ‘Culture for the sustainable development of Africa and the world’. It is aimed at working with African Governments to leverage culture as a driver of sustainable development. The Statement seeks to foster reciprocal knowledge sharing with African governments and cultural institutions to support efforts to boost cultural and creative sectors and industries; protect cultural property from illicit trafficking; promote, safeguard and sustainably manage cultural heritage and strengthen the presence of Africa in the UNESCO Heritage Lists.

    Considering the importance of culture as a transformative driver and an enabler for the achievement of the SDGs set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the full recognition and integration of culture and the creative economy into the development processes and policies has been underscored while promoting the inclusion of culture as a standalone goal in future discussions on how to advance Sustainable Development beyond 2030. It was also agreed to support culture and sustainable development in Africa by fostering partnerships and policies that align with African governments’ development priorities, and respect the cultural diversity of African countries.

    On the sidelines of the G7 outreach session, Sri Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Culture, held important bilateral meetings with Minister of Culture, Italy; DG/ ICCROM & the US delegation. Indian Ambassador to Italy, Ms. Vani Rao attended the bilateral meetings. Important issues related with cultural cooperation were discussed during the meetings.

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal participates in 12th East Asia Summit Economic Ministers Meeting in Lao PDR

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 21 SEP 2024 8:39PM by PIB Delhi

    Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry during the 2nd and last day of his visit to Vientiane, Lao PDR participated in the 12th East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS EMM). The meeting was chaired by H.E. Malaithong Kommasith, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Lao PDR, the ASEAN Chair for 2024. The Economic Ministers or their representatives from all the 10 ASEAN countries and 8 other EAS partners viz. India, USA, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand were present in the meeting. Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joined the Meeting as an observer.

    In the 12th EAS EMM, the Economic Ministers discussed regional and global economic developments and challenges. In his intervention, Minister Goyal reiterated India’s commitment to strengthen the East Asia Summit Forum, being its founder member, and acknowledged its role in promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in the region. Referring to ASEAN Secretariat’s briefing on the regional and global economic forecast for 2025, he informed that while the global economy is expected to grow at 3.2% in 2024-25, India’s growth rate is projected at 7-7.2%, with India on the way to become the 3rd largest economy by 2027.

    On WTO, Minister Goyal commended the successful conclusion of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in March 2024 and reiterated India’s commitment to an open, transparent, and inclusive WTO reform process, emphasizing a rules-based system with principles of non-discrimination, inclusivity, and Special and Differential Treatment.  He invited ASEAN countries to come forward for collaboration on issues of global south at WTO and to strengthen multilateralism.

    Minister Goyal commended the research paper presented by Economic and Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia on “Navigating the path to a Net-Zero Economy: Decarbonization and Sustainability Initiatives in EAS Countries” and referred to India’s commitment to a net-zero economy by 2070 and the significant strides made by India in climate action achieving reduction in emission intensity of GDP related target 11 years in advance and share of non-fossil fuels in energy mix 9 years in advance. He appealed to the member countries to promote circularity in lifestyles with responsible consumption as outlined by our Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi call for Mission LIFE – Life Style for Environment at COP 26.

    During the day, Minister Goyal had a number of bilateral meetings and other engagements alongside the 12th EAS EMM. The day started with a bilateral meeting with H.E. Dr. Kan Zaw, Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations, Myanmar wherein both sides discussed potential cooperation areas in trade and the ongoing AITIGA review negotiations.

    Minister Goyal also met H.E. Inkyo Cheong, Minister for Trade, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea and held discussion on bilateral trade relations, progress in negotiations for upgrading India-Korea CEPA and promoting inclusive investments in India.

    Minister Goyal subsequently participated in a programme organized by the Indian Embassy in Laos, for interaction with Indian diaspora. During this event, he engaged in meaningful conversations with community members, acknowledging their invaluable contributions to enhancing bilateral relations between India and Laos. He emphasized the importance of their efforts in promoting cultural exchange and economic collaboration, and expressed gratitude for their role in serving as a bridge between the two nations.

    Minister Goyal had a meeting with Mr. Tetsuya Watanabe, President of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). The discussion revolved on possible collaboration in India specific research studies. India had last year announced a financial contribution of USD 1 Million to ERIA over a period of 10 years. ERIA is also collaborating with Indian Centre for WTO Studies on conducting a joint study on AITIGA.

    In the evening, Minister Goyal held a meeting with H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary General of ASEAN. ASEAN Secretariat is coordinating discussions on AITIGA review and both the dignitaries deliberated on ways to enhance India and ASEAN trade relations including by addressing market access asymmetries and upgrading AITIGA.

    Minister Goyal wrapped up his visit to Laos with a meeting with H.E. Malaithong Kommasith, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Lao PDR. He congratulated Minister Kommasith on the successful hosting of the Economic Ministers’ meetings and engaged in discussions about trade collaboration opportunities, as well as the ongoing negotiations for the review of AITIGA.

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    AD/VN

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India’s initiative of setting up Dashboard for Global Best Practices receives robust support and commendation at G-20 Ministerial Meeting in Brazil

    Source: Government of India

    India’s initiative of setting up Dashboard for Global Best Practices receives robust support and commendation at G-20 Ministerial Meeting in Brazil

    Union Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat reiterates India’s Commitment for Green Tourism

    Highlights the vital role of Tourism and Culture in Sustainable Socio-Economic Development

    Shri Shekhawat Engages in Bilateral Talks to Enhance Global Tourism Collaboration

    Posted On: 21 SEP 2024 8:22PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister of Tourism and Culture, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat delivered his country statement at the G-20 Ministerial Meeting held on September 21, 2024, in Belem, Brazil, highlighting the significance of tourism in driving economic development, fostering social inclusion and promoting environmental sustainability for the benefit of people, planet and prosperity. Successful deliberations were held during the Tourism Ministers Meeting on Green Tourism, support for data driven decision making, for strengthening the Dashboard developed during India’s G20 stewardship for aggregating best practices, importance of skilling of human capital for global service delivery, supporting MSMEs for generating local employment as well as for effective Destination Management.

    In his statement, the Minister acknowledged the efforts of Brazil and all G20 member nations in advancing the tourism agenda set during India’s G20 Presidency. He reiterated the commitment of India in pushing the agenda for green tourism and embracing the collective power of collaboration and innovation to ensure that tourism continues to serve as driver of growth, employment and all over prosperity.

    Shri Shekhawat emphasized the vital role of tourism and culture in sustainable socio-economic development and nature positive tourism. The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration and the ‘Goa Roadmap for Tourism, which were the outcomes of the Tourism Track meetings during India`s Presidency are imperative for taking forward the agenda for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He stressed the need for tourism policies to focus on inclusion and resilience, in line with India’s theme: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”

    India had outlined five key areas for sustainable tourism: Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills Development, Tourism MSMEs and Destination Management, which have taken forward during the Brazil Presidency.  These five priority areas received support and remain essential to address future challenges in tourism.

    The Travel for LiFE program was introduced as a part of Mission LiFE, a global movement led by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. This initiative prioritizes Green Tourism to promote environmental sustainability through tourism.

    India supported the UNWTO’s initiative for a Statistical Framework as a knowledge hub for aggregating global best practices and case studies and to measure tourism sustainability. The progress made under Brazil’s Presidency in this context was also duly acknowledged. The Minister expressed optimism that today’s discussions would help build empowered communities and improve quality of life, calling for continued collaboration and innovation to ensure tourism drives growth and contributes to sustainable development. He thanked Brazil for steering the G20 Ministerial deliberations in Belem and conveyed his best wishes to South Africa for their G20 Presidency and expressed a desire to synergise country and stakeholder efforts for better and more robust outcomes.

    Shri Shekhawat also participated in the two ministerial dialogues of the UN Forum and WTTC.

    Minister at the UN Tourism Forum Dialogue

    On the sidelines of the G20 Tourism Ministers Meeting, Union Minister, Shri Gajendra Shekhawat held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, Singapore, Spain, Japan, Czech and pull aside with USA to discuss issues for facilitating tourist flows as well as other issues of significance to tourism sector. The Minister was accompanied by the Director General, Tourism, Ms Mugdha Sinha, DCM Brazil, Mr Pradhan, Sandeep Singh.

    Bilateral Meeting with Brazilian Minister Mr Celso Sabino

     

    Bilateral Meeting with Saudi Arabia

     

    Bilateral Meeting with Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry

     

    Bilateral Meeting with Minister Tourism Spain

     

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: 2-Day Global Food Regulators Summit 2024 Concludes with a Pledge to Strengthen Food Safety Systems across the Globe

    Source: Government of India

    2-Day Global Food Regulators Summit 2024 Concludes with a Pledge to Strengthen Food Safety Systems across the Globe

    India Leads the Way to Strengthen Global Food Safety Ecosystem

    It is our responsibility to ensure food safety along with food security: Shri Chirag Paswan

    “The diversity of our food systems is truly remarkable—this is the essence of India. We need to brainstorm ways to transform this rich abundance into meaningful opportunities”

    Posted On: 21 SEP 2024 7:34PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Shri Chirag Paswan addressed the Valedictory Ceremony of the two-day Global Food Regulators Summit 2024 at Bharat Mandapam, here today. Hosted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the summit featured insightful dialogues and discussions aimed at fostering international collaboration and knowledge-sharing on food safety and regulatory issues.

    Addressing the session, Shri Chirag Paswan said, “It is our responsibility to ensure food safety along with food security. We should aim not only to maintain the quality of our food but also to explore ways to enhance its value.” Shri Paswan congratulated FSSAI for organizing the global summit which saw a massive participation of national and international food regulators and other stakeholders.  “The diversity of our food systems is truly remarkable—this is the essence of India. We need to brainstorm ways to transform this rich abundance into meaningful opportunities,” he added.

    Dr. V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, in his special address commended the Eat Right India movement of FSSAI. He said, “I’m very proud that our nation has the Eat Right Movement. I urge all of you to join the movement of the Eat Right India Jan Andolan and engage in behavioural change.”

    Earlier in the day, Smt Anupriya Patel, Hon’ble Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers, delivered the Presidential Address at the Regional Conclave which was held as a parallel session. She emphasized on unity and collaboration between countries to elevate the role of regional countries in shaping food safety standards globally. She also shed light on the crucial role played by FSSAI in aligning the national food safety standards of India to that of Codex norms.

    India hosted the Regional Conclave aimed at enhancing collaboration and harmonization within the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s standard-setting process. This is the first time that a Regional Conclave has been organized outside the headquarters of Codex in Rome. It provided a dedicated platform for Asian countries to discuss food safety, trade, and regulatory challenges unique to the region.

    Ms Punya Salila Srivastava, Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare delivered the keynote address at the occasion.

    Shri G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, FSSAI CEO provided an overview of the discussions held during the two-day event. He expressed gratitude to both national and international delegates for their invaluable contributions and expertise during the discussions.

    The second day of the summit saw insightful discussions on critical subjects like residue and contaminant monitoring systems, new-age analysis in food-testing, addressing hidden hunger through fortification and impact of animal feed on food safety and human health. The summit was inaugurated on 20th September 2024 (Friday), by Shri JP Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. It brought together food regulators from around the world to exchange perspectives and knowledge on crucial issues related to food safety systems and regulatory frameworks throughout the food value chain.

    Various initiatives including Food Import Rejection Alerts (FIRA)- an online portal for notification of food import rejections at Indian borders and FICS 2.0 – an advanced website for the Food Import Clearance System, were launched during the Summit. A millets recipe show ‘Flavours of Shree Anna – Sehat aur Swaad Ke Sang’ was also launched during the inauguration ceremony. The release of the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) 2024, an annual report evaluating the food safety performance of Indian states and union territories, was also a highlight of the event.

    The Summit brought together delegates from over 70 countries, including Food safety regulators and those from Risk Assessment Authorities, Research Institutes and Universities who discussed and strategized on key regulatory issues. It highlighted India’s commitment to leading global efforts in enhancing food safety standards and ensuring food security. It set off dialogue on critical aspects such as food safety, risk assessment, analytical competence, and capacity-building initiatives, which impact the food safety ecosystem worldwide.

    Ms Inoshi Sharma, Executive Director, FSSAI and senior officials of the Union Health Ministry were present at the event.

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  • MIL-OSI Security: Guam Observes the 23rd Anniversary of 9/11

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    ASAN, Guam  –  

    Members of the Government of Guam, the Rotary Club of Northern Guam, first responders, military leaders, and other distinguished guests gathered for a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Two Lovers Point on Sept. 20.

    The ceremony, initially scheduled for the 23rd anniversary of the tragedy, was postponed due to Tropical Storm Bebinca and instead took place a week later, coinciding with the day former President George W. Bush declared the “War on Terror.” Guests laid wreaths at the memorial in honor of the nearly 3,000 lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

    Rotary Club President John Ilao welcomed those in attendance, highlighting the significance of the 9/11 monument the club founded and constructed in 2011. He emphasized that the monument is a testament to their motto, “Service Above Self,” and serves as a symbol for the people of Guam, reminding them that “service to others creates a better world.”

    Distinguished guest speaker U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Brent DeVore, commander of Joint Region Marianas, then shared his personal experience from that day when he and his wife, Amy, were in the National Capital Region. DeVore was studying for a graduate assignment, and his wife was working as a nurse practitioner, pregnant with their first child. They were in their apartment, just a mile from the Pentagon, when they witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash at 9:37 a.m.

    “We felt the concussion of the impact as it flexed the windows of our apartment,” DeVore said. “Moments later, you can imagine the number of sirens and the stream of emergency response vehicles flowing inward towards the city. Meanwhile, this dichotomy of an eerie silence overhead, as we were close to Reagan National Airport where all of that airspace had been closed, punctuated by immediate response fighter planes that started to circle overhead to secure the airways.”

    DeVore and the world later learned that 184 lives were lost at the Pentagon and aboard Flight 77, in addition to the 40 people killed on United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, and the 2,753 victims in New York City, including those aboard American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175.

    He also reflected on the honor of serving aboard the USS New York (LPD-21), an amphibious transport dock carrying 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow, 15 years later. DeVore said one of the highlights of that tour for him was sailing into New York City Harbor, where first responders and the local community lined the pier. “[They saw the ship] as a visible reminder of the strength of their community,” he said.

    U.S. Air Force Col. Brandon Shroyer, deputy commander of the 36th Wing, followed with special guest remarks, where he highlighted the actions of 1st Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney on that fateful day. Penney was assigned to the 121st Fighter Squadron of the District of Columbia Air National Guard along with her commanding officer, Lt. Col. Marc “Sass” Sasseville. They were ordered to intercept United Airlines Flight 93, which was believed to be headed toward Washington D.C. With little time to arm their F-16s, they realized that their plan was simple, Shroyer explained: “Ram the jet and sacrifice themselves for everyone else.” However, due to the bravery and sacrifice of the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93, they learned that the plane had already crashed in a field in Pennsylvania while circling the national capital.

    “This was our generation’s wake-up call,” Shroyer said. “It mobilized our nation and it changed the course of our careers, our lives, and was the beginning of a long war that we continue to wage today.”

    On that day 23 years ago, Shroyer was a cadet in the U.S. Air Force Academy and learned of the attacks while eating breakfast. Like thousands of other Americans who joined the military in the aftermath of 9/11, he chose to continue his training, knowing he would be leading an Air Force at war. Shroyer later flew C-17 and C-130J combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.

    During his remarks, DeVore recognized firefighters, emergency medical technicians, flight attendants, pilots, service members, and transportation security officers in attendance.

    “You embody the same courage and dedication that we witnessed on 9/11 in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania,” he said. “You remind us that even in the darkest of times, there is light, hope, and an unbreakable spirit that binds us together as Americans. Let us carry the memories of those we lost, not as a burden but as a beacon guiding us to live lives worthy of their sacrifice. Let their bravery inspire us to be better, to do more, and to never forget.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Translation: Announcement of the appointment of the Government.

    MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from French to English –

    The composition of the Government resulting from the decree signed today on the proposal of the Prime Minister, responsible for Ecological and Energy Planning, is as follows:

    Ministers:

    Mr. Didier MIGAUD, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice;

    Ms. Catherine VAUTRIN, Minister for Partnership with the Territories and Decentralization;

    Mr. Bruno RETAILLEAU, Minister of the Interior;

    Ms. Anne GENETET, Minister of National Education;

    Mr. Jean-Noël BARROT, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs;

    Ms. Rachida DATI, Minister of Culture;

    Mr. Sébastien LECORNU, Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans;

    Ms. Agnès PANNIER-RUNACHER, Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention;

    Mr. Antoine ARMAND, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry;

    Ms. Geneviève DARRIEUSSECQ, Minister of Health and Access to Healthcare;

    Mr. Paul CHRISTOPHE, Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Equality between Women and Men;

    Ms. Valérie LÉTARD, Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal;

    Ms. Annie GENEVARD, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry;

    Ms. Astrid PANOSYAN-BOUVET, Minister of Labor and Employment;

    Mr. Gil AVÉROUS, Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life;

    Mr. Patrick HETZEL, Minister of Higher Education and Research;

    Mr. Guillaume KASBARIAN, Minister of Civil Service, Simplification and Transformation of Public Action;

    Mr. François-Noël BUFFET, Minister to the Prime Minister, responsible for Overseas Territories;

    Mr. Laurent SAINT-MARTIN, Minister to the Prime Minister, responsible for the Budget and Public Accounts.

    Ministers Delegate:

    To the Prime Minister and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs:

    Mr. Benjamin HADDAD, responsible for Europe;

    To the Prime Minister:

    Ms Nathalie DELATTRE, responsible for Relations with Parliament;

    Ms Maud BREGEON, Government spokesperson;

    Ms. Marie-Claire CARRÈRE-GÉE, responsible for Government Coordination;

    To the Minister for Partnership with the Territories and Decentralization:

    Mrs. Françoise GATEL, responsible for Rural Affairs, Trade and Crafts;

    Mr. François DUROVRAY, responsible for Transport;

    Mr. Fabrice LOHER, responsible for the Sea and Fisheries;

    To the Minister of the Interior:

    Mr. Nicolas DARAGON, responsible for daily security;

    To the Minister of National Education:

    Mr. Alexandre PORTIER, responsible for Academic Success and Professional Education;

    To the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs:

    Ms Sophie PRIMAS, responsible for Foreign Trade and French Nationals Abroad;

    To the Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention:

    Ms. Olga GIVERNET, responsible for Energy;

    To the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry:

    Mr. Marc FERRACCI, responsible for Industry;

    Ms Marie-Agnès POUSSIER-WINSBACK, responsible for the Social and Solidarity Economy, Profit-Sharing and Participation;

    Ms. Marina FERRARI, responsible for the Tourism Economy;

    To the Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Equality between Women and Men:

    Ms. Agnès CANAYER, responsible for Family and Early Childhood.

    Secretaries of State:

    To the Minister of the Interior:

    Mr. Othman NASROU, responsible for Citizenship and the Fight against Discrimination;

    To the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs:

    Mr. Thani MOHAMED SOILIHI, responsible for Francophonie and International Partnerships;

    To the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry:

    Ms. Laurence GARNIER, responsible for Consumption;

    To the Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Equality between Women and Men:

    Ms. Salima SAA, responsible for Equality between women and men;

    To the Minister of Higher Education and Research:

    Ms. Clara CHAPPAZ, responsible for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology.

    The President of the Republic will bring together all members of the Government for a Council of Ministers which will be held on Monday, September 23 at 3:00 p.m.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Release: Public service set up to fail under National

    Source: New Zealand Labour Party

    Nicola Willis has set up the public service to fail to pay for reckless tax cuts for landlords and the tobacco industry.

    Today’s analysis by the Council of Trade Unions shows that significant cuts to frontline public services will likely be needed to meet the Government’s directive to fund cost pressures – such as from inflation and population growth – from baseline funding.

    “Nicola Willis has just gutted the public service to the tune of some 6000 people. Public services are already having to do more with less and we’ve seen how the frontline is being affected,” said Labour public service spokesperson Ayesha Verrall.

    “To also have to manage cost pressures without more funding will likely lead to more job cuts and further undermine frontline work.”

    “From cutting frontline work the Department of Conservation does to protect our most precious native species to hiring freezes at our hospitals, it’s clear the National Government has broken its promises to New Zealanders that frontline services would not be affected.”

    The Government Workforce Policy Statement sets out the Government’s expectation that departments manage cost pressures through their baselines.

    “This approach might ordinarily be sensible, but not after the public service has already been pared back to basics.

    “Departments have just cut 6.5% or 7.5% from their baselines, leaving them already struggling to deliver their core functions. And now expecting them to absorb cost pressures when there is no capacity left, will lead to further front line cuts.

    “Nicola Willis made reckless commitments about tax cuts that she couldn’t afford. She’s had to gut the public service and borrow to pay for them, all while handing $216 million to the tobacco industry, and $2.9 billion to landlords.

    “Almost a year into her tenure as finance minister it’s time Nicola Willis took some responsibility, and realised that she cannot cut her way to a better New Zealand.

    “Day by day we see cuts going deeper and further. A weakened public service is not good for anyone and New Zealanders are worse off for it,” Ayesha Verrall said.

    Stay in the loop by signing up to our mailing list and following us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: ANZ continues to support Hyundai Motor Company’s EV Manufacturing with USD1.35b Green ECA facility

    Source: ANZ statements

    ANZ has successfully closed an USD1.35b Green Labeled K-Sure covered Term Loan Facility for Hyundai Motor Group, funding its first electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in the US, as the world’s third largest car manufacturer continues to invest in the country.

    It will help accelerate Hyundai Motor Company’s electrification strategy with an expected manufacturing capacity of 300,000 units annually at its Georgia Metaplant complex.

    The Green Export Credit Agency (ECA) backed loan adheres to LMA Green Loan Principles, and reinforces ANZ as a key financing partner for Hyundai Motor Group, acting as ECA and Green Loan Coordinator, Mandated Lead Arranger, and Bookrunner on its past three mandates.

    Aaron Ross, ANZ’s Global Head of Project, Export & Asset Finance said, “These deals underscore ANZ’s market-leading position in the Korean ECA sector, delivering low risk, capital-efficient and high-returning facilities that meet our customer needs. We have executed four major EV sector transactions backed by Korean ECAs in the past five years.

    “We’re proud to play a role in supporting Hyundai Motor Group’s capital expenditure initiatives as it strives to become a global leader in electric vehicle manufacturing. Leveraging our expertise across Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and the US, we have been able to consistently deliver smart solutions by integrating sustainable finance to meet Hyundai Motor Group’s strategic and evolving needs,” Mr Ross said.

    Previous deals with Hyundai Motor Group include:

    • USD 940 million K-Sure-backed deal for Hyundai Mobis’ EV parts plant located within the Georgia Metaplant complex
    • USD 711 million ECA financing to establish South-East Asia’s first and largest EV battery manufacturing facility in Indonesia
    • SGD 230 million green loan to finance the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore

    ANZ has set a target to fund and facilitate at least $A100 billion by the end of FY2030, including $A15 billion by end FY2024, in social and environmental outcomes through customer activities and direct investments by ANZ. This includes initiatives that aim to help lower carbon emissions, protect nature, increase access to affordable housing and promote financial wellbeing, as described in the target methodology.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s manufacturing industry delivers new momentum

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    Qijiang-2 humanoid robot hands an orange to a visitor at the 2024 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province, Sept. 20, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    With a human build and sleek appearance, the 1.8-meter-tall Qijiang-2 is captivating visitors in the exhibition hall of the 2024 World Manufacturing Convention as it can mimic human movements with remarkable precision.

    The humanoid robot, developed by Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Humanoid Robots, is certainly hogging the spotlight at the convention, which opened on Friday and will continue until Monday in Hefei, the capital of east China’s Anhui Province.

    Equipped with advanced sensors and intricate inertial measurement units, Qijiang-2 can perform delicate tasks such as folding clothes, opening bottles, wiping dishes and navigating uneven terrain.

    But it’s more than just a mechanical marvel. Beyond its physical capabilities, the robot also has decision-making features, including intelligent user recognition and secure access for authorized users.

    “In the future, these humanoid robots will be able to adapt to both industrial production and elderly care scenarios, serving as robot workers and robot caregivers,” said Liu Houde, director of the laboratory.

    Qijiang-2 and other cutting-edge exhibits like the Jiuzhou Yunjian Longyun rocket engine and the Origin Wukong superconducting quantum computer are demonstrating China’s breakthroughs in frontier technologies at the event, as well as its potential in the field of high-tech manufacturing.

    The gathering of leading global enterprises and industry experts has also reflected China’s commitment to advancing international cooperation and working with other countries to address the challenges and opportunities in global manufacturing development.

    “After 30 years of development in China, Continental AG values not only China’s market volume but also advanced technologies,” said Enno Tang, president and CEO of Continental China.

    With comprehensive industrial categories and a well-rounded manufacturing system, China has attracted global firms to strengthen their investment in the country.

    An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 20, 2023 shows a view of Volkswagen (Anhui) Automotive Company Limited in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Volkswagen Group in April announced an investment of 2.5 billion euros (about 2.8 billion U.S. dollars) in expanding its production and innovation hub in Hefei to increase its pace of innovation in China.

    The company also vowed to accelerate the production of two Volkswagen-brand smart electric vehicles (EVs), which are currently under joint development with Chinese manufacturer Xpeng.

    A deal reached in 2023 between the two companies gave Volkswagen access to Xpeng’s technologies, including its advanced driving assistance system, as the German carmaker made efforts to tap into China’s fast-growing EV market.

    The landmark cooperation agreement between Xpeng and Volkswagen testified to the willingness of China’s auto industry to share its technologies with the world, according to Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng.

    As the world’s economic landscape evolves, China is stepping up efforts to collaborate with international enterprises, aiming to inject fresh momentum into the global manufacturing sector and accelerate the shift toward high-quality growth.

    This photo taken on Nov. 9, 2023 shows the booth of Schneider Electric at the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai, east China. [Photo/Xinhua]

    In the city of Xiamen in east China’s Fujian Province, construction on the Schneider Electric Xiamen Industrial Park began in April.

    China is Schneider Electric’s second-largest market globally, one of its most important supply chain bases, and one of its four global R&D hubs.

    After its completion, the park will be the French multinational’s biggest manufacturing facility for medium voltage equipment anywhere in the world, and some of its products will be supplied to overseas markets.

    The park will be a major R&D center, manufacturing center and supply hub through which the company will serve the global medium voltage market, according to Vincent Bruneau, vice president of Schneider Electric’s Global Supply Chain China.

    Through a combination of innovation-driven policies, open market access and strategic partnerships, China continues to strengthen its position as a key player in global manufacturing.

    “China has been advancing its manufacturing sector by focusing on high-end, intelligent, green development while increasing its efforts in technological innovation to unlock broader markets,” said Wan Hongxian, a professor at the Anhui University of Finance and Economics.

    “China’s manufacturing sector provides a highly promising market for global high-end equipment. Moreover, its advanced production capabilities and responsiveness to market demand enable the development of more high-quality products, delivering tangible benefits to consumers worldwide,” Wan added.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Two operators selected for new e-scooter licences in Auckland

    Source: Auckland Council

    Auckland Council has selected two providers to receive new rental micromobility licences in Auckland.  

    Of the seven licence applications received, the chosen providers are current operator Lime and the New Zealand-owned Flamingo. Both will be licensed for a two-year period from 4 November 2024. 

    Auckland Council’s Manager of Licensing and Environmental Health, Mervyn Chetty, says the council received a number of strong applications, with the chosen providers demonstrating a commitment to safety initiatives and reducing nuisance.   

    “Both Lime and Flamingo have a history of operating in Auckland and around New Zealand. Their applications represented the best offering for Aucklanders, with both committing to a range of initiatives to support public transport connections, improved parking and safer riding.” 

    “We look forward to continuing our relationship with Lime and welcoming back Flamingo, which currently operates in a number of New Zealand cities and has been licenced in Auckland previously.”  

    Fewer operators but allocations the same

    The current e-scooter allocation in Auckland is 3000 in total, with 900 in tier 1 (city centre), 900 in tier 2 (city fringe) and 1200 in tier 3 (suburban). This allocation will remain the same from November 4, but with the allocation split across the two providers.

    “Having just two operators allows riders to easily find a device with their preferred provider, as well as allowing us to monitor and work with providers more closely,” says Mr Chetty.  

    Lime and Flamingo will each be allowed 900 devices split across tiers 1 and 2. In tier 3, Lime will have 700 devices and Flamingo will have 500.  

    Rental Micromobility Code of Practice 

    Throughout the current licensing period the council has identified improvements that can be made to the Rental Micromobility Code of Practice to better manage operator compliance and influence user behaviour. 

    Changes to the rental micromobility code of practice will include: 

    • Faster response times required to rectify non-compliant parking, reduced from 90 to 75 minutes in tier 1 (city centre) and tier 2 (city fringe).  
    • Faster response times to rectify toppled scooters, reduced from 90 to 75 minutes in tiers 1 and 2. 
    • Strengthened data provisions.  

    E-bikes 
     
    From 4 November the council will no longer license rental e-bikes. Previous e-bike licences saw a low number of trips, with operators having removed all rental e-bike devices from the streets. 

    Operators have committed to work with Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to develop a strategy to successfully bring rental e-bikes back to Tāmaki Makaurau. 

    Assessment of applications 

    Applications were assessed against the requirements of the Public Trading, Events and Filming Bylaw 2022 and Auckland Transport’s Activities in the Road Corridor Bylaw 2022, and were considered to ensure that the applicants could demonstrate their ability to comply with the Rental Micromobility Code of Practice (version 3).  

    Find out more 

    Visit the council’s micromobility web page to find out more about rental e-scooters in Auckland.  

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: US blasted for high subsidies to PV sector

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    The China Photovoltaic Industry Association has expressed serious concerns about and strong opposition to the United States’ distorting the global solar market by providing excessive subsidies to US companies and imposing high tariffs on imported solar products.

    It said the US moves are hampering international cooperation in the fight against climate change.

    The trade body said in a recent statement that the US has built high walls of protectionism by imposing multiple trade restrictions and continuously increasing tariff barriers on imported photovoltaic products. In May, for example, the US decided that the import tax on Chinese solar cells would rise from 25 percent to 50 percent.

    The association also pointed out that the US implemented exclusive and discriminatory industrial policies through legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and subsidized its own photovoltaic industry on a large scale.

    “The Inflation Reduction Act, introduced in 2022, offers subsidies of an unprecedented $369 billion to support investments and production in the clean energy sector, including domestic PV products, aiming to reconstruct the PV industry chain,” said the trade body’s statement.

    On May 16, the US Department of Energy announced $71 million investment to fund the Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-Use Photovoltaics Incubator Program ($27 million) and the Advancing US Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics Funding Program ($44 million), aiming to close the gaps in PV supply chain manufacturing capabilities, the association added.

    Such moves violated multilateral trade rules and severely distorted the market operations of the global supply chain of the PV industry, according to the statement.

    Experts and business leaders said that while subsidies are common globally in the new energy industry, the US strategy of raising tariffs under anti-subsidy pretexts and financially backing domestic companies is a double standard, with the aim of hindering Chinese solar companies from capturing global market share.

    They said that Chinese-made solar and wind power equipment has facilitated the widespread adoption of affordable renewable energy worldwide, contributing to a global shift toward green development, adding that collaboration among global economies is essential for mutual gains in the sector.

    Cui Fan, an international trade professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that policy interventions are necessary globally to address market flaws in advancing new energy. Solely relying on market forces could significantly delay global decarbonization progress by 20 to 30 years, which would be out of sync with the pace of global green initiatives, he added.

    “However, in the WTO framework, subsidies must adhere to specific conditions, including avoiding unjust discrimination. The US’ Inflation Reduction Act breaches this by favoring US products over Chinese imports,” Cui said.

    Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said that the US’ high subsidies for its new energy industry, as well as its consistent raising of tariffs on Chinese goods under anti-subsidy pretexts, showcase a US double standard.

    Song Hao, assistant vice-president at GCL Technology Holdings, said the US’ contradictory actions of restricting imports under anti-subsidy pretexts while heavily supporting domestic solar industries were undermining fairness.

    Lin said: “Although the US has continuously raised trade barriers, it has limited impact on the Chinese solar industry, as China’s direct exports to the US are relatively small. Chinese companies have diversified investments globally, forging stronger ties with Europe, the Middle East and other regions to explore new opportunities.”

    The US was not among the top 10 markets for China’s solar module exports in the first half of this year, while Europe and Asia collectively accounted for over 80 percent of these exports, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association. Solar modules accounted for 87 percent of China’s total PV product exports in terms of value, it added.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Foreign firms urged to help pool wisdom for Shanghai

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    Amid Shanghai’s continued efforts to deepen international cooperation in terms of research and development, multinational companies should be better integrated into the city’s innovation network, which would be conducive to the city’s high-quality development, said officials and company executives.

    They made the remarks on Sunday during the 36th International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai.

    Chen Jining, Party secretary of Shanghai, said that as technological innovation has been playing an increasingly important role in driving economic growth, Shanghai will expand its science and technology exchanges with other markets.

    Efforts will be made to develop offshore technological innovation, Chen said, adding that a foundation to advance coordinated technological innovation at a global level will be built in Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

    International organizations are also encouraged to set up branches in the city, and all these steps are aimed at nurturing an open, fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for technological innovation, he said.

    Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said the scientific research paradigm is undergoing profound changes amid the new round of technological and industrial revolution, and coordination and cooperation are crucial against this backdrop.

    Shanghai will implement a global technology partner plan, and will also actively participate in, nurture and initiate international large-scale scientific projects, he said.

    Multinational companies will be encouraged to set up international R&D centers and open innovation centers in the city, and will be deeply integrated into Shanghai’s local innovation network, Gong added.

    As of June, 985 multinational companies had set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai, and the number of foreign-funded R&D centers reached 575, according to the municipal government.

    Severin Schwan, chairman of the board of directors of Swiss healthcare company Roche Group, said that openness, innovation and collaboration are important for Shanghai’s high-quality development, particularly in the wake of geopolitical tensions and market uncertainties.

    Multinational companies can tap into the sectors of healthcare, science and technology, and the digital economy more deeply, said Schwan, who is also chairman for this year’s International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council.

    Dominic Barton, chairman of multinational mining company Rio Tinto, said the private sector has been contributing substantially to research projects, and this is a global trend.

    Miguel Lopez, CEO of German industrial and engineering conglomerate Thyssenkrupp AG, suggested that Shanghai could place great importance on and fully utilize multinational companies’ industrial expertise, global networks, international experience and innovative resources.

    The International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council was initiated in 1989 and has grown into a think tank for Shanghai mayors over time.

    This year’s meeting was attended by top executives of 34 multinational companies from 13 countries.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Joint Media Statement of the 3rd RCEP Ministers’ Meeting

    Source: ASEAN

    ASEAN alongside Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand gathered in Vientiane on 22 September 2024 for the Third RCEP Ministers’ Meeting. The Meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono, Director General of International Trade Negotiations, Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia and H.E. Li Fei, Vice Minister of Commerce of China.The Meeting reaffirmed their commitment to actively promote the RCEP Agreement so it can be effectively utilised by businesses in the region and contribute to further deepening regional economic integration.

    Download the full statement here.

    The post Joint Media Statement of the 3rd RCEP Ministers’ Meeting appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: The night shift: 24-hour economy strategy puts needs of night-time workers first

    Source: New South Wales Premiere

    Workers on the night shift represent one in five, or 21% of workers in NSW – or more than 870,000 people.

    The refreshed NSW 24-Hour Economy Strategy, A New State of Night, outlines the work and programs of the Office of the 24-Hour Commissioner as it expands its remit to support night-time economies across the state, rather than just in Greater Sydney.

    The strategy will move beyond a focus on the hospitality and entertainment economy to one that supports a myriad of night workers – such as nurses, doctors, paramedics, police, drivers, retailers, cleaners, security guards and workers in manufacturing and construction across the state.

    Despite the essential nature of their roles, these people are often in less secure work, are often paid less and have fewer transport options, fewer childcare options, reduced safety and less retail and food options. Improving their experience requires a whole-of-government effort.

    Recent research has revealed people in NSW working between the hours of 6pm and 6am is forecast to grow by between 5% and 13% by 2031, implying a structural shift in the way the NSW economy operates, with a larger proportion of people working during the night.

    The NSW Government has been working to support the state’s night-time economy and improve vibrancy by changing regulation and legislation that constrains businesses. The second tranche of the Government’s vibrancy reforms coming later this year will propose to remove more red tape and provide greater support for special events and hospitality and live music venues.

    This strategy places a strong emphasis on data collection to inform policy development to ensure the NSW Government, local councils and private sector partners can effectively balance the night-time revival, safety and public amenity.

    An example of how the strategy will work in action is how the NSW Government supporting workers in the Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct, one of the state’s most concentrated night workforce areas, with 4500 night-time workers. The precinct is open around the clock and home to three hospitals, a major university and five medical research centres.

    Workers across the precinct and the wider community will benefit from a raft of programs designed to enhance safety and activation including:

    • $600,000 for Spot On, through the Permit/Plug/Play and Open Streets programs, to support collaboration across local businesses to unlock the potential of public streets and spaces
    • $400,000 in Community Improvement District funding backing businesses to get organised, with government, and make the most of their public spaces and local character to draw more visitors and more life to their district.
    • $200,000 for Heart of Randwick in the Uptown program, to support greater collaboration between the health and education campuses, businesses and the council to amplify its night-time offerings
    • The precinct also recently received $500,000 in Safer Cities funding, to improve lighting and safety particularly for workers going to and from work after dark.

    Other night-time worker centres include Port Kembla, a manufacturing hub with over 3,500 night-time workers.

    In Liverpool, the Health and Academic Precinct employs around 4,500 night-time workers.

    Another focus will be the new Western Sydney Airport precinct which will run 24/7 and will grow to employ around 200,000 people.

    As part of the strategy, the Office of the 24-Hour Commissioner will consult across industry to identify the pain points and bring a whole-of-government approach to solving these issues.

    For more information, visit: www.nsw.gov.au/business-and-economy/24-hour-economy/24-hour-economy-strategy.

    Minister for Roads, Music and the Night-time Economy and Minister for Jobs, John Graham said:

    “Night-time workers make up 21% of the NSW workforce. They play an important role in our communities and economies. They are nurses, doctors, paramedics, police, drivers, retailers, cleaners, security guards and workers in manufacturing and construction. They are often paid less and have less secure work.

    “This growing group of essential workers deserves safe environments and adequate services. They should be able to get a coffee before they start work or a decent meal when they finish.

    “Meeting their needs represents an enormous opportunity for the night-time economy. But this requires us to plan as well for the night as we do for the day.”

    “This strategy has an emphasis on data to both measure results as well as design better policy interventions.

    “We will continue to work alongside industry, businesses, councils and communities across NSW to ensure our state’s night-time economy reaches its true potential.

    “Our goal is to highlight our state as a safe and exciting night-time destination – not just for people looking for a great night out but for the people working hard to keep our state running at night.”

    24-Hour Economy Commissioner Michael Rodrigues said:

    “The Strategy we have developed is purposefully ambitious, but it is also full of practical ideas, solutions and strategic opportunities to bring our vision to life.

    “We know that people, especially night workers, want more amenity and safety at night – especially with the industry expected to grow by 5% to 13% by 2031. This includes activating outdoor spaces, diversity of offerings and safe, accessible transport.

    “We know that positive outcomes are possible when State Government, local councils and industry line up behind one plan. And with our work now extending across the State, it’s appropriate we have a strategy that continues to unite stakeholders to ensure NSW is as vibrant at night, as it is during the day.”

    Member for Coogee, Marjorie O’Neill said:

    “The Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct operates 24/7, with staff across emergency, wards, portering, catering, and support services always ready to serve.

    “We are working with the Precinct partners and district to improve our streetscapes and make better connection to our local communities. We are grateful for the Community Improvement District and Uptown Programs that enable us to make the Precinct safer and more vibrant for our workforce, students and local communities.”

    South Eastern Sydney Local Health District CEO Tobi Wilson said:

    “At the Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct, there are staff onsite 24 hours a day 365 days a year from those ready for us in the emergency departments to ward staff, porters, catering and support staff.

    “We are working with the Precinct partners and district to improve our streetscapes and make better connection to our local communities. We are grateful for the Community Improvement District and Uptown Programs that enable us to make the Precinct more vibrant for our workforce, students and local communities.”

    Background

    Research conducted in 2024 by SGS Economics & Planning on behalf of the Office of the 24-Hour Commissioner found:

    • The top industry by the number of night-time employees is Health Care and Social Assistance, with approximately 166,000, followed by
    • Accommodation and Food Services and Arts and Recreation Services, with around 155,200.
    • The Transport, Postal and Warehousing sector employs approximately 90,500 people during night-time hours, closely followed by
    • Retail Trade with 87,100 workers.
    • The Office of the 24-Hour Commissioner will consult with industry to understand the key challenges and barriers with government to develop appropriate policy measures and initiatives to sustainably develop night-workforce participation.

    The 24-hour Economy Strategy will serve as the NSW Government’s new blueprint to cement NSW as a safe, worldclass nightlife destination for visitors, locals and workers alike.

    The refreshed strategy’s five key pillars are:

    • An Enabling Regulatory Framework – Regulatory and legislative amendments aimed at bringing back vibrancy to enable diverse, sustainable and safe night-time economies across NSW.
    • Vibrant Coordinated Precincts and Places – Fostering collaboration among businesses, councils and other stakeholders to support precinct building and place-based economies.
    • Night-time workers, culture and industry collaboration – Collaborate across government and industry to support night-time workers, businesses, and cultural entrepreneurs to thrive in the 24-hour economy.
    • Safety, Mobility, Access and Inclusion – Enabling ease of movement to and from precincts while championing the wellbeing and safety of all within the night-time economy.
    • Authentic Storytelling – Celebrating the unique stories of our districts and promoting the experiences they offer to locals, visitors and workers.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: First of its kind trilateral trade meeting held to celebrate Pacific partnership

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Trade Minister Todd McClay hosted Fijian Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Hon Manoa Kamikamica and Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell for trilateral trade talks in Rotorua over the weekend.

    “The meeting was an opportunity to understand how we can all best support each other. As friends and partners, we want to increase the benefits of trade for the people of Fiji and the broader region,” Mr McClay says.

    “This is especially important given Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon have set an ambitious goal to hit NZ$2 billion of two-way trade by 2030.”

    The trilateral talks included discussion of the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus and how it could support investment and jobs, improve living standards, and deepen Pacific trade connections.  

    Ministers also addressed Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji’s collaborative efforts to encourage World Trade Organisation members to ratify the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, which encourages ethical fishing practices. 

    The trade ministers released a trilateral joint statement following the meeting. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Shri Piyush Goyal to co-chair with Minister Farrell the 19th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Adelaide

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Shri Piyush Goyal to co-chair with Minister Farrell the 19th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Adelaide

    Commerce Minister to interact with leading Australian and Indian CEOs, discuss investment avenues in India

    Posted On: 22 SEP 2024 6:04PM by PIB Delhi

    At the invitation of Senator, The Hon’ble Don Farrell, the Minister of Trade and Tourism of Australia, Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry will undertake a visit to Australia from September 23-25, 2024.

    Shri Piyush Goyal will co-chair with Minister Farrell the 19th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission meeting to be held in Adelaide on September 25, 2024, during which both sides will discuss ways to further elevate the bilateral economic engagement.

    Commerce Minister will interact with leading Australian and Indian CEOs & industry leaders and representatives from Australian pension funds to highlight the vast opportunities for investment in India. His interactions with business and industry leaders in events organized by Business Council of Australia, Centre for Australia- India relations, India Australia Business Community Alliance, AsiaLink Business and CREDAI will stress leveraging the complementary strengths and synergies between the economies of India and Australia. He will also interact with the representatives of the vibrant Indian community in Sydney, Indian origin Chartered Accountants and emerging leaders of Indian diaspora from various walks of life.

    Commerce Minister’s visit will add further impetus to the strong and growing trade and investment ties between India and Australia, which have received a boost following finalization of the bilateral Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. It will encourage business-to-business engagement, and promote strategic partnerships across sectors of priority to both sides, including critical minerals, manufacturing, education, renewable energy, infrastructure, tourism, space etc. The visit will also bring in sharper relief the collaborative potential of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Future Made in Australia’ initiatives creating more jobs and economic benefits to people of both the countries. The visit is particularly opportune as it comes at a time when India and Australia have intensified their engagement both bilaterally and in various fora, such as G20 and the Quad, to work together for global good.

    Shri Goyal will also participate virtually at the meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework on September 24, 2024.

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –