Current Affairs - International

After the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD, also known as the Quad or QUAD) - a strategic dialogue between the United States, India, Japan and Australia, a new ‘Quad’ is emerging.

• Recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterparts from Israel, the US and the UAE have agreed to establish a forum for economic cooperation at a virtual quadrilateral meeting (on 18 October 2021).

In the 2021 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 101st out of the 116 countries. Last year India was ranked at 94th.

• With a score of 27.5, India has a level of hunger that is ‘serious’.
• The report was prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe.

Recently, a two-day (11-12 October 2021) summit was organized at Belgrade, the capital of Serbia to observe the 60th anniversary of Non-Aligned Movement.

• Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev chaired the summit via a video link.

• India has been elected as the external auditor to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a prestigious institution that promotes peaceful use of nuclear energy, for a period of six years from 2022 to 2027 after beating Germany and the United Kingdom among other counties.
• India's Comptroller and Auditor General GC Murmu was selected as the external auditor of IAEA.

• On 27th September 2021, Admiral Saif bin Nasser bin Mohsen Al-Rahbi, Commander of Royal Navy of Oman (CRNO) and Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Indian Navy signed an MoU for exchange of White Shipping Information.
• The MoU was signed at Maritime Security Center (MSC), Muscat during the ongoing visit of the CNS to Oman.

Iceland has become the first country in Europe to have more women than men in Parliament.

• Of the 63 seats in the Althing parliament, 33 were won by women, or 52%.
• No other European country has had more than 50% women lawmakers, with Sweden coming closest at 47%, according to data compiled by the World Bank.

• Taiwan has formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) less than a week after China too had submitted an application.
• Taiwan is excluded from many international bodies because of China's insistence that it is part of "one-China" rather than a separate country. China views Taiwan as its own territory.
• Most recently, China sent 19 aircraft towards Taiwan on 23^rd September amid rising tensions across the straits, in the latest messaging from Beijing to both Taipei and Washington on its posture on the Taiwan issue.

The 14th edition of Global Innovation Index was released on 20th September 2021.

• The Index is released annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
• The Global Innovation Index 2021 captures the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

On 16th September 2021, the G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting was organized by Indonesia to discuss the Agricultural Priority Issues of G33 and the Way Forward for the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduled to be held from 30th November to 3rd December 2021.

• The Informal Ministerial Meeting was chaired by the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Muhammad Lutfi.
• Director General of WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala delivered the Keynote Remarks.
• Out of a total of 47 G-33 Members, representatives from 21 Member countries, including India, took the floor to make brief intervention.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will establish the 'Bangabandhu Chair' at the Delhi University to honour Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country's Liberation War as well as India's diplomatic ties with Dhaka.