TURKEY
Political Front: PM Erdogan has asked all anti-democracy elements to stop their efforts to illegally topple the democratically elected regime. In the meantime thousands of people throughout Turkey took to the streets to condemn recently uncovered military action plans. In response to the allegations against armed forces; the military chief has out rightly denied all allegations. Meanwhile the Constitutional Court has annulled a law that allowed military officers to be tried in civilian courts, a move that legal experts believe is unlikely to affect ongoing investigations of military officers suspected of having planned an alleged coup. Meanwhile militant PKK has reportedly plans to launch violent demonstrations on 15 Feb (marking the arrest of their top leader) to be continued till 25 March.
Meanwhile reiterating his strong support for the democratization initiative launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has encouraged the Kurdish people of Turkey to support initiatives seeking solution to the decades old dispute.
Geo-strategic Front: Key developments occurred in Turkish-Armenian relations after the release of latter’s court’s ruling terming the killing of Armenians in 1915 a genocide and claiming some parts of Turkey as Armenian. In the wake of these developments Foreign Ministers of both countries held meeting in the UK.
Besides that Turkey also hosted a trilateral summit that included Pakistan-Afghanistan & Turkey, primarily focusing on stability in the region. Also Turkey has strongly warned Israel to end settlements in Gaza.
Social Front: This week life in Istanbul remained paralyzed amidst snowfall and extreme cold weather.
Economic Front: Turkish Stock exchange has increased remarkably while its reserves have decreased.
GCC:
Geo-strategic Front: Various accords have been signed between Saudi and US universities. Meanwhile strong Saudi-Pak ties and growing ties with China and Africa also remained significant.
Recently held Kuwait-French talks have led to capping of a cooperative peaceful nuke- deal.
Social Front: Swine flu vaccine has been made available in 15 Saudi centers. Meanwhile the Diplomatic Corps has lauded United Arab Emirates for its role in protecting rights of the migrant workers, offering them the best available milieu and opportunities to work in.
Economic Front: Saudi IT market intends to touch $4.8 billion mark by 2013. A recent consumer survey indicates that consumer confidence in Kuwait has remarkably increased despite the global, regional and local economic challenges.
Bahrain and Russia have expressed their keenness to enhance co-operation in trade, industrial, economic and financial fields.
CENTRAL ASIA
Political Front: Appeal of detained Kazakh Journalist for parole has been rejected by the court. Meanwhile the pro-presidential Adilet (Justice) party has proposed to abolish the post of prime minister diverting most of its powers to Kazakh President.
Kyrgyz PM has strongly condemned his Interior Minister for making wrong appointment of deputy police chief and has cancelled the appointment. All the while Parliament has endorsed constitutional amendments made by the Kyrgyz President. A Tajik official claimed that many prisoners convicted of drug offenses have paid bribes in order to be released in a recent amnesty.
In three Tajik constituencies elections were held to replace old parliamentarians with new deputies. Dilorom, Uzbek speaker since 2008 has taken charge of the Parliament under same designation.
Geo-strategic Front: NATO has finalized an agreement with Kazakhstan on the transit of supplies to Afghanistan, in order to reduce its reliance on a route through Pakistan.
Also Kazakhstan has threatened to rewrite key Western-run energy projects in order to implement new tax rules.
Social Front: NGOs have accused the government of Kazakhstan for blocking 14 websites. Meanwhile the Kyrgyz opposition party continued its hunger strike against detention of former Defense minister.
Nine religious groups in Tajikistan failed to file documents for registration by the January 1 deadline and have been declared illegal. Meanwhile Turkmen students banned from studying at universities abroad have been allowed by the government to resume their studies at the American University in Bulgaria.
A prominent Uzbek sports journalist has been arrested under the allegation of creating an illegal religious group. Also authorities in the Uzbek capital have started renaming some 150 streets and residential areas to deemphasize the city's Soviet heritage. Meanwhile Human Rights Watch has asked the government to drop baseless charges against prominent photographer Umida Akhmidova.
Economic Front: Inflation is expected to reach 5-7 percent in Azerbaijan at the end of 2010, compared to 1.5 percent in 2009. Meanwhile in Kyrgyzstan the number of officially registered jobless has increased by 8.5 percent and reached 9,651. However, Kyrgyz PM expects remarkable economic growth via investments in 2010.
According to the World Bank figures Uzbek economy would grow by 6.5% in the year 2010.
SOUTH ASIA
Political Front: At the end of its first year of governance most analysts have agreed that Bangladesh’s AL has successfully achieved some of its set targets till now. Some of its achievements include its efforts in the ‘war against terror’, curbing poverty and active diplomacy. Democratic spirit in the country’s politics however has been deemed lacking.
The sixth Presidential elections were successfully held in Sri Lanka on 26 January. Rajapakse retained his position after winning 57% of the total votes cast. International monitors have expressed satisfaction with the elections despite a few shortcomings. On the day of elections four explosions occurred in Jaffna Peninsula.
Nepali PM has asked Maoists to leave extreme thinking in order to resolve the issue of constitution making before deadline i.e. 28 May. Meanwhile Three Nepalese princesses have been summoned to appear before a judge in a dispute over their father's estate, in what would be the first court appearance by a former royal.
Geo-strategic Front: Some of the analysts and journalists have strongly condemned Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s recent visit to India terming it as weakening of the nation’s sovereignty. However India has decided to settle some of its dues with Bangladesh, by agreeing in principle to cede control over some 17,000 acres of territory as part of a larger, comprehensive agreement, in which the remaining part of the 4,096 km-long boundary would be demarcated. Several pockets of adverse possessions and enclaves claimed by both sides are likely to be settled on an “as-is-where-is” basis.
Top Nepali leadership has asked India to provide them assistance in constitution writing. Japanese assistance to Nepal and Turkish-Nepalese air services agreement also remained significant. Maldives has asked India to increase trade and investments in the island nation. India in response has promised to invest worth $1 billion in corporate houses. Maldives has also expressed keenness to work for up gradation of its environment.
Social Front: Last week annual religious gathering in Bangladesh were attended by 4 million Muslims.
Health experts in Bangladesh have pointed out HIV Aids as a potent emerging threat to the society of the country. Meanwhile people in Nepal have been facing electricity cut for 11 hours daily due to power shortage in the country. The 2010 Environmental Performance Index has ranked Nepal 38th among 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across 10 policy categories covering both environmental public health and eco-system vitality. Only Japan (20) and Singapore (28) are the other Asian countries that have performed better than the Himalayan nation.
Economic Front: Bangladesh’s food and disaster management ministry has issued an international tender to buy 50,000 tones of white rice. Stock exchange in Sri Lanka remarkably fell soon after Presidential elections. First month of the year has witnessed sharp increase in inflation in Sri Lanka mainly due to a low base effect, rising consumer spending on the back of low interest rates, and high food prices.
INDIA
The sixth Presidential elections were successfully held in Sri Lanka on 26 January. Rajapakse retained his position after winning 57% of the total votes cast. International monitors have expressed satisfaction with the elections despite a few shortcomings. On the day of elections four explosions occurred in Jaffna Peninsula.
Nepali PM has asked Maoists to leave extreme thinking in order to resolve the issue of constitution making before deadline i.e. 28 May. Meanwhile Three Nepalese princesses have been summoned to appear before a judge in a dispute over their father's estate, in what would be the first court appearance by a former royal.
Geo-strategic Front: Some of the analysts and journalists have strongly condemned Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s recent visit to India terming it as weakening of the nation’s sovereignty. However India has decided to settle some of its dues with Bangladesh, by agreeing in principle to cede control over some 17,000 acres of territory as part of a larger, comprehensive agreement, in which the remaining part of the 4,096 km-long boundary would be demarcated. Several pockets of adverse possessions and enclaves claimed by both sides are likely to be settled on an “as-is-where-is” basis.
Top Nepali leadership has asked India to provide them assistance in constitution writing. Japanese assistance to Nepal and Turkish-Nepalese air services agreement also remained significant. Maldives has asked India to increase trade and investments in the island nation. India in response has promised to invest worth $1 billion in corporate houses. Maldives has also expressed keenness to work for up gradation of its environment.
Social Front: Last week annual religious gathering in Bangladesh were attended by 4 million Muslims.
Health experts in Bangladesh have pointed out HIV Aids as a potent emerging threat to the society of the country. Meanwhile people in Nepal have been facing electricity cut for 11 hours daily due to power shortage in the country. The 2010 Environmental Performance Index has ranked Nepal 38th among 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across 10 policy categories covering both environmental public health and eco-system vitality. Only Japan (20) and Singapore (28) are the other Asian countries that have performed better than the Himalayan nation.
Economic Front: Bangladesh’s food and disaster management ministry has issued an international tender to buy 50,000 tones of white rice. Stock exchange in Sri Lanka remarkably fell soon after Presidential elections. First month of the year has witnessed sharp increase in inflation in Sri Lanka mainly due to a low base effect, rising consumer spending on the back of low interest rates, and high food prices.
INDIA
Political Front:
National level: TRS has asked the government to take appropriate measures to resolve Telangana issue. Meanwhile BJP President has claimed that his party regards RSS but does not follow its dictations. A member of Shiv Sena has defeated SP leader's son in a closely-contested by-election. Meanwhile security remained on high alert for Republican day.
At the Kashmiri front Omer Abdullah has invited freedom fighters to resolve their issues via negotiations.
Geo-strategic Front: UN envoy for nuclear non proliferation criticized Indo-US nuclear deal as it weakened the efforts for a nuclear free world. Meanwhile an RSS chief claimed that India should teach a lesson to Pakistan and take strong steps against China. Meanwhile India has announced 100 fellowships for training Afghan students in agricultural field every year.
Social Front: In a recent attack Maoists killed 4 people in Orissa and blew up a railway track in Assam. A significant development is that gender based discrimination in India has remarkably decreased in the last decade. A survey by the Navsarjan Trust and the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights indicates that the practice of un-touchability is still prevalent in rural areas of Gujarat. Meanwhile the West Bengal government has announced plans to create one lakh jobs by March 2010 in different department.
Economic Front: India has expressed determination to achieve 7% growth rate in 2010 while IMF has predicted 7.9% growth rate in 2010-11.
EAST ASIA
At the Kashmiri front Omer Abdullah has invited freedom fighters to resolve their issues via negotiations.
Geo-strategic Front: UN envoy for nuclear non proliferation criticized Indo-US nuclear deal as it weakened the efforts for a nuclear free world. Meanwhile an RSS chief claimed that India should teach a lesson to Pakistan and take strong steps against China. Meanwhile India has announced 100 fellowships for training Afghan students in agricultural field every year.
Social Front: In a recent attack Maoists killed 4 people in Orissa and blew up a railway track in Assam. A significant development is that gender based discrimination in India has remarkably decreased in the last decade. A survey by the Navsarjan Trust and the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights indicates that the practice of un-touchability is still prevalent in rural areas of Gujarat. Meanwhile the West Bengal government has announced plans to create one lakh jobs by March 2010 in different department.
Economic Front: India has expressed determination to achieve 7% growth rate in 2010 while IMF has predicted 7.9% growth rate in 2010-11.
EAST ASIA
Political Front: Amidst declining popularity Indonesian President has launched his third pop album entitled ‘I am certain I’ll make it’. Meanwhile thousand of protestors have launched demonstrations against President Susilo for his inability to end corruption.
Protests of red-shirt protestors have increased problems for the Thai regime. Meanwhile the Philippine government and Muslim separatists held two days of talks in Malaysia working towards a peace deal to end decades of conflict.
Sam Rainsy, the leader of Cambodia’s largest opposition party, has been sentenced in absentia to two years in jail on charges of racial incitement and destroying demarcation posts on Cambodia's border with Vietnam.
Geo-strategic Front: A Cambodian cargo ship has been hijacked by Somali pirates.
Social Front: Indonesia, the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, has announced plans for a $1bn fund to invest in emission reduction projects across the country.
The Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI) lambasted the government for failing to protect Indonesian workers overseas, saying more than 1,000 of them had died while doing their jobs last year. Malaysian prosecutors have also charged three Muslim men in the firebombing of a church.
Economic Front: Growth in Philippines gross domestic product faded to 0.9 percent in 2009 from 3.8 percent in 2008 -- the weakest since the economy shrank 0.6 percent in 1998 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
Malaysian PM slammed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescriptions’ asserting that there was no universal recipe to financial crises. Meanwhile the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (Mier) has maintained its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast of 3.7% for Malaysia this year in view of the improving macro-economic indicators.
CHINA
Political Front: Chinese officials have directed various departments to handle
public complaints. Meanwhile a senior official with the Civil Aviation Administration has been dismissed from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and his public office for "serious violations of discipline and laws."Geo-strategic Front: Cyber issue has exacerbated tension between China and USA. In response to the US criticism China claimed that its policy of internet regulation is in line with Chinese laws and does not intend to block flow of words or ideas. Meanwhile a national agency that handles China's Internet security issues said it hasn't received any detailed report from Google Inc. (GOOG) regarding a series of cyber attacks the company believes were originated from China. The US has asked China to carry investigations of the attack while China strongly condemned US interference.
China has decided to suspend scheduled visits between the Chinese and U.S. armed forces, in response to Washington's plan to sell a package of arms worth nearly 6.4 billion U.S. dollars to Taiwan. Meanwhile China, South Korea and Japan held a meeting to launch joint research on free trade pact. In the meantime time Chinese growing relations with Brunei, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Switzerland and Africa remained significant indicating Chinese role as an active global player.
China has asked EU to immediately lift an arms embargo as it would affect their strategic partnership. China has also urged international community to play its role in resuming the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
China has further increased humanitarian aid to 18 million Yuan for the victims of Haiti. China has also decided to send humanitarian aid to Mongolia while promising to continue support for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
Social Front: A top judge has been convicted in China as a result of anti-corruption drive.
A total of 770,000 deaths from tuberculosis (TB) have been avoided over the past eight years in China because of a large-scale TB control project. Also China has started taking strict measures to curb environmental pollution. In this regard various industries causing pollution have been pointed out. Emissions of sulfur dioxide, a major pollutant in China has also dropped 10.4 percent last year compared with that of 2008. The Government has also allocated funds to deal with drought situation. More than three million people faced water shortage as the worst drought in 50 years hit parts of south and southwest China.
In 2009 Beijing received 170 million tourists at home and from abroad.
Economic Front: China and Switzerland have voiced their opposition against trade protectionism amid the ongoing global financial crisis. Chinese shares declined for first four days of the weak but increased after that lessening tension of the economists. Chinese wine industry has got golden opportunity in the international market as world has started looking for low cost wine. Its private sector too created 11.4 million new jobs in 2009. ADB has announced to provide China with a grant of 1 million U.S. dollars to help it develop large-scale concentrated solar thermal (CST) power use. Investments have also remarkably increased in Hong Kong. §
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Business and Politics in the Muslim World (BPM)refers to the project entitled, "Globalized Business and Politics: A View from the Muslim World.' The blog development project has been undertaken and developed jointly by the Gilani Research Foundation and BPM as a free resource and social discussion tool.
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