Current Affairs 18th June 2019
Important Current Affairs
Current Affairs 18th June 2019
The 2nd edition of India and Italy Joint Working Group on counter-terrorism was held in New Delhi.
The 2nd Meeting of India-Italy Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism was held in New Delhi, India on 17 June 2019.
The meeting was co-chaired by Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism), Ministry of External Affairs and Diego Brasioli, Principal Director for Security, Disarmament and non- Proliferation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy.
The next meeting of the Joint Working Group will be held in Italy.
Objectives:
The joint working group discussed threats posed by terrorist entities globally and in their respective regions including cross border terrorism.
The discussion included:
- Views on current counterterrorism challenges including countering radicalization, terror financing and misuse of internet for terrorist purposes
- threats arising from transnational crimes and money laundering
- deliberated upon measures to deepen bilateral cooperation for countering terrorism and transnational crimes through regular exchange of information, mutual capacity building efforts, sharing of best practices and mutual legal assistance
- the Cooperation in multilateral fora
Operation Sunrise
Operation Sunrise 2 is a coordinated military operation which was carried out between India and Myanmar to target militant groups. The Indian army and Myanmar Army carried out a three-week-long coordinated operation in their respective border areas from May 16. The operation targeted several militant groups operating in Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.
First Phase:
The first phase of "Operation Sunrise" was conducted in March along the Indo-Myanmar border. In the operation, a number of camps of north-east-based militant groups were busted.
Second Phase:
During "Operation Sunrise 2", the armies coordinated with each other to bust camps of militant outfits, including the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), NSCN (Khaplang), the United Liberation Front of Assam (I) and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB). Nearly six dozen militants belonging to these groups were nabbed and several of their camps destroyed during the operation.
India has been pushing for deeper coordination between the armies of the two countries while guarding the border.
India to host COP-14 of UNCCD
India will be hosting the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the first time. COP-14 will be held between September 2 and 14 in Delhi.
Participants: It is expected that at least 5,000 delegates from nearly 197 countries will be participating.
The Centre launched a flagship project, part of a larger international initiative called the Bonn Challenge ahead of the COP-14. The flagship project aims to enhance India’s capacity for forest landscape restoration (FLR).
The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land under restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
COP-13 of UNCCD:
The 13th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-13) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Ordos, China. Around 113 countries had agreed to specify concrete targets with clear indicators, to rehabilitate more land and reverse degradation, which currently affects over a third of the world’s land resources.