Global Partnerships

Photo: On April 1, 2018 local time, President Tran Dai Quang of Vietnam (right) met in Hanoi with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left), who was paying an official visit to Vietnam.

China Is Making Friends With Five Mekong States

Viewpoint by Nguyen Khac Giang*

HANOI (IDN) – Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took over power in 2012, Southeast Asia has become a focal point of China’s geopolitical ambitions. Instead of the clandestine and illegal tactics seen under Mao Zedong, the current strategy combines two major approaches: building Chinese-led institutional mechanisms and buying support with a flood of aid, concessional loans and investments.

This strategy is clearly illustrated by the stellar rise of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), an ambitious Chinese initiative that involves the six countries of the Mekong sub-region: China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 May 2018

Photo: The ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (FfD Forum) in New York on Day 1 (23 April 2018). Credit: UN

Finance for Development Should Focus on Poverty Eradication

By Sahar Nasr, on Behalf of the Group of 77 and China

Following are extensive excerpts from the Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China by Ms. Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt, at the general debate of the Forum on Financing for Development Follow-up on the follow-up and review of the financing for development outcomes and the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in New York on 23 April 2018. – The Editor.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The Group of 77 and China has engaged constructively throughout the negotiations over the draft text of agreed conclusions and recommendations with a view to reaching a consensus-based outcome document encompassing all action areas of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 11 May 2018

Photo: Prime Minister Modi with the Queen, the head of the Commonwealth. Credit: CHOGM.

The Buzz About India Planning To Capture The Commonwealth

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Indians who think that we have outdone Britain in all things British – such as the English language, cricket and the Westminster model and that only the Commonwealth remains to be captured – should think again.

Since the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held from April 16-20 in London, interested sections are trying to create a buzz on how the mantle to ‘revive’ the Commonwealth may fall on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declined to lend credence to these reports.

: Shastri Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 03 May 2018

Photo: ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development. Credit: UN

UN Debates Impact of 'Fintech' Revolution on Asia-Pacific

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda in 2015, significant efforts have been undertaken to mobilise funds for effectively pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Estimates suggest that low and lower-middle income countries around the world may need sizeable additional investment running into trillions of dollars yearly for moving ahead towards these ambitious goals.

With a view to supporting countries in their efforts, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has been organising broad-based high-level consultations on Financing for Development (FfD) since 2014. It has reconstituted its intergovernmental Committee on Macroeconomic Policy, Poverty Reduction and Financing for Development.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 28 April 2018

From Nairobi to Brussels with New Impulses for ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Members of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly from the East Africa Region of the ACP Group and their European Parliament counterparts have called for aiming at "stronger South-South and triangular cooperation and maintenance of the ACP Group’s unity and solidarity" in a successor treaty to the Cotonou Agreement that expires in 2020.

The communiqué emerging from the 15th Regional Meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) from April 11-13, 2018 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi stressed agreement among JPA members from the East Africa region that "a future agreement should build upon the acquis of Cotonou and integrate new global realities and in particular regional specificities, including for small island developing states."

: Devendra Kamarajan; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 25 April 2018

Commitment to Renewed ACP-EU Partnership Welcomed

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS | NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – The co-presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) have welcomed the commitment of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the 28-nation European Union (EU) to negotiate a successor Agreement to the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The 15th Regional Meeting of the JPA took place in Kenya's capital Nairobi from April 11-13, 2018.

The Agreement, signed in Cotonou on June 23, 2000, was concluded for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020. It is the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing countries and the EU. In 2010, ACP-EU cooperation was adapted to new challenges such as climate change, food security, regional integration, State fragility and aid effectiveness.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 24 April 2018

Photo: The walkway of the UN Headquarters in Nairobi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Africa Grapples With Financing Climate Change Programmes

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – African countries are faced with the huge challenge of funding climate change mitigation and adaptation programmes to ensure sustainable development. Hard hit by the impacts of climate change manifested in persistent droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels and other forms of disasters, they are linking actions on tackling climate change as key to attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A joint project of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States is providing support for the purpose as part of a joint project with the Global Climate Change Alliance+ (GCCA) by way of offering technical assistance, promoting knowledge sharing, initiating regional dialogue, and facilitating regional partnership on climate change issues.

: Justus Wanzala; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 April 2018

Donors Spend Less on Refugees, More on Poorest Countries

By Rita Joshi

PARIS (IDN) – Foreign aid from 30 opulent nations, designated as "official donors", totalled USD 146.6 billion in 2017, signifying a small decrease of 0.6% from the previous year in real terms because they spent less money on refugees hosted by them. But countries most in need of aid received more funds.

Aid, formally labelled as Official Development Assistance (ODA), constitutes over two thirds of external finance for least-developed countries. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is pushing for ODA to be better used as a lever to generate private investment and domestic tax revenue in poor countries to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

: Rita Joshi; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 13 April 2018

Photo: This picture, taken at Ankor Wat and depicts the Hindu influence in Mekong/Cambodian architecture, shows the 'churning of the ocean' (samudra manthana in Sanskrit), which is one of the best-known episodes in the Hindu mythology. It explains the origin of the nectar of immortality (amrita). Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Ganga Initiative Brings Culture Into New Asian Trade Routes

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 23rd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN) – A recent conference at Thammasat University in Bangkok brought together Indian and Southeast Asian scholars to discuss re-building cultural links along two major rivers in Asia – the Ganges and the Mekong – that in ancient times provided transport links to build great civilizations influenced by Hindu and Buddhist philosophies and promote cultural flows.

The celebration of the New Year April 14 in the region based on astrology and harvesting cycle epitomizes these cultural links.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 11 April 2018

Photo (left to right): ACP Secretary-General P. I. Gomes; President of Guyana, Brigadier David A. Granger addressing the ACP Committee of Ambassadors; and Ethiopian Ambassador Teshome Toga Chanaka, Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors for the period 1 February 2017 - 31 July 2017. Credit: ACP

ACP Group Looks Forward To Becoming 'Effective Global Player'

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While preparing for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is engaged in concerted efforts to reshape itself into "an effective global player" serving as a catalyst and an advocate for defending, protecting and advancing multilateralism, within the overarching framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important factor for this objective to be achieved, as the ACP Secretary-General, Dr. Patrick I Gomes, told IDN's 'UN Insider', is the Revision of the Georgetown Agreement named after the capital of Guyana, where it was signed in 1975. The Revision would allow the ACP Group to deepen and widen its foundations.