THE PRIEST

The changes in tactics of pirates have been a subject of constant review by International shipping community. The general understanding is that pirates are forever looking for ‘soft targets’ and newer techniques for extending their reach. Earlier pirate activities were mainly concentrated in the Gulf of Aden. However, due to increased military (Naval) presence in the area, incidents of piracy are now reported more eastward in the Arabian seas. Pirates have also started using captured merchant ships as ‘mother ships’ to launch attacks far away from the Somalia coast. On account of extension of ‘high risk area’ from earlier 65 degree East to 78 degree East (up to the outer limit of territorial waters of India), the cost of insurance for trading in the Arabian seas has generally gone up. Government of India has drawn attention to the problem of piracy and hostage taking off the Coast of Somalia and called for urgent and collaborative international counter-piracy measures in the meetin...

During first summit in 2008 in Delhi a “Delhi Declaration” was adopted for enhanced cooperation . It has been decided to enhance our partnership with new initiatives for the mutual benefit of Africa and India, In recent years, this has included substantial financial flows from India to Africa in terms of grants, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and concessional loans that continue to contribute to capacity building in the socio-economic sectors, particularly in the human resource development, the development of the private sector, increasing support to infrastructure, agriculture and SMEs, leading to a substantial expansion of Indian investment in Africa and of trade between Africa and India. Climate change Developed countries have been urged to take steps towards reducing the green house gas effect . Stressing upon the importance of Bali action plan 2007 , the declaration appealed to the developed counties to operationalise all the institutional arrangements included in the Ca...