by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
US Vice President Mike Pence
Washington : US Vice President Mike Pence has said that Washington will keep up economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Pence made the remarks on Friday during a visit to an Air Force base in North Dakota, home to both B-52 bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US will continue to apply “economic and diplomatic pressure” so as to make Pyongyang “abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Pence said.
He also warned “all options are on the table” and the US will defend itself “with military power that is effective and overwhelming” when it is forced to do so.
Meanwhile, visiting US Secretary of Defence James Mattis also on Friday in Seoul said that “his country seeks no war, but the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.
The comments from the top Trump administration officials comes days before President Donald Trump’s Asia trip which is slated for November 3-14.
It would be his first trip to the region since assuming office, during which he would visit South Korea.
North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test early in September and a series of ballistic missile launches in recent months.
In response, the UN Security Council adopted a new resolution toughening sanctions on Pyongyang over its most powerful nuclear detonation.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Overseas, World
Houston : Job hiring will increase 19 per cent in 2018 in the US, helping recent college graduates find employment, said a survey.
According to the Recruiting Trends survey conducted by Michigan State University, the information services industry will see the biggest increase in hiring in 2018, Xinhua reported.
The survey published by local media on Wednesday showed there will be a 15 per cent increase in hiring for bachelor’s degree holders and a 40 per cent increase in hiring for associate’s degree holders.
Those jobs aren’t concentrated on a particular major. Instead, there were more employers saying they were seeking college graduates from any major.
Recruiting Trends, the largest annual survey of employers in the US, relies on information from 3,370 employers from every state.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will leave on Wednesday on a three-day visit to the US to meet with his American counterpart Wilbur Ross for the first trade and commerce talks between India and the US administration led by President Donald Trump.
“Tonight, I’m going to the US to meet my counterpart Commerce Secretary as well as Trade Representative of US. This is the first time India is going to have a structured interaction on Commerce and related issues with the Trump administration,” Prabhu told reporters here at the launch of the website of the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM).
“Therefore, it is a very important meeting in which we will be discussing issues from their side as well as our side. I will also be meeting a lot of business leaders there from India and the US,” he said.
During his visit between October 25-28, Prabhu will also meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Issues like visa, greater market access for goods, and intellectual property rights are expected to figure in the trade policy forum meeting between India and the US on October 25 in Washington.
Prabhu said that on the second leg of the visit, he will visit Cuba, from October 28-31, to hold discussions on boosting bilateral trade.
“I am going to meet quite a few ministers. We have invited them in Havana for meeting them on how can we promote bilateral trade with them,” he said.
The Minister also said the government is trying to develop an exclusive portal for startups and working to create a single website for all exports and international trade activities.
“I have already told DGFT (Director General Foreign Trade) Aand they have started working on it. A lot of agencies have to be taken on board, particularly with Customs, because most formalities of import and export are with Customs,” he said.
“Soon we want to organise a round-table on startups. Soon, you will hear good news on ease of doing business,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : Less than one-third of Americans support US President Donald Trump’s tax cut plan, a poll released by market and public opinion research groups showed.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, of the adults who said they had heard of the tax reform, 28 per cent said they support it, while 41 per cent oppose it and another 31 per cent said they do not know, Xinhua reported.
A budget resolution approved by the US Senate last week would add up to 1.5 trillion USD in fiscal deficit during the next decade, paving the way for Trump’s tax cut plan.
The Trump administration, along with congressional Republicans, last month released a unified framework for tax reform, which will cut tax rates for businesses and individuals but lacks details about how to consolidate the fiscal position in face of big tax cuts.
The US national debt is ballooning at over 20 trillion dollars, which is more than the country’s’s annual GDP.
Independent analysts believe Trump’s tax cut plan would leave the debt even larger, while some Republicans are of the view the tax cut could be offset by stronger economic growth that would generate more tax revenue.
According to the poll, more than two-thirds of registered voters said reducing the US federal budget deficit is more important than cutting taxes for the wealthy or for corporations.
US House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said that House Republicans will unveil the long-awaited tax reform legislation next week and pass the bill by the Thanksgiving week.
The poll, conducted online in all 50 US states, found that only 15 per cent of registered voters said the Republicans in Congress should prioritize tax reform over other issues.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World, News, Politics, World
Rex Tillerson
By Aroonim Bhuyan,
New Delhi : Prior to his maiden visit to India in his official capacity, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made clear Washington’s position on key geopolitical and strategic matters pertaining to the Indo-Pacific and South Asian regions, saying the “Trump administration is determined to dramatically deepen ways for the United States and India” to further their strategic partnership that is heading for “strategic convergence” and put China and Pakistan on notice that it intended to “do what is needed” to support India.
“In this period of uncertainty and somewhat angst, India needs a reliable partner on the world stage. I want to make clear: with our shared values and vision for global stability, peace, and prosperity, the United States is that partner,” Tillerson said categorically while making a major policy statement at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC on Wednesday.
While asserting that China’s “provocative actions” went against the international law and norms that the US and India stood for, Tillerson made it clear that Washington expected Pakistan to take “decisive action” against terrorist groups operating within its territory.
“China, while rising alongside India, has done so less responsibly, at times undermining the international, rules-based order even as countries like India operate within a framework that protects other nations’ sovereignty,” the Secretary of State, who will be visiting New Delhi next week, said while delivering an address on ‘Defining Our Relationship with India for the Next Century’.
The statement assumes significance in the wake of the 73-day standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam region of Bhutan. New Delhi and Beijing eventually withdrew their troops from the region on August 28 just days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China for the annual BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit.
In his remarks, Tillerson also referred to China’s aggressive stance in the South China Sea region and said the US and India would work together for the security architecture in the Indo-Pacific region.
“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the United States and India both stand for,” he said.
“The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighbouring countries and disadvantages the US and our friends.”
Tillerson said that India and the US “should be in the business of equipping other countries to defend their sovereignty, build greater connectivity, and have a louder voice in a regional architecture that promotes their interests and develops their economies”.
“This is a natural complement to India’s Act East policy,” he stated.
In this context, he also said that the US, India and Japan were “already capturing the benefits of our important trilateral engagement” and said “India and the United States must foster greater prosperity and security with the aim of a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific – including the entire Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific, and the nations that surround them – will be the most consequential part of the globe in the 21st century.”
These words will come as music to New Delhi’s ears ahead of Modi’s visit to the Philippines next month for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asia Summits.
Tillerson’s remarks also came amid Chinese President Xi Jinping’s assertion at this week’s National Congress of the Communist Party of China that Beijing would never give up its “legitimate rights and interests”.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia Strategy that sees Pakistan as an important partner, Tillerson made no bones about the fact that Washington expected Islamabad to take strong action against terror.
“We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based within their own borders that threaten their own people and the broader region,” he said.
“In doing so, Pakistan furthers stability and peace for itself and its neighbours, and improves its own international standing.”
Tillerson also referred to the US’ designation of the Hizbul Mujahideen as a foreign terrorist organisation and said this was “because the United States and India stand shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism”.
“States that use terror as an instrument of policy will only see their international reputation and standing diminish,” he said, leaving to no one’s imagination which country he was referring to.
(Aroonim Bhuyan can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in)
—IANS
