Recent 6 months news in International

Indian jurist Bimal N Patel has been elected as a judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 2026-2035 term. He will assume office on October 2026, succeeding Neeru Chadha.

PM Narendra Modi has visited France to strengthen the India-France Special Global Strategic Partnership, focusing on trade, technology, and security. He held bilateral talks with President Emmanuel Macron in Nice and participated in the 52nd G7 Outreach Summit as a guest partner.

PM Modi and President Macron co-launched the 'Bharat Innovates' initiative in Nice, featuring participation from over 120 Indian startups. At the VivaTech 2026 expo in Paris, the largest technology exhibition in Europe, India was designated as the 'AI Country of Focus'.

The visit resulted in 13 key outcomes, including the adoption of the 'India-France Innovation Roadmap 2030', the establishment of a Joint Working Group (JWG) on AI Governance, and the expansion of the UPI in France. PM Modi also addressed the Indian diaspora during the 'Bonjour Modi' event held in Paris.

Uzbekistan has become the 10th member and shareholder of the New Development Bank (NDB) after ratifying the NDB Articles of Agreement (AoA). This marks the first entry of a Central Asian nation into the NDB.

India has secured the Vice-Presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the first time since becoming a full member in 2010. Vivek Aggarwal has been elected as the Vice President for a one-year tenure commencing in July 2026, succeeding Giles Thomson.

It is to be noted that the FATF is a 40-member intergovernmental body that establishes global standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Delcy Eloina Gomez, the Acting President of Venezuela, has visited India to strengthen bilateral energy cooperation. She held bilateral talks with PM Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

She also met Union Minister S Jaishankar and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. She visited the Jamnagar oil refinery in Gujarat, owned by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which is the world’s largest single-point oil refining facility.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has chaired the 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Held under India’s 2026 BRICS Chairship, this was the first-ever BRICS agricultural summit to include both Member and Partner Countries.

The BRICS Agriculture Working Group identified 4 priorities: Food Security and Nutrition (focusing on smallholder farmers, women, and youth), Agricultural Trade, Regenerative Farming (promoting climate-resilient practices), and Investment and Innovation.

The summit concluded with the adoption of the ‘Indore Declaration’, which emphasises a farmer-centric global food system and rejects unilateral trade restrictions that threaten food security.

To implement the declaration, the member nations established 5 institutional networks: the BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture (coordinated by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR), Modipuram), Network on Digital Agriculture (coordinated by the IIT Delhi), BRICS Agro-Inputs, Genetic Resources, and Information Network (BRICS AGRIN Framework), Knowledge-to-Action Hub (by strengthening the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform (BARP)), and the Global Forum on Farmers' Rights in Seed Systems.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has nominated Han Seong-sook as the next Prime Minister (PM) of the country. Upon parliamentary approval, she will succeed Kim Min-seok.

It is to be noted that she will become the second woman to serve as the PM in the history of South Korea, following Han Myeong-sook.

President U Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar visited India, covering Bihar, New Delhi, and Mumbai. In Bihar, he offered prayers at the Mahabodhi Temple, meditated under the Bodhi Tree, and visited the Sujata Temple and the local Burmese Monastery.

In New Delhi, he held bilateral discussions with PM Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House, met Union Minister S Jaishankar, and President Droupadi Murmu. He also visited the Buddha Relics exposition at the Qila Rai Pithora cultural complex. He concluded his visit in Mumbai, where he interacted with business and industry leaders to strengthen commercial ties and explore investment opportunities.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has elected Austria, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), and Zimbabwe as non-permanent members of the 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a 2-year term (2027-2028). This marks the first-ever term for Kyrgyzstan in the UNSC.

The new members will replace the outgoing members Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia, whose terms end in 2026. They will join the existing non-permanent members Colombia, Bahrain, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Latvia, and Liberia, who will serve until 2027.

Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, has secured a third consecutive term as the Prime Minister of Denmark.

She is the second woman to serve as the PM of Denmark, succeeding Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Frederiksen remains the youngest individual to hold the office of PM in Denmark.

The AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, and United States) security alliance has launched a joint underwater drone programme under the ‘AUKUS alliance Pillar Two’ to co-develop advanced Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles (UUVs).

The initiative aims to develop adaptable, multi-mission UUV payloads to support undersea operations and maintain the collective strategic advantage of the partner nations. The first delivery of UUV technology under this programme is expected by 2027.

Google and UNICEF have announced a 3-year global partnership at the Education World Forum (EWF) 2026 to deploy AI-powered education tools and digital learning resources for students and educators.

The initiative aims to bridge the digital divide and strengthen foundational skills such as reading, comprehension, and numeracy. The project will be implemented in Brazil, India, Kenya, and Pakistan, in collaboration with national governments and local communities.

Janez Jansa, the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party, has been elected as the Prime Minister of Slovenia for the 4th term. He succeeds Robert Golob.

The 11th edition of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (QFMM) was held in New Delhi, chaired by Union Minister S Jaishankar.

Major initiatives launched include the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) and the ‘Quad Initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security’. India will host the second edition of the ‘Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission’.

Under the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) initiative, over $6 million in funding has been allocated to support 6 international research projects.

Additionally, the ‘Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework’ aims to mobilize up to $20 billion in investments from public and private sectors.

The 79th edition of the World Health Assembly (WHA79) was organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, under the theme “Reshaping Global Health: A Shared Responsibility”.

The assembly was chaired by Victor Atallah Lajam, the Minister of Health of the Dominican Republic, who served as the President of the assembly. Union Minister JP Nadda addressed the plenary session of the WHA79.

During the session, member states adopted more than 20 decisions and 13 resolutions on public health issues. Notably, the assembly passed its first-ever resolution on stroke to formally recognise it as a global public health priority. The resolution was led by Egypt and co-sponsored by Chile, Georgia, Palestine, Paraguay, and Tunisia.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal has inaugurated the 68th Session of the Governing Body Meeting (GBM) of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. During the session, member countries reviewed the progress under the ‘APO Vision 2030’ framework, which focuses on productivity-led transformation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The APO National Award for Productivity Advocates was presented to Ashok Panjwani, while the APO National Award for Productivity Technical Expert was conferred on Bakul Limbasiya.

Under the BRICS 2026 Chairship of India, the inaugural BRICS Tourism Working Group (TWG) Meeting was held virtually to advance the tourism cooperation agenda under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.

The second TWG Meeting is scheduled to be held in August 2026 in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom has passed the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill”, introducing a rolling, lifelong ban on tobacco purchases.

The ban targets any individual born on or after January 2009, effectively prohibiting them from ever legally purchasing tobacco products. The legislation is scheduled to officially take effect in January 2027.

India hosted the Kimberley Process (KP) Intersessional Meeting 2026 in Mumbai, under its 2026 Chairship. Suchindra Misra, Special Secretary, Department of Commerce (DOC), Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I), served as the official KP Chair for 2026.

The KP currently comprises 60 participants representing 86 countries, with the European Union (EU) participating as a single bloc. The deliberations focused on the “3Cs” framework: Credibility, Compliance, and Consumer Confidence, aimed at promoting responsibly sourced natural diamonds.

It is to be noted that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was established in 2000 to prevent conflict or “blood” diamonds from entering the legitimate global diamond trade.

Ali Falih Kadhim al-Zaidi has been sworn in as the Prime Minister (PM) of Iraq and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country. Nominated by the Coordination Framework, he is the youngest PM in the modern history of Iraq at the age of 40. He succeeds Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.