International Relations Current Affairs Part 1

Qatar leaving OPEC group
Japan quitting IWC
USA & ISRAEL Quitting UNESCO

Qatar leaves Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

What is OPEC
Why QATAR Left
Impact

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

It is an intergovernmental organization of 14 nations (as of January 2019)
It was founded in 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela)
Formed to negotiate with oil companies on matters like oil production and price.
As of September 2018, the then 15 member countries accounted for an estimated 44 percent of global oil production and 81.5 percent of the world’s “proven” oil reserves, Giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices
The current OPEC members are the following: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia (the de facto leader), United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela

Why Qatar Left

Qatar announced that it would leave OPEC starting January 2019 to focus its efforts on natural gas.
to increase its natural gas production from 77 million tonnes per year to 110 million tonnes in the coming years.
Since 2013, the amount of oil Qatar produced has steadily declined from about 728,000 barrels per day in 2013 to about 607,000 barrels per day in 2017.
Qatar joined OPEC in 1961, one year after the organisation’s establishment.
Qatar is the first Gulf country to leave the bloc of oil-producing countries.

Why Qatar Left ????

One reason could be “due to diplomatic blockade on Qatar by Saudi Arabia” , the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ), Egypt and Bahrain, the country has left the OPEC .
Qatar denied the “Diplomatic blockade” reason

What is Saudi’s problem with Qatar?

Qatar has long showed an independent mind in foreign policy vIt has a close economic and diplomatic relationship with Shia Iran, Sunni Saudi’s great regional rival.
On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar, directed Qatari citizens to leave within 14 days, and forbade their citizens from going to or staying in Qatar.
Egypt too severed diplomatic contact with Doha, and all of them shut their airspace to Qatari aircraft, and told foreign airlines to seek permission if flying to and from Qatar.
Saudi sealed Qatar’s only land border, and closed its ports to Qatari-flagged ships

Before Qatar, Indonesia was the first to leave the OPEC

In May 2008, Indonesia announced that it would leave OPEC when its membership expired at the end of that year, having become a net importer of oil and being unable to meet its production quota.
It rejoined the organization in January 2016, but announced another “temporary suspension” of its membership at year-end when OPEC requested a 5 percent production cut.

Will Qatar leaving OPEC impact global oil prices?

Not really Qatar is a tiny player that pumped 609,000 barrels a day in October, only 2% of OPEC’s total output of 32.9 million barrels per day.
However, over the last many decades, it has played a role mediating internal rivalries in OPEC and striking production-cut deals with producers like Russia.
This is where its absence may hurt OPEC a bit

Will India be impacted by the departure in any way?

Qatar has limited influence on OPEC’s pricing decisions.
From India’s perspective, its position as the world’s top LNG exporter (annual production of 77 million tonnes per year) and an influential player in the global LNG market is more pertinent.
Qatar is one of India’s oldest LNG suppliers, with Petronet LNG among the companies that have contracted to buy LNG from Qatar.
But LNG pricing is not in OPEC’s domain, so Qatar’s decision is unlikely to impact these trends.

US, Israel Pull Out of UNESCO

Why Israel Left
Why USA left

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Its declared purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights

Why Israel Left ?

Anti-Israel bias
Blasted for criticizing Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem.
Israel has been angered by repeated resolutions that ignore and diminish its historical connection to the Holy Land of East Jerusalem and that have named ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites.
And granting full membership to Palestine in 2011
Israel joined UNESCO in 1949.

Why USA Left ?

The United States on October 12, 2017 announced its withdrawal from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), accusing it of “continuing anti-Israel bias
The U.S. has demanded “fundamental reform” in the agency
As required by law, the U.S. has stopped funding the UNESCO since then.
The U.S. withdrawal took effect on December 31, 2018
The United States has pulled out of UNESCO before.
The Reagan administration did so in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The U.S. rejoined in 2003.

Why are the US and Israel so friendly?

The countries were not nearly so close in Israel’s first decades.
President Eisenhower was particularly hostile to Israel during the 1956 Suez War, which Israel, the UK, and France fought against Egypt.
As the Cold War dragged on, the US came to view Israel as a key buffer against Soviet influence in the Middle East and supported it accordingly.
The American-Israeli alliance didn’t really cement until around 1973, when American aid helped save Israel from a surprise Arab invasion.
American support for Israel really is quite extensive.
The US has given Israel $118 billion in aid over the years (about $3 billion per year nowadays).
Half of all American UN Security Council vetoes blocked resolutions critical of Israel.
The Trump administration has led to renewed warmth in the Israeli-American relationship, culminating in Trump’s December 2018 decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Will the Decision impact UNESCO Financially ?

The withdrawals will not greatly impact UNESCO financially, since it has been dealing with a funding slash ever since 2011 when both Israel and the U.S. stopped paying dues after Palestine was voted in as a member state.
Since then officials estimate that the U.S. — which accounted for around 22 percent of the total budget — has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw.
Israel owes an estimated $10 million.
Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Japan to bow out by the end of June 2019

What is IWC ?

Why Japan Left
Japan Whales Hunting
Impact

International Whaling Commission (IWC)

The commission, with 89 member governments, was established in 1946 to conserve whales and manage whaling around the world.
It banned commercial whaling in 1986.

Reasons for Withdrawal

To resume commercial whale hunting in the year (2019)
Tokyo argues that the IWC has failed to live up to its initial dual mandate in 1946 to find a balance between preserving whale stocks and allowing the “orderly development” of the whaling industry.
Pressure from local fishermen to restart commercial whaling.
For decades Japan has aggressively pursued a well-funded whaling campaign to upend the global ban on commercial whaling.
It has consistently failed but instead of accepting that most nations no longer want to hunt whales, it has now simply walked out.

Exemption in the IWC’s banning.

Under the ban, whaling for scientific purposes—biologists studying reproductive status, stomach contents, and effects of environmental change, for example—is exempt.
Japan has long been accused of using that exemption as a cover, with whalers supplying some body parts to researchers and selling the rest of the meat for human consumption.

How this decision will impact Japan

As a result of this development, Japan will stop taking whales from the Antarctic Ocean and Southern Hemisphere. Where it has been killing whales ostensibly for scientific research — and will conduct commercial whaling “within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone.
Japan can no longer take advantage of the IWC’s exemption for scientific whaling in international waters and would therefore have to halt whaling on the high seas
The one benefit Japan gets by withdrawing is it could likely resume whaling in its own backyard without oversight.

Whale Market in Japan

Although Japan is the main market for whale meat. But the consumption there is limited—about an ounce per person per year, or about 4,000 to 5,000 tons.
Whale meat was a vital source of protein in Japan as it recovered from the ravages of World War II but is much less popular these days. Yet the government argues that it is part of Japan’s traditional culture, dating back centuries.
Japan’s withdrawal would primarily be a political move, sending the message that the country can use the oceans as they please

Past history of Japan in whale Hunting

After the ban on commercial whaling in 1986, Japan, Iceland and Norway have continued to hunt whales.
Japan has justified its annual Antarctic whale hunt in the name of scientific research, which it says is necessary to evaluate global populations of whale species.
That argument was rejected in 2014 by the International Court of Justice, which ruled that Japan’s Antarctic hunt had no scientific basis.

Past history of Japan in whale Hunting

In October, 2018 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species also struck a blow against Japan’s whaling industry, deciding that Japan had broken its rules by taking sei whale meat from international waters — again under the guise of research — and selling it commercially in Japan.

Impact on IWC

By Japan withdrawing from the commission, it will face no formal consequences, but other countries could take matters into their own hands and impose sanctions—for example, by denying Japan access to fishing in their waters.
It also means that Japan would no longer be a part of the international dialogue on whaling.
Its withdrawal may inspire other countries, such as South Korea and Russia, to follow suit.