WASHINGTON: The Biden administration is going to remain committed to a strong bilateral relationship with India, the Pentagon has said, a day after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke for the first time with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

“The Secretary made it very clear that we’re going to remain committed to a strong US-India bilateral relationship,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference here on Thursday.

“(They) had a good chat yesterday. They discussed a lot of issues, including our two nations’ response to the coronavirus,” Kirby said responding to a question on the maiden phone call between Austin and Singh.

Retired general Austin became the first African-American to lead the Pentagon when the Senate confirmed him as US Defence Secretary on January 22.

During his conversation with Singh on Wednesday, Austin pledged to work collaboratively with India to sustain the progress in the bilateral defence relationship, the Pentagon said earlier.

“During the call, Secretary Austin emphasised the Department’s commitment to the US-India Major Defence Partnership, observing that it is built upon shared values and a common interest in ensuring the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open,” Kirby said on Wednesday.

“Secretary Austin noted the great strides made in the US-India defence relationship, and he pledged to work collaboratively with the Defence Minister to sustain progress,” Kirby said in a readout of the call.

The Indo-US defence ties have been on an upswing in the last few years and in June 2016, the US had designated India a “Major Defence Partner”.

The two countries have also inked key defence and security pacts over the past few years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries use each other’s bases for repair and replenishment of supplies as well as provides for deeper cooperation.

The two sides have also signed COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) in 2018 that provides for interoperability between the two militaries and provides for sale of high end technology from the US to India.

Mattarella accepted the resignation and “reserves the right to decide (what to do next) and invited the government to stay in office in a caretaker capacity

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte submitted his resignation Tuesday to President Sergio Mattarella, in a bid to form a new, stronger government.

Mattarella accepted the resignation and “reserves the right to decide (what to do next) and invited the government to stay in office in a caretaker capacity”, an Italian presidency statement said.

Biden and Macron also agreed to work together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China, the Middle East, Russia, and West Africa’s Sahel region.

WASHINGTON: Joe Biden sought to mend and bolster US’ strained ties with France in his first phone call as American President to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, as the two leaders pledged to work together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China, and fight the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Biden called Macron on Sunday and expressed his desire to strengthen bilateral ties.

He also stressed his commitment to bolstering the transatlantic relationship, including through NATO and the United States’ partnership with the European Union, the White House said.

“The leaders agreed on the need for close coordination, including through multilateral organisations, in tackling common challenges such as climate change, COVID-19 and the global economic recovery,” it said in a statement.

Biden and Macron also agreed to work together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China, the Middle East, Russia, and West Africa’s Sahel region, it said.

This was Biden’s fourth phone call with a foreign leader after being sworn in as the US President on January 20.

Biden’s first two phone calls have been, as per tradition, with the leaders of its two neighbours – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico.

He spoke with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday.

After taking over the reins of the country, the Biden administration has started reaching out to its traditional allies.

Biden’s phone calls to European leaders were seen to be aimed at mending the strained transatlantic ties after four years of “America First” under his predecessor Donald Trump.

Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to NATO which had been a bone of contention between Trump and European leaders.

Trump repeatedly questioned the alliance and accused other countries of not paying their fair share.

Macron and Trump were also at odds over several issues, such as the war in Syria and US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, which Biden moved to reverse on his first day in office.

France is pushing for globally consistent taxes on US tech companies such as Google and Amazon, which led to an ongoing trade dispute with Washington under Trump.

The US and the European Union have also imposed tit-for-tat tariffs over subsidies to US plane maker Boeing and its France-based rival, Airbus.

The US defense secretary has so far spoken over the phone with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his counterparts from Britain, Japan and South Korea.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned 73 people, including his former aide Steve Bannon and other allies, just hours before he was due to leave office.

“President Donald J. Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70 individuals,” the White House said in a statement.

The president and his children were not on the list.

Bannon was granted clemency having been charged with defrauding people over funds raised to build the Mexico border wall that was a flagship Trump policy.

“Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen,” the statement added.

US media earlier reported that the president made his last-minute decision after speaking to Bannon by phone.

Former Trump fund-raiser Elliott Broidy was similarly pardoned, after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws.

Santiago (Chile): A powerful earthquake struck in northwestern Argentina near the border with Chile, shaking people in both countries, but there were no early reports of damage or injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the quake late Monday had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 and its epicentre was 27.6 kilometres (17 miles) southwest of the town of Porcito.

It struck at a depth of 14 kilometres (nearly nine miles).

Farmworkers in various regions of Peru- such as Ica, Viru La Libertad and Piurahad – went on a strike in the first week of December 2020, blocking the strategic Pan-American motorway to demand wage increases, basic social security benefits and the repeal of the decades-old Agrarian Promotion Law, enacted in 2000, as a mechanism to bolster the bourgeoisie’s power in the agro-export sector. The law benefits agro-export corporations in two ways. Firstly, it cuts the corporate tax rate by 30 to 15%, making the government lose out on more than $1 million in tax revenue. Agrokasa, Beta and Miranda are some of the companies benefitting from such hefty income tax cuts.

Secondly, the law authorizes the hiring of personnel for the agricultural industry through intermediary companies. These third-party contractors avoid statutory labour regulations and pay workers extremely low wages. Farmworkers complain they are paid about $10 for a 12-14 hour workday. They also don’t receive benefits given to other workers, including annual bonuses and vacations.

Despite its partisan attitude towards the capitalists, the reactionary law was extended until 2031 by the government of Martín Vizcarra. Mobilizations and strikes ensued this decision, with the state deploying police violence to quell mass anger. On December 3, 2020, Peru’s National Police officers shot dead young farmer Jorge Muñoz during a peaceful protest called by farmworkers in Viru city, La Libertad Department. “The police disrupted the march with tear gas and gunshots. My son was hit in the head with a pellet,” the young man’s father said. The next day, President Francisco Sagasti sent a bill to Congress to repeal the law in the face of the five days of protests, and it passed by a vote of 114 in favour, two against and seven abstentions.

Peru’s current agrarian crisis is historically situated in the authoritarian neoliberal model implemented by former President Alberto Fujimori. Popularly known as “Fujishock”, these economic reforms advanced a structural agenda of ever-deepening precarity for the people. Beginning in 1991, the Fujimori administration opened all sectors of the Peruvian economy to foreign direct investment (FDI) and lifted restrictions on profit remittances. The government offered tax-stability packages for foreign investors for terms of ten to fifteen years and implemented wide-ranging privatization programs that eliminated competition from state-owned and domestic firms. If that was not enough, the government ratified bilateral and multilateral investment-guarantee treaties, such as the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) convention and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) accords.

In the agrarian sector, Fujimori’s neoliberal restructuring entailed the closing of the agrarian bank, the cancellation of all forms of subsidies to farmers, the shutting down of the agrarian reform office and the bureau responsible for peasant communities. The Rice Trading Company (ECASA) and the National Supply Marketing Company (ENCI) – two integral institutions of the agricultural state apparatus – were also abolished. While the former established legal monopoly over the trading of rice – a key staple in the Peruvian diet – thus, ensuring rice producers an above-market return on their crop, the latter controlled imports of food and fertilizer.

The liquidation of ENCI and ECASA heavily impacted specific sectors. ENCI, for instance, had been the only institution that was allowed to import milk and its disappearance removed a source of support to the local dairy industry; as imports surged in the early 1990s (principally from New Zealand, but also Australia, the United States and Poland) the livelihood of smaller-scale producers were ruined in areas like Cajamarca and Arequipa. The abolition of ECASA liberalized the market in rice, removing an institution which had maintained prices artificially high for the benefit of producers.

The unleashing of deregulatory market forces led to the championing of the individual over collective land rights since fragmentation consolidates profit-maximizing behaviour. State farms were privatized and support was withdrawn from production cooperatives and other group farming activities that were favoured under the earlier state-led developmental model. The 1995 Land Law abolished the upper limits on personal landholding and allowed the state to sell land currently in public ownership. Privatization included the parcelling and possible renting or selling of land previously held collectively by indigenous and peasant communities.

Towards the end of 1990s, the structure of agricultural production began changing, with a notable increase in the share of tradable goods (such as rice, hard maize, wheat, soya, sugar, milk etc.) and a decline in the proportion of non-tradable (such as potato, quinoa and other Andean grains). Policy under Fujimori tended to benefit larger-scale producers oriented primarily towards agro-industry and foreign markets. This was done mainly through the reduction of protective tariffs and the maintenance of an overvalued exchange rate. Both of these measures created a difficult environment for producers of tradable goods who found themselves increasingly subjected to competition from cheap food imports.

The disintegration of locally produced staples was additionally advanced through the dispossession of land and the restriction of proper water supply and credit to small-scale producers. To take an example, in 1989, Supreme Decree 037-89-AG, issued by President Garcia, signalled the transfer of water management in Peru from the state to private water user boards known as Junta de Usuarios (Users Board). In 1990, Fujimori continued this process, issuing Supreme Decree 003-90-AG, which allowed Juntas to collect agricultural water for the management of irrigation systems. The most important Juntas de Usuarios are controlled by agri-businesses and agro-export companies which regulate water services for their own class interests.

As a result of an amalgam of agrarian strategies implemented by the Peruvian state, domestic production of food crops has wholly collapsed. Imports of agricultural goods averaged $488 million in the period between 1986 and 1990, rising to $687 million in 1991–1995, and reaching $1035 million in 1996– 1999. In volume terms food imports rose from 1.6 million tons (1986–1990) to 2.1 million tons (1991–1995) and 2.8 million tons (1996–1999). Peru’s average annual agricultural trade balance, which until 1980 had been consistently in surplus, registered deficits of $216 million in 1986–1990, $383 million in 1991–1995 and $346 million in 1996–1999.

With the pandemic-induced deterioration of economic conditions in Peru, the internal ruptures of the agricultural sector are being nakedly exposed. In the years between 2008 and 2018, there were considerably more individuals employed in agriculture than in the mining, communication, and finance sectors together. In spite of being the most labour-absorbing sector, agriculture is also the one where super-exploitation, accumulation through dispossession and permanent primitive accumulation have by and large prevailed. These inhumane features of the agricultural sector have been constantly criticized by the National Agrarian Confederation (CNA) – an organization which has highlighted the governments prioritizing of agribusiness and called for recovering ancestral practices and land security. A groundswell of opposition against the ruling elite’s brutal policies will keep increasing as the masses confront the effects of a pandemic exacerbated by a pre-existing capitalist framework.