News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know US Partners In Indo-Pacific Region, Including India, Sign Economic Pact T he US and 13 other nations in Asia and the Pacific signed agree- ments on an economic pact key toWashington’s strategy to build clout in the region. Partners of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, IPEF, signed the clean economy and fair economy agree- ments, US Secretary for Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters in a briefing in Singapore at the end of the two-day forum. The agreements represent two of the so-called “four pillars” that the pact rests on. “I wanted to demonstrate to our part- ners that the US doesn’t just say what our intentions are, but we show up,” Raimon- do said. “We need to do the hard work of identifying opportunities, making connec- tions, and being present in the region and in Singapore we’ve done just that.” The IPEF is part of a sweeping effort led by US President Joe Biden to counter China’s deep-rooted economic influence in Asia. The other participating countries include Japan, India and South Korea, which all rank among the 10 biggest na- tional economies in the world, with the 14 nations included representing about $38 trillion in economic output. While the accord on clean economy focuses on the transition to renewable energy and fighting climate change, the one on fair economy relates to taxation and corruption issues. The stakeholders earlier agreed on the supply-chain pillar, which aims to avoid the kind of bottlenecks that occurred dur- ing the Covid-19 pandemic, but they fell short of a deal on the final trade pillar over thornier issues such as rules for digital commerce and labor. A senior US commerce official did not comment on when or indeed whether the various sides would reach a deal on the final pillar. While noting that not all partners signed the accords Thursday, the official said a couple of countries are completing domestic processes and have indicated their intention to sign off on it soon. Raimondo announced earlier Thurs- day, June 5, that a coalition including al- lied climate partners, BlackRock, GIC, the Rockefeller Foundation and Temasek has committed to invest over $25 billion in capital that can be deployed in the Indo- Pacific emerging market infrastructure. She also said the countries came today identifying over $23 billion of priority infrastructure projects and US industry is directly connected with the government on those investment opportunities. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong earlier in the day said at the forum that the 10-nation bloc of Southeast Asian nations is keen to deepen ties with the US to benefit from the peace and prosper- ity brought by America’s presence in the region. “For decades, America’s presence in Asia has brought peace and prosperity and created a stable environment for countries like Singapore to prosper,”Wong said during his remarks at the forum. “That’s why Singapore has long been an advocate for the US to actively engage the region, especially Southeast Asia.” -Bloomberg By Philip J. Heijmans U.S. Affairs News India Times (June 8 - June 14, 2024) June 14, 2024 5 “Take Us To Space And Back”: Indian-Origin Astronaut Sunita Williams Scripts History With NASA’s Boeing Starliner I ndian-American astronaut Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams- piloted spacecraft carrying fellow NASA astronaut Barry’ Butch’ Williams was launched onWednesday, June 5, toward the In- ternational Space Station (ISS) from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida in a test flight that was hit with multiple delays. “Let’s go, Calypso,” was the message Williams radioed to mission control minutes before liftoff, referring to the name of the Starliner capsule. “Take us to space and back.” Starliner was scheduled to reach the ISS today at around around 12:15 pm ET. Williams’ mother, Bonnie Pandya, told NBC News hours before liftoff that her daughter was in good spirits and was “so happy about going.” NASA said in an update on Thursday morning said that both Sunita and Butch Wilmore are hard at work performing initial tests on the Starliner spacecraft in orbit, “The first six hours have been absolute- ly fascinating,” Butch who took manual control of the spacecraft told the mission centre at NASA’s centre in Houston. NASA said that at 10:52 am ET, Boeing’s Starliner lifted off on a ULA Launch Atlas V rocket for the first time and the mission dubbed as the Crew Flight Test aims to certify the spacecraft for routine space travel to and from the International Space Station. Williams, 58, has scripted history by becoming the first female astronaut to fly on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. The flight also marks Sunita’s third foray into space. Starliner’s success will determine if the spacecraft will be certified to fly six-month astronaut missions to and from the ISS for NASA, something which Elon Musk’s SpaceX already does. After a safe arrival at the space sta- tion, Wilmore andWilliams will join the Expedition 71 crew of NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko. “Two bold NASA astronauts are well on their way on this historic first test flight of a brand-new spacecraft,” said NASA Ad- ministrator Bill Nelson after the Starliner launch. Meanwhile, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated Boeing on the successful launch of its Starliner craft to space. “Congratulations on a successful launch!” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X today. He also retweeted the US space agency’s tweet that read “Starliner to the stars!” During a 2013 press conference at the National Science Centre in New Delhi, Sunita told reporters that during her space missions she carries with her the Bhagavad Gita and samosas. Both Suni and Butch will remain in the ISS for about a week before undocking from the ISS re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. It will make a parachute and airbag-as- sisted landing in the southwestern United States on June 10, NASA said. After the successful lift off onWednes- day night, NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a post launch press conference termed it as a “special moment.” “It’s another one of those great markers in history,” he said. “Today’s launch is a milestone achieve- ment for the future of spaceflight,” Nelson posted on X adding, “Butch and Suni–safe travels through the stars. See you back home.” Both Boeing and SpaceX received funding from NASA’s Commercial Crew program in 2014 to carry astronauts to the ISS after the US space agency retired its Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Boeing received over $4 billion in US federal funds to develop the Starliner, while SpaceX received about $2.6 billion. SpaceX company’s Crew Dragon has performed 12 crewed missions to the ISS since its first launch on May 30, 2020. BeforeWednesday’s launch the last attempt to launch Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was scrubbed on Saturday less than four minutes before blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center due to a ground system computer triggering an auto- matic abort command that shut down the launch sequence. Williams, who is from Needham, Mas- sachusetts, earned a physical science degree from the US Naval Academy, and a master’s in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Her first spaceflight was Expedition 14/15 (from December 2006 to June 2007) launching on space shuttle Discovery’s STS-116 mission to reach the Internation- al Station, according to NASA. While onboard, she established a world record for women at the time with four spacewalks. She concluded her tour of duty by returning to Earth with shuttle Atlantis’ STS-117 flight to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California on June 22, 2007. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998, Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space on two missions and ac- cumulated 50 hours and 40 minutes of cu- mulative EVA time on seven spacewalks. She worked with Roscosmos on its contribution to the space station and with the first Expedition crew. Sixty one-year-old, BarryWilmore has logged 178 days in space and has 25 hours and 36 minutes of time on four space- walks. -ANI Photo:X @Astro_Suni Photo:X @PIB_India Astronaut Sunita Williams at the Starliner launchpad. India attends Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial meeting in Singapore.