Nearly 200 hours were to be spent cumulatively by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in 17 sittings during the just concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament. Of this, the Houses could run for just 49.35 hours and the remaining 150.72 hours were lost in disruption, as the government and the Opposition remained adamant on not meeting mid-way.
A raft of key issues such as the US’ sanctions on import of Iranian crude oil, boosting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and finalising a pact on encrypted defence technologies will be the focus of the inaugural two-plus-two talks between India and the US here on Thursday, official sources said.
Addressing the 3rd Indian Ocean Conference here in the Vietnamese capital, Swaraj said that in an inter-dependent world characterised by enhanced economic and trade linkages, the importance of sustainable use of the ocean resources cannot be overstated.