Salwa Canal

● The Salwa Canal was

a proposed shipping
route and tourism
L project through Saudi
Arabia along its border
with Qatar, effectively
turning the latter into
- an island
↓
Proposed (The project appears to
Salwa Canal be abandoned for the
present.)
 Agende
·Popment
-
WTO

Talks
Qatar - a Major Non-NATO Ally

● US has designated Qatar a MNNA (Major Non-NATO ally).

● MNNA is a designation given by the United States government

to close allies that have strategic working relationships with the
US Armed Forces but are not members of the NATO.

● Nations with MNNA designation are eligible to, among other

things, host U.S. war reserve stockpiles of material inside their
countries

● India is not a MNNA of USA.

↑
NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by

the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April, 1949, by
the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide
collective security against the Soviet Union.

There are currently 30 member states

HQ: Burssels, Belgium

Aim: To Safeguard the freedom & security of all its members by political &
military mean
Persian Gulf

● Connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of

Hormuz.

● Bordering Countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,

-

Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman (Musandam

exclave)
COMAN
Strait of Hormuz:
Bounded by IRAN

The Strait of Hormuz is a strait between the Persian Gulf and

the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the
Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most
strategically important choke points
Rivers:

0
North Field

● China is the first country to seal a deal for North Field East.

● The North Field is part of the world’s biggest gas field that
Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars.

● North Field is at the center of Qatar’s expansion of its LNG

production by more than 60% to 126 million tonnes a year by
2027
 ⑱Field
and
South Pars

0
GCC : Gulf Cooperation Council

● GCC is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic

union of6 middle eastern countries formed in 1981.

● HQ and secretariat : Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

● Members : Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and

the United Arab Emirates.

● Structure :- It consists of Supreme Council (the highest

authority), the Ministerial Council and the Secretariat General.
● All current member states
are monarchies:
• 3 constitutional monarchies
1. Qatar,
~-
2. Kuwait, and
3. Bahrain -
• Two absolute monarchies
1. Saudi Arabia and
2. Oman
• One federal monarchy: the United Arab Emirates - which is composed
of seven member states, each of which is an absolute monarchy with
its own emir).

080
INDIA AND GCC :

● India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have resumed their

Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Negotiations.

● GCC is currently India’s

- largest trading partner bloc with bilateral
trade in FY 2021-22 valued over USD 154 billion.

● The GCC’s substantial oil and gas reserves are of utmost

importance for India’s energy needs.

● The GCC countries are collectively host to a large Indian

expatriate community. In short, the GCC offers tremendous
potential for cooperation in trade, investment, energy, manpower,
etc
Iran

● Capital - Tehran

·
● Coast in Caspian Sea, Gulf of
Oman and Persian Gulf
Chabahar Port : The Chabahar port actually contains two separate
ports called Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti. Indian firm

-
India Ports Global Limited took over operations at the Shaheed
Beheshti Port.

The Chabahar port is

considered a gateway to
golden opportunities for
trade by India, Iran and
Afghanistan with central
Asian countries. Mae
Farzad-B Gas Field:

India was informed that in the immediate future, Iran would develop
the field on its own and would like to involve India appropriately at a
later stage.

The contract for exploration of the field was signed in 2002 by Indian
consortium comprising ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil Corporation and
Oil India. The contract expired in 2009.

The gas field is located in the Persian Gulf

Q
INST
->
023
INSTC stands for International North-
South Transport Corridor

-a multi-modal transportation route that

connects India, Iran, and Russia,

road, water.
rail,
Connectivity & Length:

It is a 7,200-km multi-modal transport corridor that combines

road, rail and maritime routes connecting Russia and India via
Central Asia and Iran.

It links the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea via the Persian Gulf
onwards into Russia and Northern Europe.
It offers the shortest connectivity route between India and
Russia.
13 countries ratified this agreement (Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan,
0
Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and

O
Ukraine).
⑱
⑱ga,caspian
-
sea
y Volga River
Ural River

↑ ⑭
O
Kura River
Terek River

00 >

0
-
-
si endorheic
V
 -would largest Inland

water
of
body
Border:
Fran Tukmanta
Russia
Azerbaijan,
Kazakstan
The Ashgabat Agreement is a multi-modal transport
agreement signed among the governments of Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan, and India on
April 25, 2011, in Ashgabat, the capital city of
Turkmenistan.

The agreement aims to create an international transport and

transit corridor to facilitate trade and transportation between
Central Asia and the Middle East.
Kavīr Desert

● It is a great salt desert of

north-central Iran.

● Located in a basin southeast

of the Elburz Mountains, it is
nearly 240 miles (390 km) wide.

● The desert is distinguished by its salt crust, caused by rainless

climate and intense surface evaporation, lying over treacherous
quicksand-like salt marshes that are almost uninhabited.

● Settlements are found only in the surrounding mountain ranges,

otherwise is it sparsely populated
Lut desert

● Located in South-eastern
Iran.
● It is one of the hottest and driest places on Earth, with
temperatures reaching up to 70 degrees Celsius and an average
rainfall of less than 50 mm per year.

● The Desert is characterized by its vast expanses of sand

dunes, salt flats, rocky formations and thus, it is popular
destination for adventure tourism and scientific research.

● Lut Desert is UNESCO's World Heritage Site since 2016

Earthquake of Syria and Turkey

● Powerful tremors were felt in

Turkey after an earthquake of
magnitude 7.8 struck along the
East Anatolian Fault zone.
~
● The earthquakes emerged
from relatively shallow depths
and were a “strike-slip quake”.

● It is being described as the strongest Earthquake that Turkey has

experienced in over a century and the worst disaster since 1939.
-
Turkey lies at the
centre of three
tectonic plates — O
Anatolian,
Arabian and
African.

↳
Arabia is moving
northwards into
Europe, causing
the Anatolian
plate (which
Turkey sits on) to
be pushed out
westwards.!
Tectonics of the ' Eastern Mediterranean region

● In regions of Turkey, Syria and Jordan, tectonics are dominated

by complex interactions between the African, Arabian, and
Eurasian tectonic plates, and the Anatolian tectonic block.

● Turkey sits on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which borders two

major faults, the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) that cuts across the
country from west to east, and the East Anatolian Fault (EAF) in
the southeast.

● The NAF line is the meeting point of the Eurasian and

Anatolian tectonic plates that is known to be “Particularly
Devastating”
 ⑧
and

O
.
ment

Pu
Scales to measure earthquake

Richter Scale : magnitude of earthquakes

● It is Logarithmic scale based on the amplitude of the largest

seismic wave recorded by a seismograph.

● Ranges from 1 to 10, with each increase in magnitude indicating a

10-fold increase in energy released by earthquake.

Mercalli Scale : Intensity of earthquakes

● Based on the effects they have on people and environment.

● The scale ranges from I (not felt) to XII (total destruction)

● Focus/hypocentre: The point where energy is released

● Epicentre: The point on the surface, nearest to the focus

·80
Sesnic

& ⑧
Zone V (very severe intensity zone): Parts of Jammu and
Kashmir (Kashmir valley); Western part of Himachal Pradesh;
Eastern part of Uttarakhand, Kutch in Gujarat; part of Northern
Bihar; all northeastern states of India and the Andaman &
Nicobar Islands.

Zone IV (severe intensity zone): Ladakh; Remaining parts of

Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand; Some
parts of Haryana, Parts of Punjab; Delhi; Sikkim; the northern
part of Uttar Pradesh; small portions of Bihar and West Bengal;
parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west
coast and small part of western Rajasthan.
Zone III (moderate intensity zone): Kerala; Goa; Lakshadweep
islands; parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana; remaining parts of
Gujarat and Punjab; parts of West Bengal, western Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh; remaining part of Bihar; northern parts of
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh; parts of Maharashtra, Odisha,
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Zone II (low intensity zone): Remaining parts of Rajasthan,

Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu.

59%/
Mappy+ R orop