- The former spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, Raveesh Kumar has been appointed as India’s next Ambassador to Finland. Kumar is a 1995-batch Indian Foreign Service officer. He served as the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs from July 2017 to April 2020.
- The sports ministry has extended the deadline for submitting applications for the national sports awards till June 22. The ministry has also allowed athletes to self-nominate themselves given the difficulties being faced by them to find recommenders in the wake of coronavirus.
- India is set to be re-elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council during the elections in June 2020. India’s candidature for the Asia Pacific seat in the non-permanent category was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia Pacific grouping including Pakistan and China in 2019 for a two-year period, 2021-2022.
- The UNSC has five permanent veto-wielding members including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China and France. The council also has 10 non-permanent members and every year the UN General Assembly elects five non-permanent members for a two-year term.
- Five nations including Vietnam, Niger, Estonia, Tunisia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was elected to the UNSC earlier this month for a two-year term beginning January 2020. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the smallest-ever nation to secure a UNSC seat.
- The Group of Seven presently comprises the world’s most advanced economies including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy. Russia is not a part of the group.
- The G7 had become G8 in 1998 when Russia was formally inducted as a member. However, Russia’s act of moving its troops into eastern Ukraine and conquering Crimea in 2014 drew heavy criticism from the other G8 nations, which then decided to suspend Russia from the group, following which it became G7 again.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be holding an ‘India-Australia Virtual Summit’ with Australian PM Scott Morrison on June 4, 2020. The Australian Prime Minister was scheduled to visit India this year but the visit could not take place. Hence, the two leaders decided to hold a virtual summit.