President Bush is in Asia for the G8 and plans to meet Asian heads of state of China, India, Japan and South Korea.

“The President looks forward to good discussions, not only with leaders of the G8 but also with those of so-called outreach group including India, China, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia, besides the seven African nations,” Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs at the White House, Dan Price, told the Hindustan Times on way to Chitose, Japan.

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Japan’s Bank for International Cooperation, the government’s main overseas lender, told Bloomberg it will increase yen loans and investment in clean-energy technology to help cut greenhouse emissions in China and India, Asia’s two economic powerhouses. japan is believed to be the regions greenest country.

Japan, together with the World Bank, the U.S. and the U.K. plans to raise a US$5.5 billion fund to help poor nations develop clean technology. Finding ways to convince developing countries to agree to emissions targets is likely to be a focus of the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido next week.

“We have to focus on major developing countries, and as a financier we are going to put more and more money into private- sector investment in these countries, not only by lending but also by equity financing,” Takashi Hongo, director-general of environment finance at JBIC, said in Tokyo. Hongo declined to say how much money the bank has set aside for the projects.

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India’s young politicians met Chinese officials to foster common bonds between the two countries on Monday. Trying to bring about a much needed change in India’s political image in the eyes of the world, the politicians were led by Sachin Pilot, a member of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) of the Indian National Congress. Pilot is heading a delegation of young Indian members of parliament at the invitation of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. The delegation met with Hua Jianmin, a senior Chinese legislator in a bid to share broad common interests between China and India, two of the largest developing nations.

“The friendship between China and India is beneficial to both countries and Asia and the world at large” Pilot said. He added that India was ready to work with China to take advantage of parliamentary, political party and non-government exchanges to expand and promote the cooperation in such fields as energy, poverty alleviation, agriculture and infrastructure construction. He told Xinhua he believed the Beijing Olympic Games would be a great success.

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India and China neighbors although they are, the two countries still don’t see eye to eye on all issues political or economic. Today, even though economists may celebrate the increasing trade between the two nations, its still comparatively very small and India and China both need to reach across the lofty Himalayas to cement ties.

Of late the border issue has been thrown up again with China classifying it as ‘a very sensitive issue’ and India forming human chains on the borders to keep China out. The picture alongside demarcates the disputed areas at the border. Unfortunately, the land dispute between India and China is steeped in history and will probably never be solved. However, we need to look into our past to find solutions into the future.

The following is a chronology of events by NDTV marking Indo-China relations since India’s independence until 2002 when Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited India. Six MOUs were signed in New Delhi then to enhance cooperation in Science and Technology, outer space, tourism, phytosanitary measures and supply of hydrological data relating to the Brahmaputra river between India and China.

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Are global financial institutions proving to be defunked in the face of inflation and a global food crisis, and is it up to Asia as the emerging center of world power to take the lead in finding solutions? Business leaders who met at the annual World Economic Forum on East Asia, a high-profile gathering of business and government leaders, in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week seem to think so.

“Global institutions are inadequate. They are not responding to global challenges,” Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister of India said while citing record-high crude oil prices. Rapid increases in the price of rice and other agriculture products have set off riots and protests from Africa to Asia and elevated fears of a global food crisis, reported the International Herald Tribune.

“I would say that this is where there is an opportunity for Asia,” said Sinha, who is now a member of the Indian Parliament. “There are a whole host of things that Asian nations can do together. We must start writing the rules of the game.”

Asian countries must help each other in dealing with crises because the United States can no longer be expected to be “the locomotive of the global economy,” said Yoshimi Watanabe, the Japanese minister of financial services and administrative reforms. “The Asian countries are in the same boat, we share the same destiny,” he said.

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Five days after Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Beijing to settle India - China border issues, and weeks after India discovered Chinese threats to its communication network and other space assets, India launched the Integrated Space Cell (ISC). The establishment of the ISC oddly follows an agreement between India and China on peace and tranquility, ongoing confidence building measures and a MoU on defence cooperation - marking another twist in the ‘friendly enemy’ status the two countries share.

Justifying the formation of the cell, Defence Minister A. K. Antony said at the United Commanders’ conference that India wanted to utilise space for peaceful purposes and remained committed to non-weaponisation of space. However, “offensive counter space systems like anti-satellite weaponry, new classes of heavy-lift and small boosters and an improved array of military space systems have emerged in our neighbourhood.” according to the Hindu.

The Space Cell will be put under the command of the Integrated Defence Services Headquarters and will act as a single window for integration among the armed forces, the department of space and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Times of India reported.

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Asia is becoming a hot bed for nuclear energy. With fuel prices soaring through the roof , US, French, Russian and Canadian companies are exploring nuclear energy in Asia as an alternate energy source.

General Electric, Daewoo and Toshiba are among companies looking to win big contracts in Southeast Asia. A report by the world nuclear association last year said that through to 2010 projected new power generating capacity in Asia is approximately 38 GWe per year, and from 2010 to 2020 it is 56 GWe/yr, up to one third of this replacing retired plant. This is about 36 percent of the world’s new capacity (current world capacity is about 3500 GWe, of which 368 GWe is nuclear). Much of this growth will be in China, Japan, India and Korea. The nuclear share of this to 2020 is expected to be at least 39 GWe and maybe more if environmental constraints limit fossil fuel expansion.

There are currently 109 nuclear power reactors operating in six countries of the region, 18 units under construction and firm plans in place to build about another 40 units.

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Brazil, Russia, India and China, the world’s biggest emerging market economies or the BRIC countries, last week vowed to turn their four-way group into a powerful instrument for changing the world, affirming their global economic clout reported The Hindu. On the last day of their meeting in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural mountains, the BRIC countries institutionalised BRIC, agreeing to hold regular meetings at the level of Foreign Ministers.

They “confirmed the aspirations of the BRIC countries to work together with each other and other states in the interests of strengthening international security and stability foreign ministers from the BRIC countries said in a joint communique”, reported Reuters.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said BRIC would work to “support global stability and ensure uninterrupted and manageable global development.”

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Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China met for the eighth time in Yekaterinburg, Russia to reaffirm their commonality, in views on the global situation and, for the first time, set out coordinated positions on Kosovo, Iran, Afghanistan and the Asia-Pacific region, The Hindu reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a joint communique on boosting links between the three large developing countries would look at enhanced co-operation on humanitarian aid, fighting terrorism and combating drug trafficking.

“I believe that against the backdrop of a multi-polar world it is necessary to advance cooperation between Russia, China and India, the three countries that are rapidly growing and enjoying strong economic growth,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

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Even as millions in developing countries in Asia and Africa are expected to die of starvation due to inflationary grain prices, president Bush asked Congress to authorize US$770 million to ease the global food crisis.

The United States is feeling the pressure of their empasis on biofuels even as energy and food demand rises. While grain supply is dwindling, experts around the world say that the American focus on biofuel subsidies which has given farmers incentives to grow biofuels in place of grain is only compounding the problem. As a result of the biofuels subsidies and a high demand for energy, farmers are more keen to plant acres of corn and sugarcane, the raw material for energy instead of rice and wheat human staples. This has led to the head on collosion of of a world food crisis partly fueled by record fuel costs.

Speaking on Monday at the European Parliament, Jeffrey Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at New York’s Columbia University and a special UN adviser said that while a third of the US maize crop will go to a gas tank, “it is a huge blow to the world food supply.” “We should cut back significantly on our biofuels programmes, which were understandable at a time of much lower food prices and much lower food stocks but do not make sense now at a time of global food scarcity condition,” he added, reported Reuters.

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