Rajya Sabha passes The Protection of Interests in Aircraft Objects Bill
New Delhi (PTI): Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed The Protection of Interests in Aircraft Objects Bill, 2025 that seeks to give legal effect to certain international agreements in their application to India.
Replying to the discussion on the bill, Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said the legislation will create a lot of security for both the lessors and the lessees and the overall aviation market also because there has been a lot of confusion in this area. It has been a grey area for sometime.
"With the bringing of this bill, definitely it is going to create a lot more clarity. We hope this is going to give a lot of push for the leasing industry, which is the need of the hour. There is an immediate need for this bill to be there in the industry," he said.
The bill seeks to give legal effect to certain international agreements in their application to India, which includes Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (also known as Capetown Convention of 2001) and Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters specific to Aircraft Equipment. India had acceded to these in 2008.
The Bill states that before exercising any remedy, the creditor must notify the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) about the occurrence of a default.
In cases of a default, it gives creditors certain remedies, including the right to take back possession of the asset within two months or a mutually agreed upon period, whichever is earlier.
"This is a very important Bill which the industry needs today. It is going to change the aviation landscape of the country," the aviation minister said.
The Bill was introduced in the upper house on February 10 this year.
"The whole reason we are bringing this Act is to give force of law to the Capetown convention and protocol. If you see the majority, other than giving the force of law, it contains the Capetown convention, it contains the aircraft protocol and the declaration which we are signing, abiding ourselves to both the convention and protocol as a signatory to the International Civil Aviation Organisation," the minister said.
The convention and the protocol aim to bring uniformity in securing rights for high-value assets such as aircraft, helicopters and engines.
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Russia says it no longer will abide by its self-imposed moratorium on intermediate-range missiles
Moscow, Aug 5 (AP): Russia has declared that it no longer considers itself bound by a self-imposed moratorium on the deployment of nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles, a warning that potentially sets the stage for a new arms race as tensions between Moscow and Washington rise again over Ukraine.
In a statement Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry linked the decision to efforts by the US and its allies to develop intermediate range weapons and preparations for their deployment in Europe and other parts of the world. It specifically cited US plans to deploy Typhoon and Dark Eagle missiles in Germany starting next year.
The ministry noted that such actions by the US and its allies create “destabilising missile potentials" near Russia, creating a "direct threat to the security of our country” and carry “significant harmful consequences for regional and global stability, including a dangerous escalation of tensions between nuclear powers.”
It didn't say what specific moves the Kremlin might take, but President Vladimir Putin has previously announced that Moscow was planning to deploy its new Oreshnik missiles on the territory of its neighbour and ally Belarus later this year.
“Decisions on specific parameters of response measures will be made by the leadership of the Russian Federation based on an interdepartmental analysis of the scale of deployment of American and other Western land-based intermediate-range missiles, as well as the development of the overall situation in the area of international security and strategic stability,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The Russian statement follows President Donald Trump's announcement Friday that he's ordering the repositioning of two US nuclear submarines “based on the highly provocative statements” of Dmitry Medvedev, who was president in 2008-12 to allow Putin, bound by term limits, to later return to the office. Trump's statement came as his deadline for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in Ukraine approaches later this week.
Trump said he was alarmed by Medvedev's attitude. Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council chaired by Putin, has apparently sought to curry favor with his mentor by making provocative statements and frequently lobbing nuclear threats. Last week. he responded to Trump's deadline for Russia to accept a peace deal in Ukraine or face sanctions by warning him against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia” and declaring that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step toward war.”
Medvedev also commented on the Foreign Ministry's statement, describing Moscow's withdrawal from the moratorium as “the result of NATO countries' anti-Russian policy.”
“This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with,” he wrote on X. “Expect further steps.”
Intermediate-range missiles can fly between 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Such land-based weapons were banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Washington and Moscow abandoned the pact in 2019, accusing each other of violations, but Moscow declared its self-imposed moratorium on their deployment until the US makes such a move.
The collapse of the INF Treaty has stoked fears of a replay of a Cold War-era European missile crisis, when the US and the Soviet Union both deployed intermediate-range missiles on the continent in the 1980s. Such weapons are seen as particularly destabilising because they take less time to reach targets, compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles, leaving no time for decision-makers and raising the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict over a false launch warning.
Russia's missile forces chief has declared that the new Oreshnik intermediate range missile, which Russia first used against Ukraine in November, has a range to reach all of Europe. Oreshnik can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
Putin has praised the Oreshnik's capabilities, saying its multiple warheads that plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 are immune to being intercepted and are so powerful that the use of several of them in one conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack.
Putin has warned the West that Moscow could use it against Ukraine's NATO allies who allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
