International Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: A

2020 was declared the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH).

The UN General Assembly declared 2020 the International Year of Plant Health, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization, to raise awareness of how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development.

No UN international year of soil health, animal health or human health was declared for 2020. 2015 was the International Year of Soils.

Answer: D

The United Kingdom left the EU on 31st January, 2020.

Under the withdrawal agreement, the UK formally left the European Union at 11 pm UK time on 31 January 2020. It then entered a transition period of about eleven months, ending on 31 December 2020, during which EU rules continued to apply while a future relationship was negotiated.

1 January of 2018, 2019 or 2020 are not the date of departure; the UK was still a member on each of them.

Answer: B

The city is Rio de Janeiro.

In January 2019 UNESCO, together with the International Union of Architects, named Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the first World Capital of Architecture, for 2020, the city that was to host the UIA's World Congress of Architects.

Johannesburg, Paris and London were not given the title for 2020.

Answer: A

The White Helmets is a volunteer organisation of the 'Syrian Civil Defence' formed to rescue the wounded in Syrian air strikes.

The White Helmets, officially the Syria Civil Defence, is a group of thousands of volunteers who, during the Syrian civil war, have pulled survivors from the rubble after bombings and air strikes and given first aid. Its members wear white helmets, which gave the group its name.

The other options describe groups that do not exist under those names: an American squad against Iran, a Japanese nuclear study group, or an African anti-racism guard.

Answer: A

SIGAR is an agency of the USA.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction was created by the United States Congress in 2008 to provide independent oversight of US funds spent on reconstruction in Afghanistan. It audits and investigates those programmes and reports to Congress and the US Secretaries of State and Defense.

India, Pakistan and Russia had their own interests in Afghanistan, but SIGAR is a US government oversight body that audits American spending, not an agency of any of them.

Answer: C

The statement that is not correct is that she is the daughter of devout Catholic parents.

Claudia Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City to a family of Jewish heritage; her parents were scientists, her father a chemist and her mother a biologist, and she was brought up in a secular household.

The other statements are correct: in June 2024 she became the first woman elected President of Mexico; she holds a doctorate in energy engineering from UNAM; and she worked as a climate scientist, contributing to IPCC reports, before her career in governance, including as head of government of Mexico City.

Answer: C

Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year 2023 was hallucinate.

Cambridge added a new sense to the word: when an artificial intelligence system produces false information and presents it as fact. The choice reflected the surge of interest in generative AI tools during 2023.

'Prompt', 'situationship' and 'Swiftie' (printed 'Swifitie') were all words that drew attention in 2023 and featured on other dictionaries' shortlists, but none of them was Cambridge's word of the year.

Answer: C

The lists had been exchanged 27 times.

Under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities, signed in December 1988 and in force from January 1991, India and Pakistan exchange lists of their nuclear installations on 1 January every year. The first exchange took place on 1 January 1992, so the exchange of 1 January 2018 was the 27th consecutive one:

\[ 2018 - 1992 + 1 = 27 \]

25 and 26 count too few years, typically by leaving out the first exchange or the latest one, and 28 counts one exchange too many.

Answer: D

Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital on 6th December, 2017.

In an address from the White House on 6 December 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would move its embassy there from Tel Aviv, reversing decades of US policy. The embassy was opened in Jerusalem in May 2018. The UN General Assembly voted on 21 December 2017 to call on states not to follow the decision.

The other dates, 6 October and 6 November 2017 and 6 January 2018, are not the date of the announcement.

Answer: C

The importance is that India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Chabahar, on Iran's south-eastern coast, gives India a sea-land route to Afghanistan and onward to Central Asia (linked to the International North-South Transport Corridor) that bypasses Pakistan, which denies India overland transit.

The port is not mainly about trade with Africa or ties with the Arab oil producers, and Pakistan has no role in protecting any Iraq-India gas pipeline through it.