{"id":20676,"date":"2024-02-20T12:04:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T06:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=20676"},"modified":"2025-04-06T02:54:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T21:24:00","slug":"mission-aspides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mission-aspides\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Mission Aspides?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Mission Aspides<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0European Union (EU) naval mission to\u00a0protect cargo ships in the Red Sea from attacks from Yemen\u2019s\u00a0Houthi rebels.<\/li>\n<li>It\u00a0will send European warships and airborne early warning systems to the\u00a0Red Sea, Gulf of Aden\u00a0and surrounding waters.<\/li>\n<li>So far, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium have said they plan to contribute ships.<\/li>\n<li>Aspides vessels, whose\u00a0operational command centre will be in the Greek city of Larissa, will\u00a0have orders to fire on the Houthis only if they attack first and will not be authorised to shoot pre-emptively.<\/li>\n<li>The mission is\u00a0planned for one year but may be renewed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key Facts about Red Sea<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0semi-enclosed inlet (or extension)\u00a0of the Indian Ocean\u00a0between the continents of\u00a0Africa and Asia. It is one\u00a0of the world\u2019s warmest seas.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0connected to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the south\u00a0through the Gulf of Aden\u00a0and the\u00a0narrow strait of Bab El-Mandeb.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0northern portion of the Red Sea\u00a0is bifurcated by the Sinai Peninsula into the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez, where it is\u00a0connected to the Mediterranean Seavia the famous\u00a0Suez Canal.<\/li>\n<li>Bordering Countries:\n<ul>\n<li>Yemen and Saudi Arabia border the Red Sea to the east.<\/li>\n<li>It is bordered by\u00a0Egypt to the north and west and by\u00a0Sudan,\u00a0Eritrea, and\u00a0Djibouti to the west.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 km2 and is about 2,250 km in length.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The maximum width of the sea is 355 km, and the\u00a0sea\u2019s deepest point is 3,040 m at the central Suakin Trough, with the sea\u2019s estimated average depth being 490 m.<\/li>\n<li>Islands: Some well-known islands\u00a0include Tiran Island, which is\u00a0located near the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, and\u00a0Shadwan Island, which is located at the entrance of the Gulf of Suez.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is the European Union (EU)?<\/h3>\n<p>The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states located primarily in Europe. The EU was established by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force on November 1, 1993. The main goal of the EU is to promote cooperation and integration among its member states in order to enhance economic and political stability in Europe. The EU has its own currency, the Euro, which is used by 19 of the member states. It has a single market where goods, services, and capital can move freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/2\/19\/eu-launches-red-sea-naval-mission-to-protect-shipping-from-houthi-attacks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>EU launches Red Sea naval mission to protect shipping from Houthi attacks<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Aspides  is a European Union (EU) naval mission to protect cargo ships in the Red Sea from attacks from Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}