International Relations Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 16)

The correct answer is January 2017. A memorandum of 23 January 2017 directed the US Trade Representative to withdraw the United States as a signatory to the TPP. The Federal Register printed it on 25 January 2017. It was a presidential memorandum, not an executive order. In a letter of 30 January 2017 the US told New Zealand, the Depositary, that it did not intend to become a Party. The TPP signing was on 4 February 2016, so 2016 is wrong. New Zealand’s record shows the TPP not in force.

The correct answer is Neither 1 nor 2. Statement 1 is false. Twelve countries signed the TPP in Auckland on 4 February 2016. China and Russia were not among them. Nor were South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan or India. Statement 2 is false. New Zealand’s treaty record calls the TPP a free trade agreement that aims to liberalise trade and investment. It was not a maritime-security alliance. The official UPSC key gives Series A Q41 as D, which is Neither 1 nor 2.

The correct answer is Automatically, upon becoming a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention. The OPCW page says all States Parties to the Convention are automatically members of the OPCW, each with one vote. The OPCW lists 193 Member States. The UN treaty record of 8 October 2026 lists 193 Parties. So there is no separate application. A State Party cannot be deprived of its membership. The Conference can restrict or suspend its rights and privileges.

The correct answer is 1997. The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997. It opened for signature in Paris on 13 January 1993, so 1993 is the signing date. Hungary deposited the 65th instrument of ratification on 31 October 1996. Entry into force followed 180 days later. The year 2013 is when the OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize, and when Syria acceded.

The correct answer is verifying and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the OPCW on 10 December 2013. An OPCW-UN Joint Mission ran in Syria from October 2013 to September 2014. All chemical weapons that Syria declared were removed and verifiably destroyed outside its territory. The Nobel Committee also pointed to recent events in Syria when it explained the award.

The correct answer is The Hague, Netherlands. The OPCW Basics page shows the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague. PIB also says the OPCW has its Secretariat in The Hague. Geneva is where the Conference on Disarmament adopted the Convention on 3 September 1992. That makes Geneva a place linked to the treaty, not the seat of the OPCW.

The correct answer is 2 and 3 only. Statement 1 is false. The OPCW calls itself a global, treaty-based international organisation. Statement 2 is true. Inspections take place at chemical weapons-related facilities and at industry facilities. The Director-General also reports to the Conference on industrial inspections. Statement 3 is true. The Executive Council has a special role in requests for assistance and protection against chemical weapons, under Article X. The official UPSC key for CSP 2016, Series A, gives (b), which is 2 and 3 only.

The correct answer is 30,000. The UN says the parallel NGO Forum at Huairou, near Beijing, drew some 30,000 participants. The conference itself counted more than 17,000 participants. An earlier forum at Nairobi in 1985 drew around 12,000 people.

The correct answer is US First Lady Hillary Clinton. She spoke in Beijing on 5 September 1995. UN News says attendees from 189 countries watched her speech. The Clinton Library says the sentiment existed before it. Paragraph 14 of the Declaration has the same words. UN Women was created in July 2010, so its head could not have spoken in 1995.

The correct answer is the Fourth. The UN series began in Mexico City in 1975 and went to Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985. Beijing came in 1995 and was the fourth. The UN says Beijing built on the political agreements of the three earlier conferences.

The correct answer is 189 countries. The UN conference page says 189 countries adopted the Declaration and Platform for Action. The conference met in Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995. CEDAW also has 189 parties, as at 8 October 2026. That is a separate count of treaty parties.

The correct answer is an agenda for women’s empowerment, an outcome of a World Conference convened by the United Nations. The Platform’s own Mission Statement calls it an agenda for women’s empowerment. The Fourth World Conference on Women met in Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995. The other three options name the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum and the East Asia Summit. The UN pages on the Declaration name none of these as its source.

The correct answer is Neither 1 nor 2. IORA was established in March 1997, not very recently, and its founding wasn’t a direct response to piracy or oil-spill incidents. It also isn’t a maritime-security-only alliance — it covers trade, fisheries, tourism, and academic and cultural exchange too.

The correct answer is a non-governmental international organization. MSF was founded in France in 1971, to deliver independent, impartial emergency medical aid. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for its humanitarian work.

The MEA brief says India hosted the 6th Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi on 4 September 2012. The ministers agreed there to set up a Common Archival Resource Centre at Nalanda University. A Vietnamese news report on the 9th meeting in Singapore in August 2018 lists a joint data centre at Nalanda University among proposed joint activities.

Thailand’s foreign ministry fact sheet of October 2024 lists a lead country for each of ten areas. It names India for education, and also for water resources and for skill development. Thailand leads tourism, Cambodia leads culture and Laos leads transport. A Thai ministry page on the 11th meeting says Thailand suggested giving a lead country to every area. The fact sheet is in Thai. The English rendering is ours. The question’s wording ‘Education and HRD’ is the older label for the same area.

The MGC’s own site names four foundational areas: tourism, culture, education, and transport and communications. Defence is not among them. Thailand’s October 2024 fact sheet lists ten areas of cooperation, and defence is not among those either. The areas added since include health, agriculture, small and medium enterprises, water resources, science and technology, and skill development.

The MGC’s own site says it was launched in November 2000 in Vientiane, Lao PDR, with the Vientiane Declaration. The MEA brief says the 1st Ministerial Meeting was held in Vientiane from 9 to 13 November 2000. Thailand’s fact sheet of October 2024 gives a different start, July 2000 in Bangkok. Both Indian pages give Vientiane and 2000, so that is the answer. Hanoi hosted the second meeting in 2001. Phnom Penh hosted the third in 2003.

The MGC’s own site says it is an initiative of six countries: India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The MEA brief of March 2017 names the same five Southeast Asian members, with India. So Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand are participants. Bangladesh and China are on neither list. The two non-participants are therefore items 1 and 3. UPSC’s official key for Series A gives (c) for this item.

The correct answer is USD 9.3 billion. At the Bonn pledging conference on 5 October 2023, 25 contributors pledged USD 9.322 billion equivalent. Board decision B.37/19 welcomed this on 24 November 2023. The stem says totalled, but the wider GCF-2 total is higher. As of March 2025, 34 countries and one region had pledged USD 10.6 billion over four years. The GCF-2 page shows USD 10 billion as confirmed. These are the GCF’s own rounded figures. Beware of one coincidence. The IRM also raised USD 9.3 billion in 2014. USD 100 billion is the yearly goal of developed countries from the Copenhagen and Cancun texts, not a GCF round.

The correct answer is 2028 to 2031. At B.45 on 2 July 2026, the Board decided to start the third replenishment from July 2026. The decision gives the GCF-3 period as 1 January 2028 to 31 December 2031. The period 2024 to 2027 belongs to GCF-2. The other two options are shifted by a year or two. They do not appear in the sources opened.

The correct answer is 50:50. The GCF says its work is designed with a targeted 50:50 balance between mitigation and adaptation over time. It is a target, not a fixed rule. As of 7 July 2026, the dashboard shows adaptation at USD 10.3 billion and mitigation at USD 10.1 billion in nominal terms. On a grant-equivalent basis, also as of 7 July 2026, adaptation is 60 per cent and mitigation is 40 per cent. The dashboard rounds its figures. The last option is wrong, because the GCF supports adaptation. The 90:10 and 20:80 splits do not appear in the sources opened.

The key on this site is NABARD. The GCF lists NABARD as an accredited Direct (National) entity. SIDBI was also accredited as a Direct (National) entity, in 2017. The SIDBI page still shows the status Accredited, but it lists a term end date of 9 September 2026. Its status and dates do not reconcile, so we do not call SIDBI currently accredited. On the GCF pages, both names fit the stem, so this question has two possible answers. We did not check the full accredited-entity list for the other two options. A proposed fix to the stem is in a separate note for the site editor.

The correct answer is 2015. The GCF page on NABARD gives the accreditation date as 8 July 2015 on its timeline and 7 July 2015 in another panel. Both fall in 2015. The other years are real dates, but they belong to other events. The IRM pledges came in 2014. SIDBI was accredited in 2017. NABARD was re-accredited on 19 October 2022.

The correct answer is Songdo, South Korea. The GCF headquarters is in Songdo, Incheon, in the Republic of Korea. The Headquarters Agreement was signed in June 2013 and came into force in August 2013. The headquarters opened in December 2013. Bonn is a trap. The GCF-2 pledging conference was held in Bonn on 5 October 2023, but Bonn is not the headquarters. Nairobi is also a trap. On 28 March 2026 the Board chose Nairobi as one host city for a regional office. The headquarters stays in Songdo.