Current Affairs MCQs – Page 3 (Q21-30)

The Economic Cooperation Organisation is headquartered in Tehran, Iran, reflecting Iran's role as one of its three founding members alongside Pakistan and Turkey. ECO was established in 1985 to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation among member states, building on an earlier grouping called the Regional Cooperation for Development formed in 1964. It later expanded in 1992 to include several Central Asian states and Afghanistan, growing to ten members. Ankara and Islamabad are tempting distractors since Turkey and Pakistan are the other two founding members, but the organization's secretariat has remained in Tehran.

ECO stands for Economic Cooperation Organisation, a regional intergovernmental body founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey to promote trade, transport and economic integration across the region. It grew out of an earlier and smaller grouping called the Regional Cooperation for Development, established in 1964, which dissolved amid regional political upheavals in the late 1970s. ECO expanded significantly in 1992 to admit Afghanistan and several newly independent Central Asian states, bringing its membership to ten countries. Its headquarters remains in Tehran, Iran, one of its three founding members.

ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, the largest country in the bloc by population and economy. It was founded to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development while promoting regional peace and stability among Southeast Asian states. Manila, Singapore and Bangkok are tempting distractors because they are capitals of other founding member states where the founding declaration was actually signed in Bangkok in 1967. ASEAN has since grown from five to ten member states, with Timor-Leste in the process of joining as its eleventh member.

ASEAN was founded on August 8, 1967, when the Bangkok Declaration was signed by five Southeast Asian nations seeking to promote regional stability during the Cold War era. The bloc's formation came against a backdrop of regional tensions, including Indonesia's Konfrontasi policy toward Malaysia, which had only recently ended. 1975 is a tempting distractor since that year marked the end of the Vietnam War, a major regional turning point that came after ASEAN's founding. ASEAN has since expanded to ten members, with its secretariat headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia.

ASEAN was founded in 1967 by five countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, whose foreign ministers signed the Bangkok Declaration establishing the bloc. Brunei became the sixth member in 1984 shortly after gaining independence from Britain, followed by Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia through the 1990s. Six is a tempting distractor because it is close to the real figure but includes Brunei, who joined seventeen years after the original founding group. ASEAN's headquarters and secretariat are based in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital and largest city.

Brussels serves as the main seat of the European Union's key institutions, including the European Commission and the Council of the EU, even though the European Parliament also holds sessions in Strasbourg. Luxembourg hosts the EU's Court of Justice, while Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank, making all three tempting distractors for a bloc with genuinely distributed institutions. The EU traces its roots to the European Coal and Steel Community formed in 1951 among six founding states. Today it comprises 27 member states following the United Kingdom's withdrawal, known as Brexit, in 2020.

The European Union was formally established by the Treaty of Maastricht, signed in February 1992 and taking effect on November 1, 1993, transforming the earlier European Economic Community into the EU. The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, is a tempting distractor because it created the original European Economic Community, a key predecessor body. The later Treaty of Lisbon, in force since 2009, reformed the EU's governing structures but did not create the union itself. Maastricht also laid the groundwork for the euro, the single currency introduced for transactions in 1999 and as cash in 2002.

The Commonwealth of Nations is headquartered in London at Marlborough House, reflecting the organization's origins in the former British Empire even though it operates as a voluntary association of equal sovereign states. It comprises 56 member countries, most of them former British colonies or dependencies, including Pakistan, India and dozens of African and Caribbean nations. Ottawa and New York are tempting distractors as major Commonwealth-linked or UN-linked capitals, but neither hosts the Commonwealth secretariat. The British monarch has traditionally served as the ceremonial Head of the Commonwealth, a role King Charles III now holds.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the city where its founder Henry Dunant launched the organization in the 19th century. Geneva has since become a global hub for humanitarian and human-rights bodies, hosting the UN's European headquarters and the WHO alongside the ICRC. Bern is a tempting distractor since it is Switzerland's actual political capital, though the ICRC has always been based in Geneva. The ICRC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times, more than any other organization, for its work protecting victims of armed conflict.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in 1863 in Geneva by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, after he witnessed the horrific aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in 1859. His experiences led him to write a book advocating for neutral organizations to help wounded soldiers, which directly inspired the Geneva Conventions signed in 1864. 1919 is a tempting distractor since that year saw the founding of the League of Red Cross Societies, a related but separate body. Dunant later shared the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his humanitarian work.