India-Russia divergences The Excelsior 14 Apr 2021 The recent two-day visit of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, to India was followed by a similar duration visit to Pakistan. While in India he held discussions with his counterpart, S Jaishankar, however there was no interaction with the PM. In his press conference, post the visit, he stated, ‘We discussed […]
Commenting on India’s internal matters The Excelsior 25 Mar 2021 The Indian parliament, in retaliation to London’s actions sometime prior, discussed the case of racism in UK’s Oxford University, where Indian student, Rashmi Samant was forced to resign as President of the University’s student union for apparent racist and anti-Semitic social media posts. Member of Parliament (MP), Ashwini Vaishnaw, […]
The QUAD is moving forward The Excelsior 18 Mar 2021 The QUAD leaders, post their meeting last Friday, published an opinion piece in the Washington Post. It stated, ‘we are striving to ensure that the Indo-Pacific is accessible and dynamic, governed by international law and bedrock principles such as freedom of navigation and peaceful resolution of disputes, and that […]
Self-interest must guide India in Myanmar The Statesman 09 Mar 2021 In Myanmar, the army took over the country in a coup on 01 Feb, removing the elected government. Myanmar had previously remained under army rule from 1962 to 2011. Democracy in the country was still fragile, with the army controlling the shots from behind. The elected government had […]
Indian Americans or just Americans NAAD Feb 2021 Since the swearing in of the Biden administration in the US, there has been a spate of discussion in Indian media on the number of Americans, with Indian descent or connections with India, who form part of the team. Apart from Kamala Devi Harris, who is the Vice President, reports state […]
Economic dimension key to QUAD success The Statesman 23 Feb 2021 The virtual foreign ministers meeting of the QUAD, hosted by the new US administration, last week, signalled a strong message to China. India for the first time used the term QUAD. Apart from its standard comments on freedom of navigation, there was also a reference for supporting ASEAN […]
Growing India- GCC military ties Bharat Shakti 14 Feb 2021 Introduction The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was established by an agreement concluded on 25 May 1981 in Riyadh. The grouping includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Their special relations stem from geographical proximity, political systems based on monarchy, Islamic beliefs and common objectives. The GCC comprise […]
Subtle messages sent this Republic Day The Excelsior 04 Feb 2021 Republic Day celebrations have traditionally been occasions of displaying Indian military might, soft power and national culture. As a tradition, spanning over five decades, it has always had a foreign dignitary, generally a close ally, present on the occasion as the chief guest. This year, British PM, Boris […]
The changing global narrative and its impact on India Chanakya Forum 25 Jan 2021 Introduction The world is shaped by events and incidents. These change global narratives in the near and intermediate future. 2020 was dominated by few major events. These include the COVID 19 pandemic, worsening US-China relations, Chinese wolf warrior diplomacy and aggressiveness, a desire of European nations […]
Skirmishes on global vaccine battlefield 19 Jan 2021 As COVID 19 rampaged the globe, nationalism rose to the fore. Countries transited in reverse from globalization to isolationism. Nations closed their borders, blocked movement of people, equipment and medicines. Pharmaceutical industries were employed to first serve domestic sectors prior to being utilized to boost diplomatic and economic gains. The provision […]