Shifting Strategic Sands In West Asia
NEW DELHI: “We’re here to stay,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said while inaugurating his country’s first embassy in the Gulf, in Abu Dhabi and then a consulate in Dubai in the highest-level visit by an Israeli official. The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalised ties with Israel under former U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘Abraham […]
‘India Conceding To Any Pressure On Kashmir Is Far Fetched’
NEW DELHI: The prime minister’s outreach on Kashmir last week was driven by a vision and a roadmap that has been in the works for some time, says Prof Amitabh Matto of Jawaharlal Nehru University. On The Gist with Surya Gangadharan, he underscored that in all these years, no Indian government has compromised on Kashmir. […]
India-EU Relations: Moving Towards Sustained Cooperation
NEW DELHI: There is a new vigour in India-EU relationship. After a very successful India-EU summit in May, both sides are now looking to implement the decisions taken at the summit. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is making special effort to reach out to as many European countries as possible. Currently in Italy for the […]
China Fuels Fresh LAC Tension
NEW DELHI: If the continuing standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh wasn’t bad enough, aggressor China is now blaming India for what it calls aggressive posturing. The Chinese foreign ministry has again asked for the border dispute not to be linked to the overall bilateral ties, something that India doesn’t […]
National Security Agendas In The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
NEW DELHI: On ‘The Gist’, Raffaello Pantucci, Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, London discusses the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the in-person meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the eight member states in Dushanbe. India’s […]
‘India Has Much To Gain From Tapping Its Ocean Resources’
NEW DELHI: India has embarked on an ambitious Deep Ocean Mission over the next five years at a cost of over Rs.4000 crore. The mission is as much a result of deep sea research and expertise over the last few decades, as also the recognition that India needs to step up the pace of research […]
‘To Draw Investment, Sri Lanka Needs To Send The Right Signals’
NEW DELHI: For a tiny nation, Sri Lanka has astoundingly high levels of external debt, its foreign reserves are low and the pandemic has played havoc on the tourism sector, one of the mainstays of its economy. Soon after taking charge as President in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had told StratNews Global that he would prefer […]
‘India Should Not Hold Back From Talking To Nato’
NEW DELHI: Has the time come for an India Nato partnership? Strategic affairs commentator Dr. C Raja Mohan believes the time has come and India should not hold back from beginning a dialogue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The world’s premier security organisation has for its part, welcomed an opportunity to talk to India […]
U.S.-Led Plan To Rival China’s ‘Belt And Road Initiative’
NEW DELHI: India has said it is “studying” U.S. President Joe Biden’s ‘Build Back Better World’ (B3W) plan, announced at the Group of 7 (G7) Summit, and “would engage with them probably at a later stage.” On ‘The Gist’, Jeremy A. Garlick, Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre, Associate Professor of China Studies, Prague University […]
‘India Shouldn’t Put All Eggs In Junta’s Basket; Should Keep Options, Channels Open’
NEW DELHI: What are India’s foreign policy objectives and is it realising them after the February military coup in Myanmar, how is China seen in that country and how are both Asian giants dealing with the situation in their national interests, what is Aung San Suu Kyi’s political profile post the junta levelling corruption and […]
‘Hungarians Are Not Anti-Chinese, But They Have Concerns’
Hungary has witnessed unprecedented demonstrations against government plans to set up a campus of China’s Fudan University in the capital Budapest. But the protests seem to reflect multiple concerns: about the lack of transparency surrounding the project including the cost, and disquiet about the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban with elections due next year. […]
Democracy, Dictatorship And Digital Censorship In Africa
NEW DELHI: Is the Nigerian government’s twitter ban an illustration of how even a democracy can use dictatorial tendencies, doesn’t big-tech and social media have to follow national laws, what’s the effect on common citizens and how are they reacting? On ‘The Gist’, Torinmo Salau, a Lagos based writer and journalist, discusses these issues, why […]
‘India Natural Leader In Region; We Have To Call Out Bullies Or It Will Get Worse’
NEW DELHI: Covid assistance to India “is a reflection of your friendship, status and influence in the world,” Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to Bhutan says, adding, “on Sunday, one of our Australian Defence Force aircraft will be landing here in Delhi, with the delivery of another of the oxygen tanks […]
China Using Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation As Political Tool To Subjugate Tibetans: Sikyong
NEW DELHI: A week ago, Penpa Tsering took over as the new president of the Central Tibetan Administration. Soon after, he said efforts would be made to reach out to the Chinese government to find a mutually beneficial, negotiated and non-violent solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict. Till such a lasting solution is found, we shall […]
Beijing’s Bombardment Of Fake Narrative Campaigns And How To Counter Manipulation
NEW DELHI: China’s ‘Wolf Warriors’ are known worldwide as its civilian army, but how does the Chinese Communist Party aggressively weaponise and churn out false narratives, fake news, disinformation and misinformation, how successful is Beijing and what can be done to foil it? On ‘The Gist’, Dr. Puma Shen, Chairman of Doublethink Lab in Taiwan, […]
Taliban Dictating Terms In Afghanistan?
NEW DELHI: Amidst speculation that Islamabad and Washington are in talks to allow U.S. bases in Pakistan to facilitate counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan once foreign troops withdraw, the Taliban has warned Afghanistan’s neighbours to not allow what it calls a ‘historic mistake’. Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has told parliament his government would never […]
‘China Is Facing A Crisis Of Legitimacy In Tibet’
China’s new white paper on Tibet is the 15th in a series that began in 1992, and one can presume more will happen. At one level it would appear to reflect China’s confidence in its hold over Tibet and what it has accomplished since it invaded and occupied the roof of the world 70 years […]
‘Defence, Security One Of Five Pillars In Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’
NEW DELHI: Vietnam has sent “another 1262 oxygen cylinders, 200 oxygen generators and 75 ventilators on an Indian Naval Ship from Ho Chi Minh city to Chennai,” Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau, Vietnam’s Envoy to India tells StratNews Global. Speaking to Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi, the Ambassador also talks about the Quad(Australia, Japan, India, U.S.) […]
‘Despite Some Undercounting Covid Infections Are Declining Nationwide’
There is an element of undercounting in the figures of Covid infection cases and deaths, says Dr. K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India. But he also believes they show a trend which points to a steady decline. What is important now is for the governments at the Centre and States […]
Goal Is To Deter Hamas From Firing Rockets At Us In Future: Former Israeli Envoy
NEW DELHI: With reports that fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas is ‘expected to end on thursday’, Ambassador Michael Oren, Former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Ex-Israeli Envoy to the U.S. tells StratNews, “while pressure is mounting on us from the United States and from parts of the international community, Israel […]