US President Donald Trump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Royal Palace, Riyadh, May 13, 2025 President Donald Trump is already looming as a Colossus striding 21st century history. Acutely conscious that he’s left with less than four years to create his legacy Trump is undoubtedly a man in a hurry. Amazingly, his agenda in the …
Logic and reasoning in the time of war
Kashmiri villagers outside their house damaged after cross-border shelling from Pakistan, Uri, north of Srinagar, May 8, 2025 One of the saddest things about India’s lurch toward transforming as a national security state through the past decade since our late ‘peacenik prime minister’ Manmohan Singh handed over power has been the gradual atrophying and the …
Minerals deal resets geopolitics of Ukraine
Ukraine’s mineral resources, December 10, 2024 [SOURCE: NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence] Moscow and Kiev have been vying with each other to curry favour with the new US administration. Just as Russian diplomacy appeared to be outstripping Kiev, things changed dramatically on April 30 with the signing of the so-called minerals deal between the …
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India-Pakistan tensions show signs of easing
Exchange of fire on Line of Control between India and Pakistan Time past is time present in India-Pakistan crisis. The ‘mediation’ by the United States from behind the scene on the diplomatic track appears to be once again working, which calls on both Delhi and Islamabad to show restraint and pull back from a military …
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India should tread warily on battlefield
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) chaired a meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (L), National Security Advisor Ajit Doval (R) and the military top brass, New Delhi, April 29, 2025 In a timely reminder, even as Indians are demanding robust retaliation for the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir, the US president Donald Trump pulled …
Trump’s diplomacy gains traction, silences sceptics
US President Donald Trump (L) met privately with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at St. Peter’s Basilica on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, Vatican, April 26, 2025 The US President Donald Trump is a lone ranger in international arena and a self-confessed practitioner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absolute maxim that ours is not …
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US, Iran take a leap forward in trust building
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian (C) at an exhibition “National Day of Nuclear Technology”, Tehran, April 9, 2025 With the foreplay over and US-Iranian talks commencing in Muscat on Saturday, a constructive engagement has begun in right earnestness. The sure sign of it is that Iran’s currency rose nearly 6 percent on Sunday. The Tehran bazaar, …
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Steve Witkoff’s Iran mission holds seamless possibilities
Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s senior aide on Russia negotiations, is expected to kickstart talks with Tehran (File photo) The rubric of the US-Iranian talks slated for Saturday in Muscat turned into a vanity fair of sorts — whether the talks should be called ‘indirect’ or ‘direct’. The US President Donald Trump sought direct talks and …
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Russia and the US made “three steps forward” after two days of consultations in Washington
Russian president’s Special Representative on investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev had two days of consultations with US administration officials, Washington, DC, April 3, 2025 The visit by the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and special representative of the Russian president for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev to Washington on April 2-3, the …
Trump-Putin parley is a bit under the weather
US president Donald Trump (L) with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in attendance, Oval Office, White House, March 21, 2025 (File photo) The Kremlin apparently came to the conclusion last week that it was about time to do some plain-speaking that US president Donald Trump’s quest for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war was a …
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