Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, White House, Washington, November 18, 2025. The telephone call from the US Vice-President JD Vance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 8 came as a surprise. Neither the American nor the Indian side …
Trump returns to peacemaking in Ukraine but war must mature first
President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting with Russian Defence Ministry leadership, Kremlin, Moscow, August 5, 2026 The Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the political equivalent of Oroshnik hypersonic missile Wednesday to scatter the recent pot shots by hawkish factions at the Russian ‘power vertical’, never a unified construct actually, over the future directions of Ukraine …
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Graham sanctions bill has bite. Trump will use it to terrorise India
The Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s characterisation of the reports suggesting the US could impose a 100 percent tariff on countries such as India that import Russian oil as speculative cannot be taken as a statement of fact. “We don’t comment on speculation,” he told the media. On closer look, it is an evasive …
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US conjoins the wars in Eurasia, West Asia
The Caspian Sea forms a strategically vital direct supply route between Russia and Iran (Source: BBC) On Friday, even as the US President Donald Trump was announcing the end of the latest round of the conflict with Iran, Pentagon unobtrusively extended the war theatre to the Caspian Sea in a hugely consequential geopolitical thrust. The …
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US-Saudi nuclear pantomime is with eye on Iran
The excitement over the US-Saudi nuclear deal has proved to be short-lived. Apparently, the US President Donald Trump himself poured cold water into it by adding a caveat within 24 hours on Thursday that in order for the deal to be advanced, Saudi Arabia must first join the Abraham Accords. That is, as things stand, …
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Kerala should prepare for AI education
The Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s choice of the New Indian Express editor Santwana Bhattacharya for his first major media interview after assuming office 50 days ago comes as no surprise. Both are quintessential intellectuals and humanists at the core with a rare ability to synthesise to form a new unified whole. Ancient Greeks coined …
India’s Persian Gulf diplomacy is churlish
Delhi’s attempt to play the Shia card to moderate the Iranian disquiet over our ‘forever honeymoon’ with the Israel-UAE-Bahrain axis failed to impress Tehran. It was a clumsy attempt but was, arguably, the best card Delhi held potentially. The best alternative would have been to send an all-party delegation to represent India at the funeral …
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Musings on the funeral ceremony in Tehran
Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev met Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Tehran, July 3, 2026 The government made a great decision to nominate the Governor of Bihar Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd.) to represent the country at the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is an unusual choice to …
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BJP scripts new paradigm of development for Kerala
An MSC vessel at the Vizhinjam International Seaport, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala The transformative phase of politics in Kerala shifting away from ideological paradigms surged with the announcement by the state BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday that Thiruvananthapuram would be home to one of India’s first university townships. The BJP has literally co-opted a flagship of …
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China wades into the geopolitics of Iran
US, Iran on same page, as President Masoud Pezeshkian holds the signed MoU with President Donald Trump’s signature ending the war and lifting US naval blockade, Tehran, June 18, 2026. The authenticity of the public articulation of the stunning proposal of an alliance by Majlis speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf — ‘regional bloc’ — built around …