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 …
Continue reading “India’s Persian Gulf diplomacy is churlish”
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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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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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 …
Rare consensus-making effort. Ministry of External Affairs Spokesman Randhir Jaiswal addresses Inter- Ministerial Briefing on Recent Developments in West Asia, in New Delhi. Make no mistake, Modi Government is squarely blaming the US for the attack on ships in the Strait of Hormuz killing seven Indian sailors. Protests have been lodged with the US charge d’affaires …
INDIA bloc meeting of opposition parties was held in New Delhi on June 8, 2026 (Source: News on AIR) The Pandora’s box has been opened within the month of the stunning election results in the Kerala state assembly election as the Enforcement Directorate under the Union finance minister (re)opened an investigation on Pinarayi’s family, while …
Google Image Result for Mussandam Peninsula, Oman, and Strait of Hormuz [Source: www.britannica.com] Control of vital sea lanes and narrow chokepoints has been an underpinning of the United States’ foreign policy strategy since the Second World War. It is basically anchored on the so-called Rimland Theory expounded in 1942 by the Dutch-American political geographer Nicholas …
Continue reading “Strait of Hormuz is as ancient as the hills”
US President Donald Trump’s historic visit to Beijing raises hopes of “a constructive and strategically stable relationship” between the US and China, Beijing, May 15, 2026 Narratives in international diplomacy are best formed through an organic process as the variables in any given situation get played out in the fulness of time and a ‘new …
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Persian Gulf (Hormuz Strait), Red Sea trade routes Tucker Carlson, like any genius in the media world, has an uncanny knack for zeroing in on men and mice who have something ‘original’ to contribute. His interview late February with the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an ex-Baptist minister and Donald Trump loyalist in the …
Continue reading “India’s quasi-alliance with Israel and UAE won’t have happy ending”
Congress workers celebrate with a langar following the party’s victory in Kerala, New Delhi, May 4, 2026 There is an inimitable French expression — ‘ennui’. I first came across it while reading Jean-Paul Sartre as a university student in Thiruvananthapuram in the mid-sixties. It roughly translates as a feeling of listlessness, profound boredom, and dissatisfaction …
