The 6th century CE (532–537) Hagia Sophia cathedral, Istanbul A defining moment came, rather unnoticed, when the foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) held a virtual meeting on July 13 where the group’s relations with Turkey was on the agenda. The resumption of Muslim prayers in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul came up for …
Putin had a dream to reset the world order
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center, Jerusalem, January 23, 2020, to mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz Moscow has a way of signalling to the White House on critical issues from time to time through public statements calibrated to catch President Trump’s attention. It happens usually …
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EU summit to reboot India’s world outlook
India-EU virtual summit will take place on July 15, 2020 under the shadows of the cataclysmic Covid-19 pandemic. One of the enduring urban legends in modern times is the quip attributed to Henry Kissinger, ‘Who do I call if I want to call Europe?’ Kissinger disowned it subsequently, but the myth lingers on. Europe is …
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India shouldn’t align with Five Eyes
The Five Eyes has been in the vanguard of Hong Kong protests Against the backdrop of border tensions in Ladakh, the Indian media narratives have ascribed to our foreign-policy lurch toward the Quad and the overall tilt to the US, the breakdown of mutual trust in India-China relations. Chinese statements have repeatedly expressed regret that …
Russia, China keep the ‘dragon in the fog’
Hong Kong is still active as the spy hub of the East Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a phone conversation today with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Beijing will “continue to work” with Moscow in “firmly supporting” each other’s efforts “rejecting external sabotage and intervention” so as to “preserve their respective sovereignty, security …
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US lobbyists set the Indian narrative on China border
Special Representatives of India and China on border dispute A.K.Doval (L) and Wang Yi (R) reached a ‘positive consensus’ over de-escalation and disengagement in Eastern Ladakh, July 5, 2020 The civilian-military relationship is a complex matrix. In ‘wartime’, this is more so when civilian leaders who never held a killer’s weapon in their palms …
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Don’t beat the bushes for China, there’s nothing out there
Chinese and Pakistani border guards at the Khunjerab Pass in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region bordering China. The border tensions between India and China are accentuating a malaise among Indian analysts — their tunnel vision. Every word that slips out of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s garrulous mouth is seen nowadays as ringing affirmation of the …
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Modi terminates his Weibo diplomacy
The common perception among Indian analysts, widely articulated in our media, is that the government’s options to ‘hit back’ at China for whatever has happened in eastern Ladakh during the past two months are very limited. The reported erasure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘official page’ on the Chinese social media website Weibo can only …
Russian bounty killing forces Trump’s hands on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
Pakistan army chief Gen. Qamar Bajwa (L) met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (R) in Kabul, June 9, 2020 As expected, the controversy over Russia’s alleged bounties for killing American and NATO troops in Afghanistan is steadily snowballing. The New York Times has come out with more leaks such as bank transfers from accounts identified with …
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