India must shed its strategic ambivalence in the multipolar world

By M. K. Bhadrakumar  Treasured friendship: President Putin and Prime Minister Modi during their informal summit in Sochi, Russia in May 2018 | PTI A WIDELY PREVALENT REFRAIN in our strategic discourses is that the present trajectory of international politics presents India with unprecedented opportunities to advance national interests. This estimation also appears to have …

India, Russia join hands to strengthen multi-polarity

Amidst the months-long India-US war of nerves over our S-400 missile defence deal with Russia, the joint statement issued after the 19th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi on Friday largely passed unnoticed. Yet, the salience of the document becomes important. After all, what endures is the final document – not photo-ops, not gossips. And …

The Matryoshka dolls of India-Russia ties

The India-Russia policy must be counted as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s finest foreign policy legacy — alongside his Wuhan initiative with China. Modi’s imprimatur is vital because there is also a complex backdrop of Russian-American tensions in which this is unfolding. Continue reading

For Modi’s India, 2+2=0 as Trump tightens the leash

The US-Indian defining partnership took a leap forward in the field of defence at the first session of the “2+2” dialogue of the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers in New Delhi this week. It is a “win-win” for Washington. Highly lucrative multibillion-dollar arms deals sail into view, while Washington also shepherds India towards a …

At key ‘2+2’ talks, India should take US demands on Iran oil sanctions with a pinch of salt

With the “2+2” dialogue between India and the United States due to begin in New Delhi on Thursday, the Modi government has done the right thing to allow India’s state refiners to work out with Tehran the logistics of using tankers and insurance arranged by Iran so that the import of Iranian crude oil can …