The four-nation Turkey-Russia-Germany-France summit on Syria on October 27 in Istanbul had an impressive outcome. All participants – each with own interests – has some ‘takeaway’ from the summit, which itself is a measure of the success of the event. This is also important because the participants now have a reason to work together. …
Continue reading “Istanbul summit on Syria was successful but caveats remain”
So, finally, Bharatiya Janata Party has identified the company it keeps in the Sabarimala issue and implicitly underscored its hidden agenda – Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Nair Service Society (NSS). The BJP president Amit Shah openly acknowledged this during a highly inflammatory public speech in Kannur, Kerala, yesterday. It is no big secret that …
Continue reading “Kerala makes history with large scale appointment of OBC, Dalit as temple priests”
An old Italian friend and a noted Sinologist based in Beijing representing a Vatican paper, Francesco Sisci wrote apropos an article I had posted on Facebook yesterday Donald Trump Meets the End of the Empire authored by Douglas Macgreggor, an ex-US Army decorated combat veteran and an author (National Interest, October 24, 2018): “Napoleon famously …
There is poetic justice, no doubt, in former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapksa’s return to the government – and more so in the manner in which he has done that. It is sweet revenge that the defector who backstabbed him and usurped power in 2015 – incumbent president Maitripala Sirisena – has now beseeched him …
(A view of Mt. Fuji, Japan) Hyping up the forthcoming annual India-Japan summit in Tokyo on Monday is a thankless job. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale in his media briefing Friday performed optimally, even adding a touch of mystique to an informal lunch that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will host for PM Modi at a …
Continue reading “‘Historic turning point’ in Japan-China relations overshadows Abe-Modi summit”
(Putin receives Bolton at the Kremlin, October 23) The highlight of the consultations of the US National Security Advisor John Bolton in Moscow on Monday was the announcement of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Paris on November 11 on the sidelines of the ceremony marking the centenary …
Continue reading “A sombre run-up to US-Russia summit in Paris”
(Sabarimala temple) The op-Ed in today’s Indian Express by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The Sabarimala aftermath, will make Malayalis sit up and think. The salients of the column are three: Being a country that professes constitutional rule and primacy to rule of law, a mobilization to damn the authority of the Supreme Court is a dangerous …
It goes without saying that oil has been central to military power and economic life in modern history. Control of oil has been a key source of power and policy in the Cold War. There was even a top-secret US government plan to ravage the Middle East oil industry in the event of the former …
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia gets a friend in need – Russia”
(Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan signing INF treaty, Washington, December 8, 1987) President Donald Trump’s confirmation that the US is terminating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) with Russia will be regarded as a defining moment in international security. The INF, which was signed by then US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev …
Continue reading “What Trump’s pullout from INF treaty means”
(Chinese and Russian Defence Ministers at Vostok 2018 exercises, September 11-17) Prime Minister Modi’s annual meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe takes him to Tokyo next week. But this time around, it will be an Official Working Visit, dispensing with the frills of bonhomie. The signal is that the discussions will be largely devoted …
