Yet another colour revolution in Georgia, Tbilisi, Feb 26, 2021 Mikhail Gorbachev in a special interview to the Tass news agency on Monday gave a poignant message to the Kremlin by calling for the strengthening of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security treaty Organization and for mending relations with those former Soviet republics …
Iran pushes back at US overreach on nuclear issue
Iran rejects talks with US unless sanctions are lifted Tehran rejected on Sunday a pending proposal from the European Union to arrange a “diplomatic conversation” with the US. But the Iranian statement in this regard is rather nuanced. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated: “In view of the …
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Guns fall silent on India-Pakistan border
The extraordinary joint statement last Friday at the level of the Director-Generals of Military Operations [DGMO] of India and Pakistan came like a bolt from the blue. It triggered speculations. Of course, it is preposterous to contemplate that the Indian Army went out on a limb without political directive, or that some “grand bargain” involving …
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US exceptionalism surges again. Will it fly?
Poverty is the ultimate denial of human rights In a statement marking the “return” of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken disclosed that the Biden Administration is placing democracy and human rights at the centre of American foreign policy. The cat is out of …
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Biden and the Saudi conundrum
King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (C) meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (R) aboard the USS Quincy in Great Bitter Lake, Egypt, February 14, 1945. The Joe Biden Administration is expected to release the Central Intelligence Agency report on the brutal murder of the prominent dissident and well-known journalist Jamal Khashoggi in …
India has lessons from Sino-Russian normalisation
China backs India for hosting BRICS 2021 summit At a press conference in Beijing on Monday, when asked about China’s attitude toward BRICS cooperation and India’s current chairmanship of the grouping in the backdrop of the border tensions in Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin described BRICs as a cooperation mechanism with “practical …
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US, Iran edging back to negotiating table
New generation of centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment plant The frozen lake of US-Iran confrontation is generating a pinging sound. The cracking of the ice is yet to produce that loud booming thunderclap. But these are early days. It was only last Thursday that the US and the three European states who are party …
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The zen of Ladakh disengagement
A meeting between special representatives of India and China on boundary question – Ajit Doval (L) and Wang Yi (R) – is on the cards The 9th round of talks at the army commanders’ level between India and China resulted in a breakthrough that since achieved the successful disengagement of troops on the north and …
India’s forever wars and forever warriors
Disengagement between Chinese and Indian forces at the banks of the Pangong lake in Eastern Ladakh The Washington-based Quincy Institute, arguably the most intellectually stimulating American think tank nowadays, in its compulsively readable publication Responsible Statecraft featured on Tuesday an investigative report titled Weapons biz bankrolls experts pushing to extend Afghan War, authored by Eli Clifton, …
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Biden resumes adult conversations with Beijing, Moscow
US envoy to Iran Robert Malley (third from left) at a 2015 meeting with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (far R), Geneva Like a bolt from the blue, the news has appeared belatedly that the US special envoy to Iran Rob Malley initiated a call with Chinese vice minister Ma Zhaoxu on February …
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