Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the UAE on Aug 23-24, 2019 Media reports began appearing lately that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is planning to visit the Persian Gulf region once again— this time around, to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Hopefully, the tour has a raison d’être despite its atrocious timing — when …
Continue reading “India learnt nothing, forgot nothing in the Gulf”
Pamir Highway between Osh and Khorog near Tajik-Afghan border Compared to the events two decades ago when the Afghan Taliban appeared in the Amu Darya region in northern Afghanistan and Central Asian states and Russia went into feverish tantrums, there is an eerie calm palpable in the steppes today. The contrast couldn’t be sharper. In …
Continue reading “Central Asian steppes mutely watch Taliban’s surge”
Meeting room of the United Nations Security Council. Pakistan has called for an emergency meeting of the UNSC to discuss Kashmir The Russian news agency Tass reported that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday to convey that Islamabad should defuse its tensions with New Delhi …
Continue reading “Vajpayee’s Kashmir necklace becomes Modi’s Albatross”
China’s State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi in talks with India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, Beijing, Aug. 12, 2019. Editorials have appeared in two leading Delhi newspapers today (here and here) urging the government to present a credible, appealing diplomatic narrative on the J&K developments. The Indian narrative so far is largely …
Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) and SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa (R) wave at supporters during the party’s National Convention, Colombo, Aug 11, 2019 The announcement in Colombo on Sunday by former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa that his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be his party SLPP’s presidential candidate in the election due …
A sit-in at Hong Kong international airport, Aug 9, 2019 China has explicitly accused the United States and Britain for fomenting the “pro-democracy” protests in Hong Kong. Beijing has taken up the matter via the diplomatic channel demanding that the US intelligence should stop inciting and abetting the Hong Kong protestors. Last week photographic evidence …
Continue reading “A Sino-Russian firewall against US interference”
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing, Aug. 9, 2019. The “special and emergency visit” by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to Beijing on Friday August 9 has been highly successful in getting China to voice open support for Islamabad’s proposed move …
Continue reading “China backs the opening of Kashmir file in UNSC”
People wave as a US military vehicle travels through Kurdish-dominated Amuda province in northern Syria, bordering Turkey Six years after Turkish President Recep Erdogan floated the idea of creating a safe zone in northern Syria, it still remains a chimera. When the Turks lobbied for the zone, notably in 2013 and 2015, the Obama administration …
Continue reading “A safe zone for Syrian refugees — so near, yet so very far”
The site where a Taliban car bomb detonated in Kabul on Aug 7, 2019, killing 14 people and wounding 145. The statement issued by the Taliban on Thursday regarding the situation surrounding the state of Jammu & Kashmir merits serious attention. The statement recalls media reports on the abrogation of the special status of J&K …
Continue reading “India’s move on Article 370 came six months late”
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, on lockdown. File photo. In the aftermath of the Modi government’s decision to remove ‘special status’ for J&K and bifurcate the state into two union territories, the most keenly awaited regional and international reaction — and a hugely consequential one — would be that of China’s, not the US’ or even …
Continue reading “China reacts to J&K, India demands reciprocity”
