(Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan signing the INF Treaty, Washington, December 1987) The statement issued by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on December 4 regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty following the meeting of the foreign ministers of the alliance in Brussels puts the seal on the US decision to withdraw from the pact. …
Trump’s fawning over Saudi ties backfires
(Russian President Putin ‘high fives’ with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Argentina, Nov 30, 2018) The G20 is an economic club and it has traditionally stuck to that groove. And Saudi Arabia has traditionally been represented at G20 events by government ministers, usually the oil minister. But this time around, the Crown Prince Mohamed …
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US will return to Vibrant Gujarat provided Modi wins 2019 poll
(Former US Secretary of State John Kerry at Vibrant Gujarat Summit, 11-13 January 2018) Curious, isn’t it, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his five-year term with a visa ban on him by the United States and is now ending it with an American ‘boycott’? The snub publicly administered by Washington by refusing to participate …
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India-China ties moving to new level
(Spring is in the air in Argentina — Modi, Putin and Xi exchange pleasantries) The G20 in Argentina last weekend turned out to be of great significance for India-China relations. On the sidelines of the event, PM Modi and President Xi Jinping had occasion to interact thrice – one bilateral meeting and a second meeting …
India steps up the game with Saudi Arabia
The meeting between PM Modi and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Buenos Aires earlier today on the sidelines of the G20 summit should not come as surprise. Basically, India has stuck to its stance that the internal affairs of another country are simply not its business; nor is India going to be …
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India meets the Taliban
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan unknowingly paid a compliment to the Indian leadership when he remarked last week, “A leader who does not take U-turns as per the requirements of the situation is not a real leader.” Khan was drawing an analogy from his cricketing days when he would deviate from an original strategy as …
Long passageway to peace
The terrible beauty about India-Pakistan relationship is that it is immensely popular among the peoples in both countries. Aside a clutch of perennial naysayers, the overwhelming Indian opinion feels elated about the decision to develop a pilgrim corridor to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. Continue reading…
Turkey’s Hour of Reckoning in Syria
During a Pentagon briefing last weekend, Secretary of Defence James Mattis dropped a bombshell by innocuously slipping in that the US military intends to set up a string of observation posts on the Syrian-Turkish border. Mattis implied that Turkey was on board and that the idea was for the two militaries to jointly prevent any …
Post-Khashoggi US-Saudi ties become iffy
(Lockheed Martin’s THAAD Missile System) Saudi Arabia has inked the deal, finally, after nearly two years of discussions to buy Lockheed Martin’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system. The massive$15 billion deal involves Saudi Arabia buying 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment. The Trump administration had vigorously canvassed for the arms deal, …
Rising Crimea tensions mar Trump-Putin meeting
(Kerch Strait, Crimea, and Sea of Azov) The ‘frozen conflict’ in Ukraine has suddenly become active on Sunday with an encounter involving the naval vessels of Ukraine and Russia at Kerch Strait in Crimea, the entry point of the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea. The Russians have detained three Ukrainian ships that tried …
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