German Chancellor Scholz (L) and US President Biden at the White House, Feb. 9, 2024 There couldn’t be a better metaphor than what a Chinese analyst used to characterise the NATO while commenting on its secretary general Jens Stoltenberg’s recent remark that the West does not seek war with Russia but should still “prepare ourselves for …
Putin signals interest in Ukraine talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) with American journalist Tucker Carlson (L), The Kremlin, Moscow, February 9, 2024 The great beauty of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview with the famous American journalist Tucker Carlson is that there is something in it for almost everyone — be it historians who memorialise the past; diplomats who isolate history …
China, Russia pip US to the Taliban hearth
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) receiving the credentials of Taliban government’s ambassador to China, Asadullah Bilal Karimi in a formal ceremony, Great Hall of the People, Beijing, Jan. 30, 2024 The diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan on January 31, 2024 by China must be bracketed with two other far-reaching regional policy moves …
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Nuland leaves sense of foreboding in Kiev
US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland in Kiev, Ukraine, January 31, 2014 The commencement of political upheavals in world affairs sometimes lies with a seemingly obscure event. This is not to say that the shooting down of a Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane carrying dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war over the territory of Belgorod …
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China ignores US entreaties of mediation
Wang Yi, Member of Politbureau of Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and director of Central Foreign Affairs Office (3rd from left) met with Jake Sullivan, assistant to US President for National Security (3rd from Right), Bangkok, Jan. 26-27, 2024 There is an old proverb that when misfortunes come, they come in battalions. Coming on top …
ICJ ruling on Gaza is on the way
In a few hours from now, by this evening per IST, it is expected that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on the South African request for provisional measures to stop what it argues is Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It is a poignant moment: an ex-apartheid country is censuring an …
Geopolitics is moving North Korea’s way
President Vladimir Putin (3rd from Right) met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (3rd from Left), Moscow, Jan. 16, 2024 In less than three years, the erosion in the US hegemony that began cascading with the defeat in Afghanistan in August 2021 spread to Eurasia, followed by the massive eruption in West Asia by …
Regional opinion urges Iran-Pakistan amity
Unsurprisingly, the eruption of tensions in the Pakistan-Iran diplomatic ties on Tuesday following Tehran’s air strike across the border against Baluchistan is subsiding, which testifies to the political maturity of the two countries. Neither side wants the tensions and both are astute observers of the regional and international environment. Their chosen path of reconciliation becomes …
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Decoding Iran’s missile, drone strikes
The building described as ‘Mossad Headquarters’ in Iraqi Kurdistan with underground facilities for conducting covert operations hit by Iranian missile attack, Erbil, Northern Iraq, January 15, 2024 The stunning missile and drone strikes on three countries — Syria, Iraq and Pakistan — over a period of 24 hours and Tehran taking the extraordinary step of …
An anniversary West would rather forget
On the 75th anniversary of the battle that lifted the Siege of Leningrad in World War 2, people walk in snowfall to the Motherland monument to place flowers at the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery where the victims were buried, St. Petersburg, Russia, January 26, 2019 An epochal anniversary from the annals of modern history is coming up …