War Fatigue Complicates West’s Aid to Ukraine

Left-winger former prime minister Robert Fico emerged as winner in Slovakia’s parliamentary election, Bratislava, Sept 30, 2023 A pall of gloom descended on Europe as the long-feared uncertainty set in over the weekend as to how long would the collective West underwrite the proxy war in Ukraine. To lift their sagging spirit, some European foreign ministers  …

Putin orders regrouping of Wagner for combat missions

Libyan leader Marshal Khalifa Haftar (C) was accorded a ceremonial welcome attended by Russian Defence Minister Gen. Yunus-Bek Yevkurov at a Moscow military airfield, September 26, 2023 In a significant development, the strongman of eastern Libya, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the supremo of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin in …

India won’t be bullied in multipolar setting

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (L) met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Washington, DC, September 28, 2023 The sombre mood at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York during External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s talk on Tuesday was only to be expected against the backdrop of the India-Canada diplomatic spat over the killing …

Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma

QUAD foreign ministers from US, Australia, India and Japan (from left to right) met in New York, September 22, 2023 The raging controversy over alleged involvement of the Indian government in the killing of Sikh plumber-cum-religious activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in faraway Canada is snowballing. Sensing that our elites are ultra-sensitive about western criticism, Canada, …

India-Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor is a geopolitical pipe dream

The gusto with which the United States co-opted the idea of an India – Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor [IMEC] during the recent G20 Summit should not come as a surprise. It brings to mind an astounding natural phenomenon in the northern desert of Saudi Arabia — a little purple flower that blooms very rarely, …

G20 is in need of genuine reform

G20 leaders at Rajghat paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi, September 10, 2023    India being the host country, the triumphalist tom-toming that G20 summit on September 9-10 was a “success” is both understandable and probably justifiable. Certainly, Indian diplomacy was in full cry. The negotiation of the G20 Declaration is no mean achievement in a highly …