(File photo of US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk identified by the US as the drone shot down by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, June 20) The US President Donald Trump’s reported decision abruptly to call off military strike against Iran which he’d previously ordered, highlights the growing complexity of the US-Iranian entanglement. Indeed, it …
Discords with US are more than moving parts in a transactional relationship
The Indian analysts view US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s forthcoming visit to New Delhi early next week through the looking glass of the ‘tariff war’ between the two countries and / or India’s purchase of the S-400 anti-ballistic missile system from Russia. However, this gives a tunnel vision. The point is, there is the …
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Modi wades into Eurasianism
(Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin with their delegations, Bishkek, June 14, 2019 on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.) The Bishkek Declaration, issued after the summit meeting (June 14-15) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation devotes one sentence praising China’s Belt and Road Initiative: “The Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the …
Iran can be Trump’s nemesis
(Smoke billows from the Front Altair oil tanker, Gulf of Oman, June 13, 2019) What a coincidence that a leaked document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) just exposed that the chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April, 2018 was most likely staged. In security parlance, it was a false …
Pompeo coming with American goodies
From an Indian perspective, the much-touted speech by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the India Ideas Summit and the annual meeting of the US-India Business Council at Washington, DC turned out to be a disappointment, its boastful advertisement notwithstanding. Nonetheless, it draws attention as a the ‘curtain-raiser’ to his forthcoming visit to …
SCO summit: Inflection point for Indian diplomacy
(Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Bishkek, June 13-14.) When India applied for SCO membership or when observers like myself felt elated when India was finally admitted into the grouping in 2017, no one could have foreseen that the grouping held such potential in …
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Abe’s mediatory mission to Tehran hangs in the balance
(Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses an Eid gathering of academics, scholars, intellectuals and elites, Tehran, May 29, 2019) With two days to go for the arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tehran on a peace mission to promote US-Iran talks, a great deal of shadow boxing has been going on. Typically, …
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US sees Turkey’s S-400 deal as fait accompli
Three developments in quick succession in the weekend bring closer to a flashpoint the brewing discord between the US and Turkey on account of the latter’s purchase of the S-400 air defence system. First, Russia disclosed on Friday that the delivery of the S-400 missile defense system will begin within two months. Turkey has made …
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Modi heads south to the Rimland
(Geopolitical models: Mackinder and Spykman in US foreign policy) The Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s customary briefing to the media on the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Maldives and Sri Lanka on June 8-9 highlighted that the event “underlines the continued emphasis that the government lays on the Neighbourhood First policy.” The …
Modi turns foreign policy as tool of national strategies
(File photo of S. Jaishankar who took over as India’s External Affairs Minister) This is the season for political gossiping and for tossing hypotheses into the air. Most of them perish, while a handful may survive. The election fever has subsided except amongst a clutch of irreconcilables who won’t accept defeat. But they forget that …
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