The visit by Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid A Al-Falih on Saturday to Gwadar to inspect the site allocated for a multibillion oil refinery in the port city suggest that Riyadh and Islamabad are giving the final touch to reaching agreement for a Saudi Aramco Oil Refinery in Pakistan. Reports say that Saudi Arabia will be …
Russia tamps down the Kuril hype
(Kuril Islands & Sakhalin) The expectations were high that 2019 would be a pivotal year in Russo-Japanese relations. President Vladimir Putin may visit Japan for the G20 summit in June and there has been speculation that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to sign a peace treaty at that time, bringing the World War II …
India baits US while Pakistan tells Trump, ‘There’s nothing like free lunch’
(External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meets US Special Representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, New Delhi, January 10, 2019) Breaking a prolonged period of several months, the Pakistani allegation of Indian involvement in terrorist attacks has surged. This appears during the first detailed media briefing by the Pakistani authorities in Karachi on January 13 on the …
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Gadkari sets benchmark for Modi-era diplomacy
(Minister of Shipping & Transport Nitin Gadkari receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, New Delhi, January 8, 2019) If the ‘Newton Effect’ in physics has an equivalent in international diplomacy, we can describe what is happening to India-Iran relations as the ‘Gadkari Effect’. Like in the case of the 18th century English scientist Isaac …
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Modi curries favor with Trump but it won’t work
Nearly a year it took for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President to have a phone conversation. The last time they spoke was reportedly in February 2018. On Monday, Modi took the initiative to dial up. Two divergent accounts of the conversation have appeared. The Indian version labored to inject some verve into the …
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Why India should pay attention to US-Turkey spat over S-400
Such a lot of nonsense was dished out by the American lobbyists through the past year to the effect that Washington was straining at the leash to punish India for buying the S-400 ABM system. This phobia was carefully planted in the Indian discourses by American think tankers. The most celebrated instance was of the …
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Lal Salam, Comrade Toddy Tapper!
(Toddy tapper in India’s coconut country) If the Kerala state leadership of the BJP has its way, Prime Minister Narendra Modi should return to Gujarat and resume his trademark vocation as tea vendor. That is the bizarre logic that a senior BJP leader in Kerala has applied, while making the call last week that Chief …
Modi-Trump bromance ends on sour note
The highly disparaging remarks to by the US President Donald Trump on Wednesday regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s role in Afghanistan come as a shocking revelation. Trump was talking to the press following his first cabinet meeting of 20i9 at the White House in Washington. No Indian PM has been reduced to look …
India sequesters Iran ties from US predatory strike
(Iran’s Chabahar Port) India has done well to put in place the nuts and bolts of a payment mechanism for its trade and investment transactions with Iran against the backdrop of the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in May last year followed by the imposition …
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World is safe from global conflict in 2019
(Armageddon: Will it come on Trump’s watch?) Is 2019 going to be the year of the Armageddon? The answer is a definitive ‘No’. As 2018 ended, the potential for war was looming and Russian President Vladimir Putin even refused to rule out a nuclear war. But then, the statesmen grappling with international security also …
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