(Sabarimala temple) The op-Ed in today’s Indian Express by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The Sabarimala aftermath, will make Malayalis sit up and think. The salients of the column are three: Being a country that professes constitutional rule and primacy to rule of law, a mobilization to damn the authority of the Supreme Court is a dangerous …
Saudi Arabia gets a friend in need – Russia
It goes without saying that oil has been central to military power and economic life in modern history. Control of oil has been a key source of power and policy in the Cold War. There was even a top-secret US government plan to ravage the Middle East oil industry in the event of the former …
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What Trump’s pullout from INF treaty means
(Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan signing INF treaty, Washington, December 8, 1987) President Donald Trump’s confirmation that the US is terminating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) with Russia will be regarded as a defining moment in international security. The INF, which was signed by then US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev …
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‘Military cooperation is the highlight and pillar of China-Russia strategic cooperation’
(Chinese and Russian Defence Ministers at Vostok 2018 exercises, September 11-17) Prime Minister Modi’s annual meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe takes him to Tokyo next week. But this time around, it will be an Official Working Visit, dispensing with the frills of bonhomie. The signal is that the discussions will be largely devoted …
Time for rethink on CPEC
India needs to cut the Gordian knot of strategic stalemate in its external environment MK Bhadrakumar Former Ambassador A‘whispering campaign’ has been going on that CPEC is fated to put an intolerable burden on Pakistan’s debt repayment liabilities, with no commensurate economic returns. Fact check is uncommon in our part of the world: Moody’s says …
Ex-Ambassdor to Turkey MK Bhadrakumar on Jamal Khashoggi and Future of West Asia
MK Bhadrakumar joins Newsclick editor in chief Prabir Purkayastha to discuss the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the implications it will have for Saudi Arabia’s relations with US, Turkey, and the rest of the world.
Neo-Ottomanism Surges in Middle East Politics
The fate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hangs in the balance. The common perception is that everything depends on which way President Donald Trump moves – go by his own preference to bury the scandal over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance or give in to the rising demand that Saudi-American relations can no longer be …
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India’s prime ministers lack a common legacy
(Teen Murti Complex) One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry over the media reports about the allegation that the architectural design of the planned Museum of the Prime Ministers of India in the Teen Murti complex in New Delhi has been “plagiarized”. This allegation surfaced in the media just a couple of days after …
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US-Russian exchanges gather momentum
If a single exchange stood out during the tense interview of President Trump with the CBS News 60 Minutes on Sunday — Washington Post listed 8 of them — I would say it was when he tried to filibuster Lesley Stahl over the topic of ‘Russian meddling’ in the American elections. Stahl kept taunting Trump …
‘Saudi spring’ on India’s doorstep
The breakthrough in India’s relations with Saudi Arabia stands out undoubtedly as a foreign-policy success story of the Modi government. This was on full display at the India Energy Forum meet at New Delhi on Monday where Saudi Energy Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih praised relations with India as “a strategic priority of the Kingdom of …