The ‘foreign threats’ to 2020 US election

“The keys predict that Donald Trump will lose the White House this year.” The statement by the Director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center William Evanina on August 7 giving an “unclassified overview of foreign threats” to the 2020 US presidential election selectively focuses on “the ongoing and potential activity” by three …

Trump lame duck bodes well for international security

Volunteers load free groceries at a community food bank in the Crenshaw neighbourhood of Los Angeles, United States,  in July. (AFP photo)  The commencement of the lame duck period of the Donald Trump presidency is marked by the departure of two high-ranking officials of the US state department in the last two days. Secretary of …

Shutting the door to China is self-defeating

A closed business in Santa Monica, California. (AFP)  The world economic news through last week must have sent shockwaves across North and South Block where India’s ministries of finance, defence and external affairs — and the Prime Minister’s Office — are located. The post-pandemic world order is knocking on the doors. On Friday, the European …

Australia ‘decouples’ from US China policy

“Shared values but independent thinking”:  Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne (L) & US State Secretary  Pompeo, Washington, Jul 29, 2020 The Asian chancelleries have a great deal to mull over after the extraordinary joint press conference by the US and Australia following the AUSMIN meeting of their foreign and defence ministers in Washington, DC, on …

China’s Silk Road of Health appears in South Asia

Chinese medical workers in face masks on a deployment overseas. A virtual meeting of the foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on July 27 becomes the third vector of Beijing’s ‘Silk Road of Health’ diplomacy in Asia.  A Xinhua report on the event said China proposed that the four countries should “consolidate consensus …