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 …
Continue reading “China’s Silk Road of Health appears in South Asia”
Iraqi militia fighters attacked the US Embassy, Baghdad, Dec 31, 2019. Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is an unenviable situation for a politician. A tragic case in modern times was of Hafizullah Amin, the Cold War era Afghan communist politician who tried to reduce his country’s dependence on the former Soviet …
Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Israel should act now ahead of US election to strengthen its security interests. The former US National Security Advisor John Bolton is a paradox in some ways — an extreme right winger with working class background, an outlier like Richard Nixon who had to run twice …
Continue reading “Bolton forewarns Israel on US policy shifts”
US President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shaking hands after the Helsinki Summit, July 16, 2018 There was a time when President Trump’s personalised diplomacy seemed a hydra-headed phenomenon with tentacles reaching far and wide. He engaged such diverse politicians — from Shinzo Abe and Kim Jong-Un to Xi Jinping and …
Continue reading “Trump foreign policy enters lame duck period”
Parliament in Cairo unanimously voted on July 20, 2020 to authorise dispatch of Egyptian troops on combat missions abroad Just as the Mediterranean air is thick with talk that a military confrontation between Turkey and Egypt is brewing over control of Libya, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Versihinin flew into Ankara for consultations with his counterpart …
Continue reading “Turkey, Russia take timeout in Libyan war”
Chabahar Port is a ‘win-win’ for Iran, India, Afghanistan – and China The news report in the Tehran Times today that Iran and the Russia-led Iran Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will set up three more working groups on the expansion of trade ties between the two sides should not come as surprise — except to …
Continue reading “India isn’t Singapore. It is more like Iran.”
With the rebound of the Chinese economy, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is on the march again. An Associated Press report from Beijing last Thursday said China is the first major economy to grow since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, recording a 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter following the reopening of factories and …
Continue reading “China’s BRI makes entry in post-Covid-19 era”
Poonthura fishing village near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where community transmission of Covid-19 pandemic is reported. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly acknowledged on Friday that community transmission of coronavirus has begun in certain coastal regions of the state. In essence, Pinarayi ‘declassified’ what must be a ‘top secret’ at the all-India level. The chief minister has …
Continue reading “Pandemic puts India in ‘precarious position’”
The 15th India-EU Summit in a virtual format, July 15, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual summit with the EU leaders on Wednesday would have convinced him that Europe is singularly disinterested in the US rhetoric to ‘contain’ China. Not a single code word for the US’ regional strategy directed against China appears in either …
The 6th century CE (532–537) Hagia Sophia cathedral, Istanbul A defining moment came, rather unnoticed, when the foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) held a virtual meeting on July 13 where the group’s relations with Turkey was on the agenda. The resumption of Muslim prayers in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul came up for …
