Pakistan is turning into an arena of acute US-China contestation. Pakistan’s decision to approach the IMF for a full-fledged bailout package (instead of Stand-by Arrangement) will accentuate it. The decision to opt for a bailout package implies that with its back against the wall, Imran Khan government may agree to undertake structural reforms under IMF’s …
India-Russia relations go way beyond defence deals
Amidst the welter of commentaries on the Indian-Russian annual summit last week in New Delhi, what stands out is that the government has outstripped our strategic analysts. The latter viewed the Russian summit last week exclusively through the prism of the $6 billion S-400 missile defence deal. Now, that turned out to be like missing …
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US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters
US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters By M. K. Bhadrakumar The disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in mysterious circumstances while on a visit to his country’s consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday still remains unexplained. The plot is thickening by the day. The latest reports suggest that he may not even be alive. The Istanbul …
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India must shed its strategic ambivalence in the multipolar world
By M. K. Bhadrakumar Treasured friendship: President Putin and Prime Minister Modi during their informal summit in Sochi, Russia in May 2018 | PTI A WIDELY PREVALENT REFRAIN in our strategic discourses is that the present trajectory of international politics presents India with unprecedented opportunities to advance national interests. This estimation also appears to have …
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India, Russia join hands to strengthen multi-polarity
Amidst the months-long India-US war of nerves over our S-400 missile defence deal with Russia, the joint statement issued after the 19th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi on Friday largely passed unnoticed. Yet, the salience of the document becomes important. After all, what endures is the final document – not photo-ops, not gossips. And …
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The Matryoshka dolls of India-Russia ties
The India-Russia policy must be counted as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s finest foreign policy legacy — alongside his Wuhan initiative with China. Modi’s imprimatur is vital because there is also a complex backdrop of Russian-American tensions in which this is unfolding. Continue reading
Getting caught in spider’s web
WITH the inaugural session of the 2+2 US-Indian dialogue of foreign and defence ministers held in New Delhi last Thursday, the Modi government’s foreign policy has taken a full circle. Things are back to where they were in a priori history in September 2014 when a new foreign policy trajectory was dramatically launched with the …
For Modi’s India, 2+2=0 as Trump tightens the leash
The US-Indian defining partnership took a leap forward in the field of defence at the first session of the “2+2” dialogue of the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers in New Delhi this week. It is a “win-win” for Washington. Highly lucrative multibillion-dollar arms deals sail into view, while Washington also shepherds India towards a …
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At key ‘2+2’ talks, India should take US demands on Iran oil sanctions with a pinch of salt
With the “2+2” dialogue between India and the United States due to begin in New Delhi on Thursday, the Modi government has done the right thing to allow India’s state refiners to work out with Tehran the logistics of using tankers and insurance arranged by Iran so that the import of Iranian crude oil can …
India, Russia and the post-American Century
India’s impending purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system has come to be the leitmotif of the “2+2” dialogue of the foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States due to take place in New Delhi on September 6. However, the issue here is not about a single defence transaction, either. There are …
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