A soldier deployed to NATO base in Kabul posing for a picture with a Santa in the base cafeteria, December 24 2019 The Modi government’s approach to the transition in Afghanistan bears an uncanny resemblance to the situation thirty years ago, in end-1989. A great power that intervened in Afghanistan was retreating after a bloody …
Why Hindutva is a pariah in world opinion
PM Narendra Modi waits for a meeting with Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, New Delhi, December 19, 2019. Photo: AP This has been an extraordinary period in India’s equations with the international community. The mass agitation against the Modi-Amit Shah plan of action to impose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its follow-up, the National Register …
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US-India: Why 2+2 may not always be 4
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2nd R, Rear), U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (1st R, Rear), Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (2nd L, Rear), Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh (1st L, Rear) attended a press conference following their second “2+2 Ministerial Dialogue”, Washington D.C., December 18, 2019. To what extent External Affairs …
Rajapaksa’s ‘nyet’ on Mattala is a bitter pill to swallow
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) with newly-elected Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L), New Delhi, 29 Nov. 2019 Since the setback in Nepal three years ago when the Indian diktat on the contents of a new constitution for that country was brusquely dismissed by that country’s communist leadership, Modi government faces a similar rebuff from …
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Pakistan at crossroads. Turkish footfalls beckon.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (L) and Turkish President Recep Erdogan (R), Ankara, Oct. 2019. File photo. The Indian establishment, including the political leadership, is running into a strange predicament. Never before has India’s image looked so visibly sullied in comparison with Pakistan’s as much as in the most recent years under the present government. …
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Saudi Arabia reads the riot act to Imran Khan
Rohingya refugees in prayer at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 2019 The KL Summit 2019 hosted by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on December 18-21 was originally conceived as a landmark event in the politics of the Muslim world. It still is, albeit on a wet wicket struggling …
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The fine print of US-China trade deal
The US-China trade deal is harbinger of even harder talks, but apparent pragmatism on both sides is a positive sign. The agreement on the terms of the first phase of a trade deal between the US and China broadly envisages that Washington would reduce some tariffs on Chinese goods while Beijing would boost purchases of American farm, energy and manufactured …
Afghanistan, Bangladesh deserve our respect
The Kart-e-Parwan Sikh Gurudwara in Kabul, Afghanistan This had to happen: The friendliest and the closest neighbour that India ever had since its independence, Afghanistan, has cast aside diplomatic niceties and unmistakably conveyed its indignation and sense of hurt over the churlish imputation by the Indian leadership of alleged religious / racial persecution of minorities …
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Howdy Modi has an enduring legacy
Prime Minister Modi (R) and President Donald Trump (L) on stage for Howdy Modi event, Houston, September 22, 2019 The scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent weeks by two prominent writers in the US — the Washington Post’s Max Boot (here) and the New Yorker magazine’s Dexter Filkins (here) — is …
Rumours of NATO’s death are greatly exaggerated
NATO leaders assemble for customary group photo at Leaders’ Meeting’ in London on Dec 5, 2019 amidst much finger-pointing and discord The decision to “downgrade” the NATO’s historic summit meeting in London on the 70th anniversary of the alliance to a mere “Leaders’ Meeting” implied that no joint declaration or communique would need to be issued …
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