Bagram after US military left the base, Kabul, July 5, 2021 The British newspaper Daily Telegraph did some kite-flying in the weekend that London is considering open-ended deployment of a contingent of elite special forces to Afghanistan “ to provide training to Afghan units and deploy with them on the ground as advisers.” At the …
Continue reading “A hybrid war to replace Afghan ‘forever war’?”
1300-km long Tajik-Afghan border runs through difficult and dangerous terrain and is a major drug crossing area (File photo) Ten months after the first meeting of the foreign ministers of China and the five Central Asian states, Beijing has followed through with a second session on May 11 at a gathering in Xi’an, China, …
In a sudden change of heart, US President Biden may relent to lift the ban on export of raw materials for India’s Covid vaccine. In the coming week, the commander of the US Central Command Gen Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. is expected to provide Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with options for potential future counterterrorism …
Russia will be hosting the 20th summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in virtual format on November 10, 2020 The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit meeting on November 30 has a surreal setting. Being a ‘virtual’ meeting, the event spares the eight SCO statesmen of the embarrassment of having to accost each other or exchange …
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”
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”
Bagh-e Babur (Garden of Babur) in Kabul, Afghanistan The dichotomy between the regime policy and public opinion is nowhere near as sharp as in the world of diplomacy. And nowhere in the contemporary situation is this maxim so sharply visible as in the dalliance of the West Asian oligarchies with Israel. The romance began at …
Continue reading “Bereft of soft power, India stands diminished in Hindu Kush and Central Asia”
