Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower transits through the Suez Canal towards the Persian Gulf , November 4, 2023 A massive US naval deployment in a wide arc of the so-called Greater Middle East is under way — stretching from Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, into the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb and …
India, US are on pathway to contain China
The meeting of foreign and defence ministers of India and the US in the ‘2+2’ format took place in New Delhi, November 10, 2023 If the United States is a declining power and China’s rise inevitable in the Indo-Pacific; if Russia regards itself as a global power and is determined to bury the US-dominated rules-based …
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Arab-Iran amity is a geopolitical reality
Palestinians work in the debris of buildings targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza, Nov 1, 2023 The forthcoming first visit by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi to Saudi Arabia on November 13 marks a milestone in the rapprochement between the two countries mediated by China in March. The relationship is fast acquiring …
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Maldives explores life outside Indo-Pacific
Maldives’ President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu (C) addressing supporters, Malé, October 2, 2023 A massive western media barrage was to be expected caricaturing the election result of the runoff in the Maldives presidential poll in binary terms as China’s “gain” being India’s “loss”. It further laments that democracy is in peril in Maldives under the incoming …
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India won’t be bullied in multipolar setting
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (L) met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Washington, DC, September 28, 2023 The sombre mood at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York during External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s talk on Tuesday was only to be expected against the backdrop of the India-Canada diplomatic spat over the killing …
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Russia scrambles as EU surges in Caucasus
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan (above) is turning to the West Armenia no longer disputes that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. The prospect of peaceful resolution of a regional conflict ought to be good news, but this is an incredibly complex situation with an external environment where a brutal war is raging with no end in sight, …
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India-Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor is a geopolitical pipe dream
The gusto with which the United States co-opted the idea of an India – Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor [IMEC] during the recent G20 Summit should not come as a surprise. It brings to mind an astounding natural phenomenon in the northern desert of Saudi Arabia — a little purple flower that blooms very rarely, …
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Modi’s trip to Jakarta is a geopolitical event
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (5th from left) and leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Jakarta, sept 7, 2023 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s daylong visit to Jakarta for the ASEAN-India Summit on Thursday despite the countdown having begun for the G20 summit he’s hosting in New Delhi, stands out as a sign of Indian diplomacy …
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India, the reluctant BRICS traveller
( L to R) Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at BRICS Summit, Johannesburg, Aug 23, 2023 India became a beacon of hope for the Western media for a short while in the run-up to the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg — a …
AUKUS, QUAD transforming alliance-like
US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Indian PM Narendra Modi held a QUAD meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, 20 May 2023 This week augurs an acceleration of strategic realignments among the big powers amidst growing signs of a new cold war globally with particular focus on the United States’ …