G7 Summit leaders at “working lunch” session, Japan, 19 May, 2023 The Foreign Secretary’s special briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Asia-Pacific tour (May 19-24) dovetailed skilfully into three summit meetings, and brings to mind an institution of the Middle Ages known as the “wandering minstrels”. Wealthy people used to employ minstrels to entertain them …
Biden can be charming. But Beijing should be wary of sequels
Pope Francis (L) meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a private audience at The Vatican, May 13, 2023 President Vladimir Zelensky’s tour of Rome, Berlin and Paris has been a success, securing for Ukraine significant additional quantities of weaponry for the upcoming offensive against Russian forces. The high water mark was Germany’s announcement of a …
Continue reading “Biden can be charming. But Beijing should be wary of sequels”
Syria’s return to Arab League is a big deal
Emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers agreed to readmit Syria, Cairo, May 7, 2023 When a mere subplot overnight assumes habitation and a name, it becomes more fascinating than the main plot itself. Syria’s return to the Arab League after its decade-long exclusion can be regarded as a sub-plot of the China-brokered rapprochement between …
Continue reading “Syria’s return to Arab League is a big deal”
Who gains from a forever war in Ukraine?
The newly elected president of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel is an unusual European politician. He is the second president in his country with a military background but the first without political experience. He never saw combat duty and is an arm chair military strategist but lionised as a “senior NATO leader” — whatever that …
‘Russia alone can already confront the entire West…’
President Vladimir Putin (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of talks in restricted format, Kremlin, Moscow, March 21, 2023 The Russian media reported that President Vladimir Putin made an extraordinary gesture as President Xi Jinping left the Kremlin following the state dinner last week on Tuesday evening by escorting him to the limousine and …
Continue reading “‘Russia alone can already confront the entire West…’”
Free will trumps determinism in Gulf politics
UAE President Sheikh Mohammed (R) received Syria’s President Assad on official visit at Abu Dhabi airport, March 19, 2023 China’s mediation to normalise Saudi-Iranian diplomatic ties has been widely welcomed internationally, especially in the West Asian region. A clutch of unhappy states that do not want to see China stealing a march on any front, …
Continue reading “Free will trumps determinism in Gulf politics”
Whose game is Pakistan’s Khar playing?
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani (L) and Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a panel discussion at World Economic Forum, Davos, January 19, 2023 Watching the video of the Hina Rabbani Khar — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar exchanges at Davos on Thursday, one was reminded of a remark by Russian …
Biden stoops to conquer Brazil’s Lula
Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns to power as left-leaning leaders are in control of six of the region’s seven largest economies The tragicomic “insurrection” in Brasilia on Sunday was destined to meet a sudden death. The universal condemnation and, in particular, the brusqueness with which the Biden Administration distanced itself from the protestors, …
India’s got the BRICS blues
Lula da Silva’s supporters cheer as he arrives for his inauguration ceremony as Brazil’s new president, Brasilia, Jan. 1, 2023 The Brazilian news agency reported that Lula da Silva’s inauguration as the new president on January 1 for a historic third term amidst a carnival-like backdrop was attended by over five dozen foreign delegations, composed …
Ukraine war tolls death knell for NATO
President Vladimir Putin addressed an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board, Moscow, Dec. 21, 2022 The defining moment in US President Joe Biden’s press conference at the White House last Wednesday, during President Zelensky’s visit, was his virtual admission that he is constrained in the proxy war in Ukraine, as European allies don’t …