The Uzbek grid prepares to receive gas supplies from Russia Pakistan’s acute energy crisis is the immediate backdrop against which Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari’s forthcoming talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow today need to be understood. But then, Lavrov is a ‘Renaissance man’ in the world of international diplomacy and is sure …
India, Pakistan, Taliban on the same page
Afghans sit beside sacks of food grains distributed as aid The three-week long “anti-terror operation” undertaken by the Indian Army from October 11 in the Bhatta Durrian forest in Poonch following the killing of nine soldiers, including two junior commissioned officers and two policemen, was billed as “one of the longest” in the history of …
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India, Pakistan on the road to peace
New hope for India-Pakistan relations? Opportunities missed and opportunities seized in the chronicle of international diplomacy in modern history provide two outstanding illustrative examples. After centuries of enmity and the colossal destruction inflicted by two devastating world wars in the last century, France and Germany seize an opportunity to turn a new page in their …
India revisits SAARC to fight COVID-19. Scepticism is in order.
Coronavirus pandemic is on the rise in India The teleconference today at 5 pm IST between the leaderships of the SAARC countries is a rare event in regional cooperation. After an interlude of nearly six years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again networking with India’s neighbours in a SAARC setting. He had sprung a …
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Pakistan’s exit from FATF list puts India on the spot
US Acting Asst Secy of State Alice Wells met Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ijaz Shah, Islamabad, Jan. 20, 2020 The media reports that in the Indian estimation there is “a 75 per cent chance” of Pakistan exiting the ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at the plenary of the international body on February 16 …
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Kashmir: Bipartisan consensus in US is in meltdown
For an Indian who ever had anything to do with the making or implementation of India’s Kashmir policy, listening to the 2-hour long Congressional hearing in Washington, DC, on October 22 would have been a scandalous experience. There has never been such scathing criticism of our Kashmir policies in the recent decades voiced so openly …
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New India expects Pak obedience, not camaraderie
(PM Modi met Imran Khan on Dec. 11, 2015 at New Delhi. File photo.) It is no big secret that the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a damp squib. The impression becomes unavoidable that the decision to invite the little-known BIMSTEC leaders to PM Narendra Modi’s inaugural ceremony …
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Pakistan is blackmailing Modi and Doval
Doublespeak is commonplace in statecraft. A celebrated case is of the former US President Barack Obama who was facing re-election in 2012. Battered by criticism by his Republican contender Mitt Romney for being “soft” on Russia, Obama sought a private understanding with the Kremlin leadership that he couldn’t afford to be seen by the American …
US, China and root cause of terrorism in South Asia
(Samjhauta Express carrying some 150 passengers left Lahore railway station for New Delhi on March 4, 2019) There were three key elements in the remarks at the press briefing in Washington on Tuesday by Robert Palladino, deputy spokesperson of the US State Department, regarding India-Pakistan tensions, while flagging that “there’s a lot of private diplomacy …
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