Taliban risks losing international legitimacy

A high-powered Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar arrived in Tehran for consultations on January 26, 2021  A high-level delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the senior leader of the Taliban and its chief negotiator at the Doha talks, held consultations in Tehran and Moscow this week through January 26-29 amidst growing uncertainty over …

India’s Gulf strategy is chasing Chinese phantoms

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani (R) received External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Manama, Dec 24, 2020 The Chinese statement of December 2 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the ‘Question of Palestine and the Situation in the Middle East’ should trigger introspection in New Delhi. Without doubt, this …

Deconstructing France’s Emmanuel Macron

The Modi government has earned the distinction as the “first non-western” voice to come out in support of French President Emmanuel Macron over the recent horrific killings in that country. This distinction apparently presents itself as too good to miss. The Rajya Sabha TV slotted a programme to castigate “Islamist terrorism” in France.  Religious fundamentalism …

India’s Quad Dilemma in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (R) greeting the newly-elected Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) at the swearing-in ceremony at Kelaniya Buddhist temple in Colombo, Aug 9, 2020 There are three categories of statesmen: those addicted to Twitter (Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Javad Zarif, et al); those who shun it (Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping, …