China-France-Germany climate summit, Beijing, April 16, 2021 Considering the US media build-up as President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry set out for China, the 4-day visit turned out to be an uneventful affair. Perhaps, the chances of President Xi Jinping participating in the signature event in Washington — the Leaders Summit on Climate on …
India’s agony and ecstasy over Quad
A flurry of diplomatic activities through the past fortnight starting with the first-ever summit meeting of Quad on March 12 mark a historic transition in the world order. While the western world has been the locus of international politics for the past five centuries, that is most certainly shifting toward the Asia-Pacific region. Not only …
Does Japan grow onions?
India brings home onions from Turkey to ease prices which in retail market stood at Rs 80-120 per kg. The 2+2 format in inter-state relationships is an exotic thing — the raison d’être of foreign and defence ministers forming a caucus with their foreign counterparts as template of bilateral diplomacy. The United States has a …
India-China ties moving to new level
(Spring is in the air in Argentina — Modi, Putin and Xi exchange pleasantries) The G20 in Argentina last weekend turned out to be of great significance for India-China relations. On the sidelines of the event, PM Modi and President Xi Jinping had occasion to interact thrice – one bilateral meeting and a second meeting …
Quad recedes into shade. It’s the RCEP, stupid!
(Second RCEP Summit, Singapore, Nov 14, 2018) The ill-starred quadrilateral Joint-Secretary level format of ‘Asian democracies’ – US, Japan, Australia and India – would have held its third meeting in Singapore on Wednesday. Again, there was no joint statement issued after the meeting. In fact, unlike previous occasions when the four Asian democracies issued press …
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‘Historic turning point’ in Japan-China relations overshadows Abe-Modi summit
(A view of Mt. Fuji, Japan) Hyping up the forthcoming annual India-Japan summit in Tokyo on Monday is a thankless job. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale in his media briefing Friday performed optimally, even adding a touch of mystique to an informal lunch that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will host for PM Modi at a …
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India-Russia relations go way beyond defence deals
Amidst the welter of commentaries on the Indian-Russian annual summit last week in New Delhi, what stands out is that the government has outstripped our strategic analysts. The latter viewed the Russian summit last week exclusively through the prism of the $6 billion S-400 missile defence deal. Now, that turned out to be like missing …
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India, Russia join hands to strengthen multi-polarity
Amidst the months-long India-US war of nerves over our S-400 missile defence deal with Russia, the joint statement issued after the 19th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi on Friday largely passed unnoticed. Yet, the salience of the document becomes important. After all, what endures is the final document – not photo-ops, not gossips. And …
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