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 …
Pivotal moment in India-Russia relations
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (L) and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov at a Russian-Indian business forum organised jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs & Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi, April 17, 2023 Most relationships undergo transition with the passage of time from appreciation of each other to …
Indo-Pacific power dynamic in radical shift
A Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber takes off during a 13-hour joint air patrol with China in Asia-Pacific region, at an unidentified location (image released by Russian MOD on May 24, 2022) The joint air patrol over the waters of the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Monday by an air task force …
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Quad is turning & turning in widening gyre
US President Joe Biden at Quad Summit, White House, Sept. 24, 2021. Seated clockwise Australian PM Scott Morrison, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga & Indian PM Narendra Modi By coincidence, perhaps, on the same day that President Biden hosted the first Quad summit, he also cleared the way for a senior …
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Ruckus over AUKUS isn’t an edifying sight
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and US President Joe Biden enjoy a light moment at the G7, Cornwall, UK, June 12, 2021 The diplomatic fallout from the new security agreement between the Australia, United Kingdom and the United States [AUKUS] is just about beginning. The debris will take time to clean up. Might there be …
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Biden gives green signal to US-China thaw
US climate envoy & former secretary of state John Kerry (L) and Chinese Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (File photo) The visit to Tianjin by President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry on September 1-3 is assuming a huge dimension holding promise as a defining moment in the tense bilateral relationship between China and the …
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US’ China policy at inflection point
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 …