With great prescience, late Henry Kissinger had once said, “You can’t make war in the Middle East without Egypt, and you can’t make peace without Syria.” The adage remains true even today. Syria has been an astute practitioner of diplomacy in its statecraft, which was not surprising given its origin as a modern state out …
India’s Russian oil saga is indeed ending
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a press conference with US President Donald Trump, White House, Washington, Feb 13, 2025 (File photo) The latest US-Indian fracas over Russian oil has been rather odd with Trump attributing to PM Modi explicitly that India has terminated its imports of Russian oil. Why would Trump bluff? One possibility that …
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India disavows ‘Tianjin spirit’, turns to EU
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin share the latter’s limo to have a 50-minute conversation en route to the venue of their bilateral meeting, Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025 India found itself in an uncomfortable situation like a cat on a hot roof at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation event in Tianjin, China, …
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West Asia is lurching toward war
Billboard of pictures of nuclear scientists and centrifuges captioned ‘Science is the power’, Enqelab square, Tehran, August 29, 2025 There is extremely alarming news about the situation around Iran. In consultations with the Trump administration — rather, in deference to the command from Washington — the E3 countries (Britain, France and Germany) who are the …
US snubs India’s war on terror
The Indian media reports make out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reception for the seven parliamentary delegations waging the war on terror turned into a social occasion to celebrate the flashes of ‘national unity’ before the hurly-burly of politics returns as the election cycle picks up. The PMO did not issue any press release on …
Minerals deal resets geopolitics of Ukraine
Ukraine’s mineral resources, December 10, 2024 [SOURCE: NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence] Moscow and Kiev have been vying with each other to curry favour with the new US administration. Just as Russian diplomacy appeared to be outstripping Kiev, things changed dramatically on April 30 with the signing of the so-called minerals deal between the …
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Trump’s diplomacy gains traction, silences sceptics
US President Donald Trump (L) met privately with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at St. Peter’s Basilica on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, Vatican, April 26, 2025 The US President Donald Trump is a lone ranger in international arena and a self-confessed practitioner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absolute maxim that ours is not …
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Steve Witkoff’s Iran mission holds seamless possibilities
Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s senior aide on Russia negotiations, is expected to kickstart talks with Tehran (File photo) The rubric of the US-Iranian talks slated for Saturday in Muscat turned into a vanity fair of sorts — whether the talks should be called ‘indirect’ or ‘direct’. The US President Donald Trump sought direct talks and …
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Netanyahu entraps Trump in a quagmire
US President Donald Trump (R) met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Oval Office of White House, Feb. 4, 2025 Seldom, if ever, one gets to pick up the threads of what one had written 3 days back as conjectures. But my prognosis that “the sea side view” of Gaza is mesmerising President Donald …
Syria enters new era amidst uncertainties
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (L) and Syria’s Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Damascus, Jan. 30, 2025 The appointment of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as Interim President on January 29 marks the advent of a new era in Syria’s history. The New York Times in a feature article …
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