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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Trump unveils the Greater America project
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addressing a press conference, Mar-a-Lago, Florida, January 7, 2025 On Tuesday, at a press conference at his Florida mansion, President-elect Donald Trump took his gloves off, after showing monumental patience in the face of the shenanigans by the lame duck president Joe Biden and his inner circle to “do an Obama” …
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Winners and losers in Syria
Ali Larijani, advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, December, 6, 2024 Iran and Russia are the two big losers in the ouster of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday by the Sunni Islamist groups affiliated to al-Qaeda. Assad fled in the nick of time after giving orders that there be …
Jaishankar braces for Pakistan trip
The Last Waltz. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre, right) being welcomed by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif (centre, left), at the airport in Lahore, Pakistan, December 25, 2015 In the world of diplomacy, optics do matter, and therefore, the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s caustic remarks about what he hopes to achieve — or …
Iran nuclear talks will be in new format
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (L) received President Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet ministers, Tehran, Aug. 27, 2024 Iran’s new foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in an interview with Japan’s Kyodo news agency on August 22 set the foreign policy compass under President Masoud Pezeshkian in a new sequencing of priorities. Araghchi said as a crucial step …