Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, White House, Washington, November 18, 2025. The telephone call from the US Vice-President JD Vance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 8 came as a surprise. Neither the American nor the Indian side …
China wades into the geopolitics of Iran
US, Iran on same page, as President Masoud Pezeshkian holds the signed MoU with President Donald Trump’s signature ending the war and lifting US naval blockade, Tehran, June 18, 2026. The authenticity of the public articulation of the stunning proposal of an alliance by Majlis speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf — ‘regional bloc’ — built around …
Can China curb Trump’s gambit in Hormuz?
Iran’s high-speed patrol boats in ‘asymmetrical’ naval war in Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf (File photo) China’s shock warning to the US President Donald Trump that his road to Beijing goes through the Strait of Hormuz has been an audacious move directly linking his planned visit to China on May 14-15 with the situation around …
Beijing confronts US sanctions on refineries
Children play as bulk carriers, cargo ships sit offshore in the Strait of Hormuz, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, April 26, 2026. Within six days of the Russian President Vladimir Putin rendering a forceful advice to the US President Donald Trump to abandon the path of war in Iran — in particular, any wild plans of …
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The truce in US’ Iran war is fragile
Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes, Beirut, April 8, 2026 A Tass report with Islamabad dateline confirmed a few hours ago that the US-Iran talks will be held on Saturday at the Serena Hotel in the city “and are expected to last several days.” The incredible blunder of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel just …
Syria comes in from the cold
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 …