Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Minsk, December 19, 2022 The visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Minsk on Monday, accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, turned out to be immensely consequential for European security. Putin drew attention to it rather obliquely at his news …
EU cracks the whip (gently) on Iran
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell (L) with Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, Tehran, July 27, 2022. (File photo) The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday was the imposition of …
Demons creep up from Europe’s attic
‘Reichsbürger’ at a rally in Berlin: Neo-Nazi, or just a crackpot? The visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to New Delhi had an anti-climatic ending. Baerbock waxed eloquently about Germany as a paragon of democratic values and claimed affinity with India. She hoped to persuade Modi government to disengage from strategic partnership with “authoritarian” …
Italy distances from ‘cancellation’ of Russia
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives to attend the gala premiere in the country’s most famous opera house, Teatro alla Scala, which opened its new season with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” Milan, Italy, December 7, 2022 Noam Chomsky once wrote that the astronomical cost of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimated into trillions …
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Macron’s US visit tells Europe’s alienation
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and US President Joe Biden met in the White House, Washington, DC, Dec. 1, 2022 The state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the United States stands out as a signpost of the alignments taking place against the backdrop of the historic churning in the world order. The two …
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The G20 is dead. Long live the G20
US president Joe Biden (R) and Chinese president Xi Jinping met at Bali, Nov 14, 2022. Biden said they discussed their responsibility to prevent competition and find ways to work together. The seventeenth G20 Heads of State and Government Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, on 15–16 November stands out as a consequential event from many angles. The international politics …
The West bullies Iran, again
A police officer inspects parts of a drone at the site of a Russian strike on fuel storage facilities, Kharkiv, Ukraine, Oct 6, 2022 The manner in which Tehran handled its drone deal with Russia has been somewhat clumsy. The fact that the first ‘leak’ on this topic originated from none other than President Biden’s …
A Biden-Putin meeting in Bali cannot be ruled out
The US President Joe Biden said in a CNN interview recently that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “rational actor who has miscalculated significantly” on Ukraine issue. The Russian-American summit meetings have a history of calibrated foreplay. As the G20 summit in Bali on November 15-16 draws closer, the big question is still hanging in the …
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Ukraine war is ‘Biden’s war’ now
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Oct 18, 2022 that evidence of military personnel of United States and other Western countries having their boots on the ground in Ukraine is mounting. The most obvious explanation to the mysterious air dash of the UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace to Washington on Tuesday could be that …
The wasteland of British politics
Mary Elizabeth Truss, currently UK’s prime minister When an ugly power play marks the end of the career of a phenomenally successful politician, it presents a painful sight. From all accounts in the British press in the most recent weeks, it was clear that the night of the long knives was approaching for the most …