US President Joe Biden speaking about the end of the war in Afghanistan, White House, Washington, August 31, 2021 A 90-minute phone conversation between the presidents of the United States and China surely makes world news, but President Joe Biden’s call to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday draws special attention on its timing, …
US-China relations at crossroads
In two phone calls past fortnight, Chinese Councilor & FM Wang Yi (L) told US counterpart Antony Blinken (R) that coordination over Afghanistan would depend on US policies towards Beijing The Biden Administration, in dire straits over Afghanistan, is pursuing China for help. There have been two phone calls to Chinese State Councilor and FM …
Quad meets the “Saigon moment”
US Vice-President Kamala Harris (L) being presented with a spray of orchids named after her, as Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (R) looks on, Singapore, August 23, 2021 The regional tour of Southeast Asia by the US Vice-President Kamala Harris got inundated with the tsunami of criticism over the United States’ frantic efforts to complete …
CPC transforms China as a world class power
Zhou Enlai (left) and Mao Zedong (second from left) at Chinese Communist capital of Yan’an, c.1936. Photo by Edgar Snow. This is the season to reread Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China, the classic work on the birth of the communist movement in China. Alongside John Reid’s Ten Days That Shook the World, the gripping …
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Breakthrough in Afghan peace process!
The “extended Troika” on the Afghan problem comprising the United States, Russia, and China — and Pakistan — have announced in Doha on Friday a road map in consultation with the Ashraf Ghani government and Taliban as regards the way forward in immediate terms for reaching a peace settlement. The announcement followed consultations in Doha …
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 …
Asymmetry in US-Russia-China triangle
US-China dialogue in Anchorage, Alaska on March 16, 2021 The privilege of posing the first question to the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the customary press conference last Sunday on the margins of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing went to the Tass correspondent. The extraordinary gesture, dripping with symbolism, …
Biden kickstarts China re-engagement
What distinguishes the new US administration is that there has never been an American president before with anywhere near the foreign policy experience that Joe Biden possesses. Biden brings into the presidency enormous experience spanning over half a century, through his continuous stretch in the US Senate and the White House from 1973 to 2016 …
China draws the analogy of Korean war to warn US
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) placing wreath at monument to martyrs of Chinese People’s Volunteer Army who fought in Korean War. Kim separately placed a floral basket at the tomb of Mao Anying, eldest son of China’s Mao Zedong, Hoechang County, DPRK, Oct 22, 2020. The ceremony at the Great Hall of the …
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The Sino-Russian Alliance Comes of Age — Part 3
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) signed the statements on the “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era” and on “strengthening contemporary global strategic stability”, Moscow, June 5, 2019 The first part of the three-part essay is here. The second part is here. Discourse of shared legacies The …
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