G7 Summit leaders at “working lunch” session, Japan, 19 May, 2023 The Foreign Secretary’s special briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Asia-Pacific tour (May 19-24) dovetailed skilfully into three summit meetings, and brings to mind an institution of the Middle Ages known as the “wandering minstrels”. Wealthy people used to employ minstrels to entertain them …
Pivotal moment in India-Russia relations
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (L) and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov at a Russian-Indian business forum organised jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs & Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi, April 17, 2023 Most relationships undergo transition with the passage of time from appreciation of each other to …
George Soros poses no danger to India
George Soros, Hungarian-American businessman (File photo) The Indian Express newspaper featured today two reports relating to India’s indirect partnership with George Soros in a worldwide democracy project under the UN umbrella. The main report is behind paywall while the second report titled “UN Democracy Fund launched in 2005 on sidelines of India-US N-deal” is accessible. …
A reality check for Modi Govt’s G20 ambitions
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a ‘virtual message’ to the G20 foreign ministers, New Delhi, March 2, 2023 Two key milestones have been crossed on the road leading to the G20 summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 9-10. Some vital conclusions can be drawn out of the two controversial …
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India’s gaffe at Samarkand
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Samarkand, Uzbekistan, September 16, 2022 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Samarkand on September 16 after the SCO Summit turned into a media scandal. The Western media zeroed in on six words culled out of context in the …
Biden’s I2U2 summit diminishes India
US forms a West Asian Quad with Israel, India and UAE, which held its first summit meeting in virtual setting on July 14, 2022 coinciding with President Biden’s first regional tour of West Asia. India’s involvement with US President Joe Biden’s quixotic venture called “I2-U2 Summit” is bizarre, to put it mildly. India’s excellent relations …
Why India must decouple from I2U2
Foreign Ministers of India, Israel, UAE, US (clockwise) held a videoconference in October 2021 to launch a ‘Quad’ for West Asia Indian diplomacy is descending from the sublime to the absurd. Such wild swings signal rank opportunism. These are extraordinary times when to be smart is equated as being opportunistic. Hardly a week passed since …
USCIRF report is a writing on the wall
Tapestry of India’s rich religious diversity Factually speaking, one must be a cynic to be dismissive about the findings of the annual 2022 report on India in the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In particular, the report recommends that India be designated as a Country of Particular Concern, a country that engages in …
US reminds India it’s showtime
Pegasus, ‘ultimate spyware’ from Israel, is back in news cycle Pegasus, CAATSA, Nagaland — prime facie, they’ve nothing in common. At least, reading the Indian press, one gets that impression. But it is always important to connect the dots to understand where the trail is leading to. The Biden-Harris Administration is sensing that Modi Govt, …
Reflections on Events in Afghanistan-31
The 3rd Moscow Format meeting on Afghan settlement attended by Taliban and ten regional states, Moscow, Oct 20, 2021 31. India plays Russian card The chances were slim that the Pakistani National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf would accept the invitation from his counterpart Ajit Doval to a regional meet of security tsars in New Delhi …