Prime Minister Narendra Modi (5th from left) and leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Jakarta, sept 7, 2023 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s daylong visit to Jakarta for the ASEAN-India Summit on Thursday despite the countdown having begun for the G20 summit he’s hosting in New Delhi, stands out as a sign of Indian diplomacy …
Continue reading “Modi’s trip to Jakarta is a geopolitical event”
The Cold-War hypothesis that the Soviet Union was hoping to “wet its toes” in the Indian Ocean was in reality an extension of the geopolitical construct known as the “Anglo-Russian Question” that was written about by Lord Curzon, onetime viceroy of British India (1899-1905). We now know that the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was due …
Continue reading “Russians are coming — to the Indian Ocean”
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa receiving ceremonial welcome on state visit, Delhi, Nov 29, 2019 Sri Lanka is a role model for the dictum of diplomacy being the extension of a country’s national policies. Sri Lanka’s performance must be commended since it also grapples with an unresolved nationality question in which its big neighbour India …
Indian Army holding its biggest ever mountain combat exercise in Arunachal Pradesh bordering China in Oct 2019 The ancient port city of Mamallapuram on the Coromandel Coast in southern India where the informal summit between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping may take place, is frenetic with activity. The authorities are busy laying new roads, …
Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) and SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa (R) wave at supporters during the party’s National Convention, Colombo, Aug 11, 2019 The announcement in Colombo on Sunday by former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa that his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be his party SLPP’s presidential candidate in the election due …
(Geopolitical models: Mackinder and Spykman in US foreign policy) The Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s customary briefing to the media on the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Maldives and Sri Lanka on June 8-9 highlighted that the event “underlines the continued emphasis that the government lays on the Neighbourhood First policy.” The …
