An old Italian friend and a noted Sinologist based in Beijing representing a Vatican paper, Francesco Sisci wrote apropos an article I had posted on Facebook yesterday Donald Trump Meets the End of the Empire authored by Douglas Macgreggor, an ex-US Army decorated combat veteran and an author (National Interest, October 24, 2018): “Napoleon famously …
Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa has the last laugh
There is poetic justice, no doubt, in former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapksa’s return to the government – and more so in the manner in which he has done that. It is sweet revenge that the defector who backstabbed him and usurped power in 2015 – incumbent president Maitripala Sirisena – has now beseeched him …
‘Historic turning point’ in Japan-China relations overshadows Abe-Modi summit
(A view of Mt. Fuji, Japan) Hyping up the forthcoming annual India-Japan summit in Tokyo on Monday is a thankless job. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale in his media briefing Friday performed optimally, even adding a touch of mystique to an informal lunch that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will host for PM Modi at a …
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A sombre run-up to US-Russia summit in Paris
(Putin receives Bolton at the Kremlin, October 23) The highlight of the consultations of the US National Security Advisor John Bolton in Moscow on Monday was the announcement of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Paris on November 11 on the sidelines of the ceremony marking the centenary …
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Why I won’t vote for BJP or Congress
(Sabarimala temple) The op-Ed in today’s Indian Express by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The Sabarimala aftermath, will make Malayalis sit up and think. The salients of the column are three: Being a country that professes constitutional rule and primacy to rule of law, a mobilization to damn the authority of the Supreme Court is a dangerous …
Saudi Arabia gets a friend in need – Russia
It goes without saying that oil has been central to military power and economic life in modern history. Control of oil has been a key source of power and policy in the Cold War. There was even a top-secret US government plan to ravage the Middle East oil industry in the event of the former …
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What Trump’s pullout from INF treaty means
(Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan signing INF treaty, Washington, December 8, 1987) President Donald Trump’s confirmation that the US is terminating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) with Russia will be regarded as a defining moment in international security. The INF, which was signed by then US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev …
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‘Military cooperation is the highlight and pillar of China-Russia strategic cooperation’
(Chinese and Russian Defence Ministers at Vostok 2018 exercises, September 11-17) Prime Minister Modi’s annual meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe takes him to Tokyo next week. But this time around, it will be an Official Working Visit, dispensing with the frills of bonhomie. The signal is that the discussions will be largely devoted …
Time for rethink on CPEC
India needs to cut the Gordian knot of strategic stalemate in its external environment MK Bhadrakumar Former Ambassador A‘whispering campaign’ has been going on that CPEC is fated to put an intolerable burden on Pakistan’s debt repayment liabilities, with no commensurate economic returns. Fact check is uncommon in our part of the world: Moody’s says …
Ex-Ambassdor to Turkey MK Bhadrakumar on Jamal Khashoggi and Future of West Asia
MK Bhadrakumar joins Newsclick editor in chief Prabir Purkayastha to discuss the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the implications it will have for Saudi Arabia’s relations with US, Turkey, and the rest of the world.