Quiet flows the Dnieper: Water runs through a breach in the Nova Kakhovka hydro-electric dam, Kherson, Ukraine, June 6, 2023 The breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in war-ravaged Ukraine on Tuesday is no doubt a catastrophe of colossal proportions, a veritable ecological and human disaster that may outlive the war itself. …
Russia, China take holistic view of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush
A trilateral foreign minister level meeting agreed to extend China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, Islamabad, May 5, 2023 The Xi’an Declaration, issued after the First China-Central Asia Summit at Xi’an on May 18-19, takes a direct hit at the West’s interference in the region, scattering the notion in Washington and Brussels that Russia and China’s …
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An “Axis of Seven” to supplement SCO
Opening of Year of Culture and Art of the Peoples of China and Central Asia at the China-Central Asia Summit, Xi’an, May 18, 2023 The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta carried a report on the eve of the China-Central Asia summit at Xi’an titled “China is changing the format of cooperation with Central Asia.” It anticipated …
China takes leadership role in Central Asia
The First China-Central Asia Summit took place in the Chinese city of Xi’an, hosted by President Xi Jinping, May 18-19, 2023 One of the pleasures of the post-Cold War strategic discourses is that geopolitics is back with a bang. Earlier, the former Soviet Union and Communist China used to be in denial mode, as geopolitics …
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Erdogan’s mediatory role on Ukraine cannot be wished away
Jubilant crowds outside the Presidential Complex to celebrate President Recep Erdogan’s election victory, Ankara, May 28, 2023 Among the host of implications for international security stemming out of Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s election victory in the runoff on Sunday — be it in the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, Transcaucasus, West Asia or Eurasian integration — …
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Post-Bakhmut scenario in Ukraine war
Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky (L) met US President Joe Biden at Hiroshima, Japan, on May 21, 2023 Ukraine President Zelensky and US President Biden met on the sideline of the G7 Summit at Hiroshima within hours of the statement from the Kremlin at 1 am last Sunday, transmitting President Vladimir Putin’s greetings to the Russian forces …
Modi at Hiroshima — optics, politics, reality
Family photo of Prime Minister Modi (4th from left) & special invitees to G7 Leaders’ Summit, Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits abroad are carefully choreographed events, given their optics domestically. Perhaps, this is even more so today as general elections loom ahead and in Hiroshima, Modi was taking the stage …
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US hopes to snatch victory from jaws of defeat in Ukraine
Top Ukrainian intelligence official Kirill Budanov has proposed a 100-km-long demilitarised zone between Ukraine and Russia The G7 Leaders’ 2700-word statement on Ukraine, issued in Hiroshima after their summit meeting glossed over the burning question today — the so-called counter-offensive against the Russian forces. It is a deafening silence, since rumours are swirling about the …
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Indian diplomacy in overstretch
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 …
Turkiye rallies behind Erdogan
It comes as no surprise that the United States and the European Union didn’t have the face to commend the performance of Recep Erdogan and his party in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkiye on Sunday. The election results do not serve the geopolitical interests of the US and its European allies. It is …