Expectations are soaring in Ankara over the forthcoming meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels on June 14. Erdogan said recently, “I believe that our meeting with Mr. Biden at the NATO summit will be the harbinger of a new era.” …
Biden clears the air on Russia ties
The US President Joe Biden’s op-ed in today’s Washington Post My trip to Europe is about America rallying the world’s democracies will draw wide attention in world capitals from Brussels to Beijing. He says right at the outset that this weeklong trip to Europe, the first overseas trip of his presidency, is “about realising America’s …
India’s ‘westernism’ is its undoing in vaccine strategy
A full week after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s extended four-day visit to the United States, the country is still in the dark as to the Biden administration’s generosity to spare some of their surplus stockpiles of Covid-19 vaccines. We leap out of the famous Samuel Becket play Waiting for Godot — of two tramps …
Continue reading “India’s ‘westernism’ is its undoing in vaccine strategy”
Israeli politics breaks through glass ceiling
The incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his last-minute legal challenge to stall government formation by opposition right wing politician Naftali Bennett and his potential coalition partner, centrist politician Yair Lapid. Bennett and Lapid have a Wednesday midnight deadline to formally submit the bid for the newly proposed government coalition before President Reuven …
Continue reading “Israeli politics breaks through glass ceiling”
Let Iran choose its next president
Iran’s presidential candidate Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi began his election campaign with two events: a meeting with businessmen and a visit to Tehran Grand Bazar, May 26, 2021 The western analysts feel agitated about Iran’s refusal to play by the rule book of liberal democracy. They feel indignant even as Tehran released on Tuesday the final …
Israel-Palestine conflict at inflection point
The well-known French philosopher, writer and political activist, late Paul-Michel Foucault has written about a conversation he had with an Iranian during his visit to Tehran in November 1978 on the eve of the Islamic Revolution. The stranger remarked, “They will never let go of us of their own will. No more than they did in …
Continue reading “Israel-Palestine conflict at inflection point”
Biden wants to remain engaged with Russia, China
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (L) and USTR Katherine Tai held their first call after the latter’s Senate confirmation, May 26, 2021 Anyone who tried to divine the Russia policy of the Biden presidency out of the corpus of statements by current and prospective officials in the new administration would know by now that the …
Continue reading “Biden wants to remain engaged with Russia, China”
Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 2
Afghan children walk past a Taliban Red Unit, an elite force, Alingar district, Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan (File photo) Apocalyptic scenario is unwarranted The Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on May 13, “We will not allow boots on the ground or military bases on our territory.” He was referring to the future …
Continue reading “Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 2”
Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 1
A Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle being loaded on to a flatbed trailer, Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. (File photo) Afghan conundrum is mutating The commencement of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has got off to a flying start. So far there has been no hiccup. …
Continue reading “Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 1”
Biden-Putin summit is on
On March 17, on the eve of the first scheduled meeting in Alaska of senior Chinese and American diplomats since President took office, the United States sanctioned twenty-four Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms, including a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, Wang Chen. In diplomatic terms, the timing of the action was pointed …