(Government supporters throng streets if Caracas after the failure of the US-backed coup attempt, Venezuela, May 1, 2019) The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked last Thursday in Moscow that no contacts between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are expected at the G20 summit in Japan on June 28-29. “An encounter is …
Iran circles wagons as Trump’s B Team beats war drum
(Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addressing the cabinet meeting, Tehran, May 8, 2019) If there can be a lethal game of Russian roulette in international politics, this is it — what just began on May 8, the first anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal of July 2015. Iran exercised “strategic patience” …
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Iran to even the nuclear score with US
It is going to be 30 years in another six months since the USS Abraham Lincoln, named in honour of the 16th US President, was commissioned on Nov.11, 1989 as the 5th Nimitz-class aircraft carrier of the American Navy. Now, as it leaves Croatia and heads toward the Persian Gulf, the carrier would have mixed …
Will China engage in arms control?
(Game changer: Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy that can strike the US from thousands of miles away) The US President Donald Trump’s phone call to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday comes within 3 weeks of the release of the redacted report of the Robert Mueller inquiry into his …
US ends waiver on India’s Iran oil imports. What next?
(Oil facility on Iran’s Kharg Island. US cancels waivers on Iran oil imports.) China’s stance vis-a-vis the US sanctions against Iran’s oil exports is evolving. These are early days. Quite obviously, the Chinese assessment that Iran is not going to wilt under US pressure gives a realistic picture. But it means that there is a long …
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Did you know Akbar is a Muslim?
As patriotic Indians, we savour this moment as we hear the good news that the United Nations is blacklisting Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. The country applauds India’s diplomats who have finally clinched the issue through quiet, patient, dedicated work. On a personal note, it makes me feel proud of my erstwhile colleagues in …
Rethink India’s Belt and Road options
(Venue of the Leaders’ Roundtable Summit at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation meet, Beijing, April 25-27, 2019) India’s absence from the recently concluded second summit meeting of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on April 25-27 was more a topic of animated discussion in our country — that we “rejected” …
US, China, Russia lend gravitas to Afghan peace talks
Chinese Special Envoy Deng Xijun (L), Russian Presidential Representative Zamir Kabulov (C) & U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (R) met in Moscow on April 26, 2019 for the second round of trilateral consultation on Afghanistan. From a modest start one month ago on March 20-21 in Washington, the trilateral format of the special representatives of …
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US, Iran tiptoeing toward engagement
(Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arriving in New York on April 19, 2019 on what is turning out to be a fateful diplomatic mission.) Winston Churchill has been often quoted as saying that Russian politics is comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. “An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees …
Delhi must show realism on Taliban reconciliation and peace talks
(A procession escorting the body of Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman arrives to a funeral home in the Bronx borough of New York, April 22, 2019.) The trilateral meeting of the United States, Russia and China at the level of special representatives in Moscow on April 25 signifies that the Afghan peace talks will be shifting …
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