During the visit by President Vladimir Putin to Beijing on Friday, the world attention was focused on how far China would go in support of Russia in the latter’s standoff with the US and NATO. From the joint statement issued after the visit, China has given fulsome support to Russia, endorsing Moscow’s demand for security …
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Protest against Beijing Olympics in New Delhi, Feb 4, 2022 The appalling decision by the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to huddle together with his QUAD colleagues bang in the middle of the Beijing Winter Olympics may have unpleasant consequences. China sees QUAD as a US-led clique working to “contain” it. An action-reaction syndrome has once …
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UN SG António Guterres: “Afghanistan is hanging by a thread.” In a hugely consequential advisory, the US Treasury Department quietly signalled on Wednesday that it was “tweaking” the sanctions against the Haqqani Network. The international banks can transfer money to Taliban, including Haqqani Network without fear of breaching sanctions. Washington simply issued clarifications dilating on the …
Continue reading “US pips regional states at race for Kabul”
President Vladimir Putin (R) hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping on state visit at the Kremlin, Moscow, June 5, 2019 The cascading tensions between Russia and the United States brought into play the Russian-Chinese “comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation”. The topic has been the stuff of animated discussion among strategic thinkers lately. But opinions varied. The …
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Pegasus, ‘ultimate spyware’ from Israel, is back in news cycle Pegasus, CAATSA, Nagaland — prime facie, they’ve nothing in common. At least, reading the Indian press, one gets that impression. But it is always important to connect the dots to understand where the trail is leading to. The Biden-Harris Administration is sensing that Modi Govt, …
Can Europe survive without Russian gas? The formal US response to Russia’s demands for security guarantee was delivered to the foreign ministry in Moscow on Wednesday. Moscow’s worst fears came true: Washington simply ducked without addressing the main Russian concerns — NATO’s expansion, rollback of NATO deployments to pre-1997 level, etc. —and instead offered to …
Taliban delegation led by acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Western diplomats, Oslo, Norway, January 24, 2022 40. The West co-opts the Taliban The three-day conclave in Oslo on January 23-25 for interaction for a core group of Western diplomats with Taliban officials marks a new phase in the political situation in Afghanistan. …
A radar vehicle of the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system on the way to Belarus, Khabarovsk region, Russia, Jan 21, 2022 The US-Russia talks in Geneva in the last two successive weeks could not produce a breakthrough. Fundamentally, there is a contradiction that cannot be resolved easily. Russia sees in existential terms the NATO’s advance …
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns of imminent Russian assault on Ukraine, scrambling to get allies to rally. (File photo) A special press briefing in unseemly hurry by the US state department to warn an imminent Russian assault on Ukraine; a surprise call by state secretary Blinken to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to …
Taliban says Afghan girls will be back in schools by March 39. Souring of Taliban’s relations with Pakistan External interference in Afghanistan has reappeared much sooner than one would have expected after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August. In a familiar pattern, the rumour mill has become active. The Russian Foreign Ministry …
