The breakthrough in India’s relations with Saudi Arabia stands out undoubtedly as a foreign-policy success story of the Modi government. This was on full display at the India Energy Forum meet at New Delhi on Monday where Saudi Energy Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih praised relations with India as “a strategic priority of the Kingdom of …
US-Saudi alliance in twilight zone
President Donald Trump’s remarks about the Jamal Khashoggi affair in the interview with CBS 60 Minutes turned out to be nothing earthshaking. Basically, he said three things: a) Son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke to Crown Prince but latter denied; b) Saudi culpability is yet to be established and if it gets proven, US will be “very …
Beware, Rahul. Congress in Kerala is on suicidal path.
The Congress Party in Kerala has taken one of its stupidest decisions by launching a public agitation on the Sabarimala issue. This is going to be a classic case of blowback. Congress Party’s motives in playing hide and seek with the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala last month are three-fold: a) take a contrarian view …
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US, China lock horns over CPEC’s future
Pakistan is turning into an arena of acute US-China contestation. Pakistan’s decision to approach the IMF for a full-fledged bailout package (instead of Stand-by Arrangement) will accentuate it. The decision to opt for a bailout package implies that with its back against the wall, Imran Khan government may agree to undertake structural reforms under IMF’s …
India-Russia relations go way beyond defence deals
Amidst the welter of commentaries on the Indian-Russian annual summit last week in New Delhi, what stands out is that the government has outstripped our strategic analysts. The latter viewed the Russian summit last week exclusively through the prism of the $6 billion S-400 missile defence deal. Now, that turned out to be like missing …
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US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters
US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters By M. K. Bhadrakumar The disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in mysterious circumstances while on a visit to his country’s consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday still remains unexplained. The plot is thickening by the day. The latest reports suggest that he may not even be alive. The Istanbul …
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India must shed its strategic ambivalence in the multipolar world
By M. K. Bhadrakumar Treasured friendship: President Putin and Prime Minister Modi during their informal summit in Sochi, Russia in May 2018 | PTI A WIDELY PREVALENT REFRAIN in our strategic discourses is that the present trajectory of international politics presents India with unprecedented opportunities to advance national interests. This estimation also appears to have …
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India, Russia join hands to strengthen multi-polarity
Amidst the months-long India-US war of nerves over our S-400 missile defence deal with Russia, the joint statement issued after the 19th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi on Friday largely passed unnoticed. Yet, the salience of the document becomes important. After all, what endures is the final document – not photo-ops, not gossips. And …
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The Matryoshka dolls of India-Russia ties
The India-Russia policy must be counted as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s finest foreign policy legacy — alongside his Wuhan initiative with China. Modi’s imprimatur is vital because there is also a complex backdrop of Russian-American tensions in which this is unfolding. Continue reading
Getting caught in spider’s web
WITH the inaugural session of the 2+2 US-Indian dialogue of foreign and defence ministers held in New Delhi last Thursday, the Modi government’s foreign policy has taken a full circle. Things are back to where they were in a priori history in September 2014 when a new foreign policy trajectory was dramatically launched with the …