Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech proposing a summit in September of the “founder countries of the United Nations, the five states that hold special responsibility to save civilisation,” Jerusalem, Israel, January 23, 2020 A perfect deal is where all protagonists get something out of it. All oil-producing countries stand to gain if oil …
Continue reading “Why the OPEC+ deal is a many-splendoured thing”
President Trump’s crowded White House press conferences to discuss the coronavirus have become daily events, Washington, DC, March 13, 2020 It often puzzles me what transpires during high-level visits by world leaders. The substantive content of such events laced with pomp and glory impacting inter-state relations is generally handled by sherpas, quietly and unobtrusively. (Of …
Continue reading “We desperate Indians also need ventilators, Mr. Trump”
The past week witnessed a sudden spurt of tensions in the US-Iran standoff. There was intense speculation that to divert public attention in America from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump might order a military attack on Iran. Trump himself fuelled the speculation with the sudden outburst in a tweet on April 1: …
Continue reading “Trump’s Iran sanctions policy on the turn”
A laboratory technician prepares Covid-19 patient samples for testing at Northwell Health Labs in New York, USA. (AP) Watching the interview of Dr. R. Laxminarayan, director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy and lecturer at Princeton University, with Karan Thapar on the coronavirus epidemic has been a most edifying experience. A …
US President Donald Trump at the White House announced that he signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Washington, March 18, 2020 The responses of the Trump administration and the US Congress to meet the socio-economic challenges posed by the onslaught of the coronavirus constitute a marker in American politics — how in …
Continue reading “Trump samples democratic socialism. Hmm, it’s good.”
Coronavirus pandemic is on the rise in India The teleconference today at 5 pm IST between the leaderships of the SAARC countries is a rare event in regional cooperation. After an interlude of nearly six years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again networking with India’s neighbours in a SAARC setting. He had sprung a …
Continue reading “India revisits SAARC to fight COVID-19. Scepticism is in order.”
