China backs India for hosting BRICS 2021 summit At a press conference in Beijing on Monday, when asked about China’s attitude toward BRICS cooperation and India’s current chairmanship of the grouping in the backdrop of the border tensions in Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin described BRICs as a cooperation mechanism with “practical …
Continue reading “India has lessons from Sino-Russian normalisation”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) received Pakistan PM Imran Khan (L) in Beijing on October 9, 2019 The visit by Pakistan PM Imran Khan to Beijing on October 8-9 has been a runaway success from Islamabad’s perspective. It revved up the dynamics of the China-Pakistan Economic Cooperation projects, will most certainly intensify China-Pakistan defence cooperation …
Continue reading “China displays rock-solid support for Pakistan’s “core issue” of Kashmir”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up US President Donald Trump on August 19, 2019 to discuss regional tensions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision on August 19 to telephone US President Donald Trump has been a smart diplomatic move. Trump had told Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 16 that he’d speak to Modi …
Continue reading “Modi breaks the ice with Trump — and stands to gain”
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, on lockdown. File photo. In the aftermath of the Modi government’s decision to remove ‘special status’ for J&K and bifurcate the state into two union territories, the most keenly awaited regional and international reaction — and a hugely consequential one — would be that of China’s, not the US’ or even …
Continue reading “China reacts to J&K, India demands reciprocity”
The Indian analysts view US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s forthcoming visit to New Delhi early next week through the looking glass of the ‘tariff war’ between the two countries and / or India’s purchase of the S-400 anti-ballistic missile system from Russia. However, this gives a tunnel vision. The point is, there is the …
Continue reading “Discords with US are more than moving parts in a transactional relationship”
(Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin with their delegations, Bishkek, June 14, 2019 on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.) The Bishkek Declaration, issued after the summit meeting (June 14-15) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation devotes one sentence praising China’s Belt and Road Initiative: “The Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the …
(Maldives, Diego Garcia, Mauritius, Seychelles & Madagascar make ‘second island chain’ controlling Indian Ocean sea lanes to the west of Straits of Malacca) A British ambassador in Tashkent once narrated to me a curious role she was called upon to play as tutor in international diplomacy with the novices in the foreign ministry of …
(Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the informal summit in Wuhan, China, April 2019) The first Chinese commentaries have appeared on the outcome of the general elections in India. The timing is important, since the counting of votes is yet to take place in India. Yet, Chinese commentaries have presumed that …
The sudden visit to New Delhi by the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif for a meeting on May 14 with the outgoing External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the dying days of the Modi government underscores dramatically how much Tehran has been traumatised by the Indian decision under American pressure to summarily stop all …
Continue reading “India’s betrayal of Iran is only the beginning”
(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 …
Continue reading “US ends waiver on India’s Iran oil imports. What next?”
