India’s dementia and Lankan dreams

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (R) received US Secretary of State  Mike Pompeo (L), Colombo, October 28, 2020 Third-country cooperation is highly complex, unpredictable phenomenon. Not even the closest allies can pull it off easily. Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, denied that oil interests influenced policy in Iraq, but archives show that the British …

The Sino-Russian Alliance Comes of Age — Part 3

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) signed the statements on the “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era” and on “strengthening contemporary global strategic stability”, Moscow, June 5, 2019 The first part of the three-part essay is here. The second part is here.  Discourse of shared legacies  The …

Australia ‘decouples’ from US China policy

“Shared values but independent thinking”:  Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne (L) & US State Secretary  Pompeo, Washington, Jul 29, 2020 The Asian chancelleries have a great deal to mull over after the extraordinary joint press conference by the US and Australia following the AUSMIN meeting of their foreign and defence ministers in Washington, DC, on …

Rajapaksa’s ‘nyet’ on Mattala is a bitter pill to swallow

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) with newly-elected Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L), New Delhi, 29 Nov. 2019 Since the setback in Nepal three years ago when the Indian diktat on the contents of a new constitution for that country was brusquely dismissed by that country’s communist leadership, Modi government faces a similar rebuff from …

India prepares to shed legacy of protectionism

India has invited officials of the member countries of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to a meeting in New Delhi on September 14-15 for “discussing ideas.”  This is happening only a week after the 7th RCEP Ministerial Meeting at Bangkok on September 8 in Bangkok and a week before the next negotiating round scheduled to be …