Indian Oil Corporation’s Numaligarh Refinery, Assam (File photo) To be sure, energy security has surged as the key to a country’s strategic autonomy and independence, as world events testify, currently within the matrix of “food-fertiliser-fuel” sufficiency where the global supply chains are disrupted. Europe’s missteps on this front, upon the advice of the US to …
Continue reading “India’s energy diplomacy blossoms, finally”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) met Chairman of State Administrative Council & Prime Minister of Myanmar’s Provisional Government, Min Aung Hlaing, Naypyidaw, August 3, 2022 The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Myanmar on August 3 shows that the relationship is assuming a strategic character. The Foreign Ministry in a press release on August …
Adani Group to build container terminal in Colombo In a stunning coincidence, on Monday, the Sri Lankan government issued a Letter of Intent to the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd (APSEZ) to develop and operate the West Container Terminal in Colombo. To be sure, the Rajapaksa government took a calculated risk. If Delhi …
Colombo Port needs China and India to emerge as trans-shipment hub in the Indian Ocean The Sri Lankan government has announced that it is going ahead with a project to develop jointly with India and Japan a new container terminal from the scratch at Colombo Port called the West Container Terminal. According to the official …
Continue reading “Colombo port deal calms India’s paranoia “
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 …
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) held a virtual summit on September 26, 2020 The virtual summit between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa turned out to be somewhat surreal. The summit was the first of its kind Modi has had …
The Cold-War hypothesis that the Soviet Union was hoping to “wet its toes” in the Indian Ocean was in reality an extension of the geopolitical construct known as the “Anglo-Russian Question” that was written about by Lord Curzon, onetime viceroy of British India (1899-1905). We now know that the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was due …
Continue reading “Russians are coming — to the Indian Ocean”
(Geopolitical models: Mackinder and Spykman in US foreign policy) The Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s customary briefing to the media on the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Maldives and Sri Lanka on June 8-9 highlighted that the event “underlines the continued emphasis that the government lays on the Neighbourhood First policy.” The …
