NEW DELHI: The Taliban claim to have captured their first provincial capital in Afghanistan after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of foreign troops on April 14. The reported fall of Zaranj, capital of the southern Nimroz province, is symbolic and significant. It’s the main land route connecting Iran’s Chabahar port with Afghanistan and […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Consultations are on at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for an emergency session on Afghanistan. India assumed the rotational UNSC presidency for a month on August 1. On Tuesday, Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar spoke to India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the issue saying, the “UN and the international community […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Add another name to the list of Indian Americans on Team Biden: Puneet Talwar. He was a top adviser for 12 years when Biden was a senator, was part of the group that put together the nuclear deal with Iran and advised former president Obama on West Asia. He now joins Zalmay Khalilzad […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is conscious, out of danger and off ventilator after multiple 16-hour long ‘life-saving’ surgeries resulting from what authorities say was a targeted terror attack on the night of May 6. 2021 މެއި 06 ވަނަ ދުވަހުގެ ރޭ މާލެ، ނީލޯފަރު ހިނގުމުގައި އެއްޗެއް ގޮއްވާލައި ރައްޔިތުންގެ މަޖިލީހުގެ ރައީސް، ރައީސް މުޙައްމަދު ނަޝީދަށް އަމާޒުކޮށް […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Former Maldives President and current Speaker of the People’s Majlis (parliament), Mohamed Nasheed was reported stable following multiple surgeries for injuries he sustained after an explosion near his home in the capital Malé. The explosion was heard around the capital at around 8:39 PM local time (20 minutes before a renewed COVID curfew […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Taking up from his testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in March, Admiral Philip S. Davidson, the outgoing head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), sounded the bugle against “China’s very pernicious approach to the region”. In a virtual discussion at ORF’s Raisina Dialogue with India’s Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) […]Read More
NEW DELHI: U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to close the door on a tragic and tumultuous period when he formally declares the withdrawal of his troops from Afghanistan late on Wednesday. The declaration is expected to be made from the Treaty Room on the second floor of the White House, where former president George […]Read More
NEW DELHI: A $50 million line of credit for the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) to buy Indian military equipment, Indian assistance for a coast guard harbour close to the capital Malé in Sifvaru, Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) in Maé Atoll and the handover of a second batch of 100,000 doses of Covid vaccine were […]Read More
NEW DELHI: “The U.S. will continue to build on the Quad which links us to Japan, Australia and India to constrain China,” Ralph A. Cossa, President Emeritus, Pacific Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii says on President Joe Biden’s first foreign policy speech. At the State Department, Biden signalled aggressive approaches to China and Russia, declaring, “We’ll […]Read More
NEW DELHI: “The million dollar question is does the Taliban accept, endorse and acknowledge a totally different Afghanistan to what they left it as,” Tahir Qadiry, Afghanistan’s Chargé D’Affaires(CDA) in India asks, adding, “hopes are quite high, that the new Biden administration will take everything into consideration in the review of the agreement between the […]Read More