NEW DELHI: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had some advice for India during a briefing on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Monday. The boundary question needed to be resolved through “fair and equitable consultation,” he said, also underscoring his discomfort with the India-US relationship. “As we have seen, some forces […]Read More

NEW DELHI: It was perhaps inevitable that the shadow of Ukraine would fall on the virtual summit of Quad leaders on Thursday. At the end of the two hour meeting, it was evident that India’s reported efforts to keep the meeting focussed on the Indo-Pacific didn’t cut much ice with the other leaders, notably US […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Ukraine has confirmed that the south western city of Kherson has fallen to Russian forces while Mariupol further east, on the Azov sea has been surrounded. This even as reports of stepped up Russian bombing of Kharkiv and other cities continued to pour in. The Russian defence ministry revealed casualty figures for the […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Modi had a chat over the phone with Russia’s President Putin, where they discussed the safe evacuation of Indian students and nationals from Ukraine. Diplomatic sources also revealed that Russia agreed to a six-hour window in which all Indian nationals in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, could be evacuated by 6pm […]Read More

NEW DELHI: India’s cabinet committee on security met late on Thursday to discuss the situation triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Perhaps the most crucial phone call of the day was Narendra Modi’s chat with Russia’s President Putin on Thursday night. The foreign office press release said the prime minister “called for an immediate cessation […]Read More

NEW DELHI: “We’ve cut off Russia’s government from western financing. It can no longer raise money from the west and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.” Within hours of that statement from US President Joe Biden, Moscow mobilised its diplomats in key world capitals to respond. In New […]Read More

New Delhi: Quad foreign ministers meeting in Melbourne, Australia, in a toughly worded joint statement, warned against “ungoverned spaces” in Afghanistan, confirmed they were exchanging information on evolving threats and working with Indo-Pacific countries to counter terrorism and violent extremism. The statement mentioned the 26/11 and Pathankot attacks, endorsing India’s position on terrorism from Pakistan. […]Read More

NEW DELHI: As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar travels to Australia for the fourth in person Quad ministerial, the members may need to address some key questions. How do they see the Quad going forward? The Malabar exercises took place under the aegis of the Quad but what will the grouping do next? Will it be […]Read More

NEW DELHI: It was perhaps inevitable that at some point the eight year old Yemen conflict would impact India. The seizure by the Houthis of the UAE-flagged Rwabee vessel on January 2, which had seven Indian crew members on board, and the killing of two Indian nationals in a Houthi drone attack on the UAE, […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has never been one to shy away from the spotlight and with rumours persisting about King Salman’s ill health, all eyes are on the Saudi Crown Prince. MBS has added fuel to such rumours by increasingly receiving foreign dignitaries and attending regional summits, actions which some Middle East watchers […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Four hours and a record 28 agreements! President Vladimir Putin’s hurricane working visit to Delhi may have gone a long way in setting at rest frequently voiced doubts about the future of the India Russia relationship. “We needed to correct some of the negative narratives which were created due to the postponement of […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Presidents Biden and Xi Jinping set the tone early for the world’s most awaited virtual conference. Their opening remarks, with Xi describing Biden as my “old friend”, and the latter reciprocating that both leaders “had never been that formal with another”, suggested that if not friendship, a new equilibrium would be found and […]Read More

NEW DELHI: The Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan, which saw India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval host the security czars of Russia, Iran and the five Central Asian states, ended in Delhi on a fairly predictable note. The Delhi Declaration included all those familiar references to ensuring Afghan soil was not used for terrorism purposes; […]Read More

NEW DELHI: The assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi should not come as a surprise. Kadhimi, who was the victim of a drone attack on his home on Sunday had been under pressure ever since the results of the October 10 elections that set up Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as kingmaker and possible […]Read More

NEW DELHI: The strategic policy community went into overdrive post the virtual meeting between India, Israel, UAE and US, with many going so far as to call it Quad 2.0. Some said it was aimed at China but the fact is, it’s too early to draw such conclusions. As former diplomat Anil Trigunayat argues, both […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s frenzied push for free trade agreements (FTAs) has zeroed in on another potential partner: Israel.  External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on his first visit to Israel since the government of Naftali Bennet took over, confirmed that negotiations would begin as early as next month. “Our officials have actually agreed on the resumption of […]Read More

NEW DELHI: Firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has emerged as kingmaker in Iraq’s fifth national elections – held since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But he may not be the only one. With 73 seats in the 329-seat parliament, Sadr will have to talk and negotiate with others on who could be prime minister. […]Read More