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: Bhutan has refused to yield to Chinese pressure on altering the terms that govern the boundary talks between Thimphu and Beijing. It has rejected a new proposal by China to steer the process through a so-called Three Step Roadmap (TSR). The 10th Expert Group Meeting (EGM) between China and Bhutan, held in Kunming […]Read More
NEW DELHI: The 25th round of border talks between China and Bhutan has been scheduled for April 7 and 8 and will be hosted in Kunming, southwestern China’s biggest city, sources have told StratNews Global. A delegation from Bhutan is reportedly already in China undergoing the mandatory 14-day quarantine in view of the pandemic. Although […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh are basking in a relationship that has never perhaps been better. That’s the word from Prof. Abdul Mannan, a former vice-chancellor of Chittagong University, and Pijush Bandyopadhyay, a stage, film and television actor, both from Bangladesh with a common interest in seeing the two countries come closer. A similar view […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India’s tough neighbourhood isn’t just about the permanent irritants—Pakistan and China—but also about countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka that keep giving anxious moments if not more. Be it Nepal’s dalliance with China, the ‘terminal’ trouble and growing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka or the fear of radicalization in Bangladesh, India needs to […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India came in for some praise from Bangladesh and also got a reality check from its junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam. At a webinar on Thursday, Alam, speaking from Dhaka, said the two countries are “witnessing a golden chapter in bilateral relations” with ties having matured but he also indulged in some plainspeak, […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is scheduled to travel to Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Friday and Saturday to carry forward the recent momentum in India-Sri Lanka relations, exactly a year after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President in the island nation. On top of the agenda during Doval’s two-day visit is the revival […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India and the Maldives have signed an MoU for what is billed as the largest every infrastructure project in the island nation — a $100 million grant from India for the Greater Malé Connectivity Project which will link the capital with the three islands of Vilingili, Gulhifalhu, where a new commercial port will […]Read More
NEW DELHI: China’s border issues with India have tended to obscure its territorial claims in other parts of this region. Nepal has seen a sudden surge in anti-China sentiment amid reports of Beijing taking over Nepali territory in a remote border district. It hasn’t helped that Nepal’s ruling communist party has been quick to give […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Who needs an Opposition in the Maldives when a former president and co-founder of the ruling party, Mohamed Nasheed, is playing this role quite effectively? This is the question being increasingly asked by many within and even outside the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) that Nasheed co-founded with current president Ibu Solih. Nasheed […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India has announced $250 million in urgent financial assistance through a loan with soft repayment terms to the Maldives. The country’s economy has been ruined by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the two mainstay sectors—tourism and fishing—being badly hit. This assistance will shore up liquidity, ease exchange rate fluctuations and provide the needed budgetary […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Amidst the jostling for strategic space in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) by India and China, New Delhi has stepped up its outreach to the Maldives to help its economy recover from the devastating impact of Covid-19. Indian high commissioner to the Maldives Sunjay Sudhir handed over a “symbolic cheque” of USD 5.6 […]Read More
NEW DELHI: You got to give it to the Chinese—they know how to strike when the iron is hot, especially when the goal is to win friends and influence people. As Bangladesh fights an uphill battle to contain Covid-19 and the consequent economic slowdown, Beijing stepped in granting, tariff-exemption on 97 per cent of the […]Read More
NEW DELHI: India has been a pillar of support and assistance to the Maldives during the COVID-19 crisis, India’s High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir tells StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi. India has transferred to the Maldives, $150 million of the $400 million available under the bilateral currency swap agreement. This will enable Maldives to […]Read More
PUNE: For tourism dependent countries such as the Maldives the coronavirus emanating from China poses a huge challenge and Fayyaz Ismail, Minister Of Economic Development In The Maldives believes that containing the coronavirus should be the key priority at the moment. Speaking to Ashwin Ahmad, the minister said that Asian nations needed to become more […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Maldives Defence Minister Mariya Ahmed Didi, in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi, says she hopes the resumption of NSA-level trilateral talks will take place soon in Malé. She also was positive on the possibility of re-including Mauritius and the Seychelles as observers in the trilaterals. The India-Maldives-Sri Lanka NSA-level […]Read More
NEW DELHI: Killing two birds with one stone: On Sunday, India lent a not so modest $1.3 million support line to the Maldives. The aid will help in the area of climate change by funding a water bottling plant. In a subtle dig at China, the grant also underscores how New Delhi’s transparent policy making can […]Read More
NEW DELHI: The suspension of the SAARC process owing to hurdles placed by Pakistan has had an unintended consequence. It cut off Afghanistan’s physical access to other SAARC members. The push for BIMSTEC and sub-regional cooperation has also accentuated Kabul’s sense of isolation within the South Asian fraternity, argues Nazir Kabiri of the Biruni Institute, a […]Read More
Nearly 30 months after the border standoff at Dolam (popularly known as Doklam) was resolved, China is far from giving up attempts to whittle down India’s influence over Bhutan, the third and most important angle of the triangular mess in the strategically important Himalayan frontier. Throughout 2019, Beijing sought to increase the pressure on the […]Read More
NEW DELHI: With the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak fuelling global fears and following a deadly outbreak of measles since October in Pacific countries and the Democratic Republic of Congo, India has quietly butspeedily acted on an emergency request from the Maldives. 30,000 doses of the Measles/Rubella vaccine were obtained from the Serum Institute, Pune and handed […]Read More
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