Archives: Shortcuts

India’s foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla made a strong pitch for the Indo-Pacific, urging Russia not to see it as a US-led effort. Addressing the Russian Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, Shringla said “we see this as a free, open and inclusive region which embraces us all in a common pursuit of peace and prosperity. We would […]Read More

Indo-Pacific is expected to dominate the third ministerial meeting (virtual) of the foreign ministers of Quad countries—India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.—later today. The ministers will exchange views on regional and global issues especially practical areas of cooperation towards maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, India’s External Affairs ministry said, without an express […]Read More

China’s business community is drawing lessons from the treatment of Alibaba’s top man Jack Ma, who vanished from public view and remained so for quite some time. Clearly, he had offended the powers that be and you don’t do such things in China. So the business community is “buying insurance”, meaning they are investing in […]Read More

When was the last time one heard China’s Premier Li Keqiang do or say something substantial? The answer is probably not in a long time. His role appears to have shrunk to making anodyne statements about UK-China trade cooperation or calling for likely epidemic loopholes in villages to be plugged or chairing meetings seeking opinions […]Read More

In a move that will further annoy an already seething Iran, the United States is selling Iranian oil – oil that it has confiscated from Iranian tankers. Estimates suggest that the US has sold over one million barrels of oil with the money likely to go victims of “state-sponsored terrorism.” This is a veiled hint […]Read More

China and the UK are locked in a tit-for-tat war through the media. Beijing came down hard on BBC World News stating that the global network “seriously violated” national broadcasting ethics by publishing news that was neither “truthful” or “fair” thereby hurting the nation’s national interests. Reacting to the ban, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted: “China’s […]Read More

For the first time in a decade, Russia and NATO members will come together for joint military exercises that begin tomorrow in Pakistani waters. The drills, AMAN 2021, which will see over 40 countries taking part, including the United States and China, will continue till February 16. The participating nations will join the drills with […]Read More

In their first telephonic conversation since Joe Biden took over as U.S. President last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he discussed ‘regional developments and the wider geo-political context’. Joe Biden and I are committed to a rules-based international order, tweeted PM Modi. The two leaders agreed to work together to fight the pandemic, renew […]Read More

China’s influence over Pakistan even extends to giving the army deadlines for sorting out the Baloch uprising. In a candid interview with the Bangladesh newspaper Daily Sun, Major General Ayman Bilal, the new inspector general of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan said, “China has deployed me here to crush the Baloch movement and has given […]Read More

Jared Kushner is a “Nobel man” or so some think. The son-in-law of former president Trump has been nominated by American attorney Alan Dershowitz, for the Nobel Peace Prize, since he helped normalise ties between Israel and some Arab states. Dershowitz is eligible to do so in his capacity as a professor emeritus of Harvard […]Read More