South Asia and Beyond

Tags : homeslider

Fauci Ignored Wuhan Virus Warnings, Emails Show

NEW DELHI: US Medical Advisor Dr Antony Fauci is turning out to be a U-turn artist. Emails accessed by Buzzfeed News through the courts showed him ignoring warnings that the Wuhan virus could be man-made. Now he’s okay with the theory that the virus may in fact have been “man made.” At a recent public […]Read More

‘China Deliberately Flexing Muscle, Ignoring Protests, Playing ASEAN Individually’

NEW DELHI: Malaysia’s Air Force scrambled jets and the Foreign Ministry summoned China’s envoy to explain an “intrusion” by 16 Air Force transport planes into its airspace. Malaysian Academic and Security Analyst Dr. Ahmad El-Muhammady explains the reactions after the Southeast Asian country’s military detected “suspicious” activity over the South China Sea, the strong diplomatic […]Read More

Why Free Trade Still Eludes BIMSTEC

NEW DELHI: As the seven member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical & Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) ready for the fifth summit in Sri Lanka in August, the major takeaway of a free trade area (FTA) appears elusive. Discussions over the last 15 years have got nowhere, and under the present Indian […]Read More

China Mum As India Talks Respect For Territorial Integrity

NEW DELHI: India delivered a pointed message to China at the virtual summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa) foreign ministers on Tuesday. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called for the “territorial integrity” of all states to be preserved. He said, “We strive for a fair, just, inclusive, equitable and representative multipolar international […]Read More

‘India Is The Wild Card In Nepali Politics …’

One doesn’t have to look far for proof that politics makes for strange bedfellows. After feuding with Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (for much of last year) over his claims to Kalapani and playing footsie with China, India now appears to have put all its eggs in the same Oli basket. In this chat […]Read More

Chin National Front Signs Deal With Myanmar’s Shadow Govt

The Chin National Front (CNF), one of the ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar, has allied with the National Unity Government (NUG), becoming the first such group to side with the country’s shadow government formed to topple the military regime. According to the pact signed on Saturday, the two sides agree to cooperate based on equality, […]Read More

Why India Needs To Up Its Arctic Game

NEW DELHI: Call it the Covid effect but the third Arctic Science Ministerial hosted virtually by Iceland and Japan last month happened with apparently little notice. But to those interested in the Arctic, it signalled India’s renewed focus on a region more than 4000-km distant yet critical to its economy. Scientists and officials involved in […]Read More

Port City Tilts Balance Towards China As India Watches On

COLOMBO: The issue of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission is now done and dusted, with Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena signing and validating the Bill, which was passed by Parliament the previous week. Thereby, the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act is now effective. However, the legislation has thrown up several key geopolitical issues, from […]Read More

How I Discovered The Wrong Geotag For Leh On Twitter

NEW DELHI: For the past 24 hours, Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale has been flooded with enquiries about a video clip of him highlighting the wrong geo-tag (location) for Leh. There was some confusion about the exact date on which the video was recorded. Some thought, it is fresh one; some others knew it to be […]Read More

User Privacy Vs Law Enforcement: Is There A Middle Ground?

NEW DELHI: The new IT rules that took effect earlier this week has pitted the government against social media platforms such as Twitter and Whatsapp who say it could compromise data encryption and, as an extension, user privacy. The government insists it’s committed to the right to privacy of its citizens but at the same […]Read More

India, U.S. Signal Robust Security Ties As Jaishankar Meets Defense Secy, Intel Chief

NEW DELHI: “Today’s talks have further solidified our strategic partnership and enlarged our agenda of cooperation,” tweeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar after talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken. Jaishankar said he and Blinken had had a “positive discussion” on issues of bilateral co-operation along with regional and global issues. “We covered the Indo-Pacific […]Read More

Jaishankar’s U.S. Visit: Both Symbolism And Substance

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar continued his “in person” contact with the Biden administration with his long-awaited official visit to the US. The visit which is the first by Jaishankar to the US since President Joe Biden came to power will see a number of key meetings take place. Jaishankar’s first appointment in […]Read More