Courtesy: Vox
The restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia marks the end of a seven-year marathon of indirect confrontations and impasses involving a broad spectrum of actors. It allows both to harvest economic and political benefits. Most importantly, it confirms China’s status as a significant power with influence to unlock broad and complex international agreements.
Courtesy: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazakhstan
The SCO foreign ministers met in Tashkent in July to plan for the all-important SCO summit in September. New additions and old issues remain, but the SCO is now growing into a significant grouping, with importance to India
Courtesy: TDB
Financial intermediaries are critical lubricants for business, growth and development. The Indo-Pacific countries are industrializing, but smaller nations lag behind economically. The Quad countries can aid the advancement of the financial architecture in the Indo-Pacific by helping to develop an ecosystem, modelled on the examples of Japan and India.
Courtesy: Shutterstock
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor with its unaffordable power projects is one reason for Pakistan’s current economic crisis. Pakistan has ended up with capacity it does not need, relying on fuels it is importing at a high cost
Courtesy: Radio Farda
After the Pulwama attack of 14 February 2019, Pakistan has come under the international scanner for its support and financing of terrorist groups. At a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris last week, it was pulled up for its inability to choke terrorist financing. This primer illustrates the role of the FATF in tackling terrorist financing and money-laundering, and studies its recent review of Pakistan
Courtesy: MEA Flickr
The imperative for India to move away from its non-aligned posture is now, especially if it wants to be consequential in the global reordering underway. This will play out in the contention between the U.S. on one side, and China and Russia on the other.
Courtesy: Washington Post
China’s large investments in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives and the economic dependence this creates make it impervious to the internal political upheavals in these countries. This blog explores how it will retain its influence in Sri Lanka regardless of how the turmoil is resolved
Courtesy: MEA Flickr
The current political unrest in Sri Lanka and coups in Maldives and Zimbabwe bear a Chinese imprint. China’s use of strong-arm tactics smacks of the very behaviour that it had earlier criticised in former colonial powers
Courtesy: Competitive India
'Strategic OFDI’ is outward foreign direct investment made by nations in their strategic interests. China leads the way, but the U.S. has also just announced a new agency for strategic OFDI. It will now gain increasing salience in global foreign policy.
Courtesy: IIM, Indore
The world order that came about in the aftermath of World War II was a western-oriented construct that has become obsolete in many ways. The changes underway offer India an opportunity to participate in the crafting of political and economic institutions that are more pertinent to the emerging geopolitical equations