Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs / Flickr
The visit of the Myanmar president was a landmark visit, the first in five decades. It raises the fundamental question as to whether the visit will bring forth major strategic and economic gains in the India-Myanmar relationship.
Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs / Flickr
Egyptian president, Abdul al-Fattah al-Sisi, is set to arrive in New Delhi on 1 September 2016 with a delegation of important ministers and business leaders. This marks an important opportunity for the two countries to connect on a much wider range of regional and international issues than earlier.
Courtesy: Xinhua News Agency
Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent visit to China heralds the return of Myanmar into the geo-strategic fold. The visit has demonstrated the Chinese willingness to woo its neighbour, and is an indicator that India needs to step up its relations with Myanmar.
Courtesy: India Africa Forum Summit 2015
Prime Minister Modi’s tour of four African countries will seek to build upon recent high-level visits to the continent, providing fresh impetus for the reinforcement of India-Africa relations in matters of diplomacy, business, security, and energy while putting to rest criticism of India’s visibility deficit in Africa. However, the onus to harness this momentum now lies with other stakeholders.
Courtesy: The First Mail
India now sees Africa as a promising market for Indian goods, services, and investments. This is evident in the government’s recent concerted focus on the India-Africa relationship—high profile visits by top leaders to African countries, a recasting of India’s development diplomacy, and an attempt to match action to past promises
Courtesy: sarkarairtel
A recent visit to the capital of Norway---Oslo---offered the opportunity to study the country’s economic success story and note its increasing interest in Asia’s emerging economies, especially India, and immense scope for deepening cooperation for mutual benefit.
Courtesy: MEA / Flickr
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth visit to the United States has been met with hails of success and with comments of 'too little, too late'. While Modi's friendship with President Obama is often credited for improving bilateral relations, the U.S. leader is currently nearing the end of his term. The new President will have their own geopolitical demands, which will invariably result in India being relegated to a second-term priority.
Courtesy: ukrep.be
As the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU draws near, predicting the outcome remains difficult. While the potential impact of Brexit on the UK has been discussed at length, a vote to stay in the EU could have implications for the UK’s domestic political situation as well as its future relationship with the EU.
Courtesy: Manjeet Kripalani
The crippling effect of American sanctions are thorough; designed to strangle economies and bring entire nations to a halt. However, they unknowingly pull people together, imparting a deep sense of patriotism and often sparking innovation which can quickly surpass any other world power. With sanctions being lifted on nations like Myanmar, Iran and, hopefully, Cuba, the question remains whether they will retain their uniqueness or fall into line with the rest?
Courtesy: MEA / Flickr
Five rather unfavourable trends define India’s trade performance over the past two years; these trends also provide useful pointers as to where India’s future trade strategy can go over the next three years as it deals with a global economic slowdown, the rise of megatrade agreements and a pivot to a more intensive trade relation with the U.S.