HMS Monmouth is pictured with the Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya during the vessels transit through the English Channel.

The 4,900 tonne frigate met up with the newest Indian aircraft carrier  – weighing in at a massive 45,000 tonnes and helped her safely through the busy English Channel.
 
Originally built for the Russian Navy as a modified Kiev class aircraft carrier, called Baku in 1987, India procured her in 2004 and she was accepted by the Indian Navy in a commissioning ceremony in November 2013.  

Following successful sea trials in July 2013 and aviation trials in September 2013 the carrier began her long journey to her new home of India escorted by auxiliary INS Deepak and Talwar class frigate INS Trikand.


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© Crown Copyright 2013
Photographer: LA(PHOT) Dean Nixon
Image 45156377.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk Courtesy: South Asian Voices
6 April 2023

The U.K.’s Indo-Pacific push

The UK has been admitted to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP, a significant step forward for its efforts in achieving its Brexit goals. The benefits will be more strategic than economic, as it gives the UK a place in the new ‘Atlantic-Pacific’ region.

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17 November 2022

Protests across Europe

Discontent over high energy prices, spiralling living costs, and anti war sentiments have gripped Europe, resulting in protests and civil unrest across the continent. With no immediate solution in sight, public resentment is likely to intensify through the coming winter months

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21 September 2022

Gains from India’s new FTAs

India is stepping into a new era of free trade agreements in the midst of turbulent global waters that bring both risks and opportunities. A fragile global recovery can dampen demand for India’s goods, but it can also attract medium and high-tech manufacturing sectors leaving China, benefit from technology and skill transfer from abroad and lay a strong foundation for growth.

Modi In G20 Courtesy: Narendra Modi/Facebook
25 August 2022

Geopolitics, G20 and India’s Choices

India will be president of the G20 in 2023. The world’s most influential economic governance body is facing an existential crisis, where the major powers have fallen out. With geopolitical currents redefining geo-economics, India needs to be ready to emerge as the chief global diplomat.

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13 June 2022

The trouble with Europe outsourcing asylum

The attempts of responsibility-transfer of asylum-processing and refugee-protection by the UK and Denmark to Rwanda, reflect a fundamental shift from the conventional principle of territorial asylum and set an undesirable precedent. Deporting the vulnerable to countries with perpetual internal socio-political and economic issues and inadequate asylum infrastructure, will gravely compromise their safety, welfare, human rights and benefit claims as refugees.

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On 31 May 2022, Amb. Rajiv Bhatia delivered keynote address at the panel discussion on Emerging and Critical Technologies in the Indo-Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges, organised by the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies. Amb. Bhatia elucidates on usage of technology in modern warfare, especially the Ukrainian war, while also stressing those critical technologies in the Indo-Pacific can provide a fillip to sustainable development in the region.

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21 April 2022

Economic and human security in the Indo-Pacific

China has established a dominant presence in the Indo-Pacific through exploitative economic engagements. This has destabilised smaller nations in the region and made them dependent on Chinese support. For a free and open Indo-Pacific, India must press its advantage in human and economic capacity building.

187164 Courtesy: The Guardian
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Europe - IP Courtesy: Club of Three
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Indo-Pacific through the European prism

The EU's Indo-Pacific strategy, released in September, set the tone for a renewed focus on the region. Europe's Asia connect is rich, strong and multi-layered, laying the foundation for an advantageous position for the EU in the Indo-Pacific. This can be achieved if the EU is more candid with itself, more assertive with China, and more cooperative with India.