48645255438_77e7265a4b_c Courtesy: TICAD7/Flickr
3 October 2019

TICAD 7’s agenda: engaging private enterprise

The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development was a departure from earlier editions of it. Japan, which is changing tack as a competitor to China in Africa, held back from publicising the number of heads of state present to prevent any comparisons with other such forums and made no further commitments on Overseas Development Assistance. The accent, instead, was on increasing Japanese private sector engagement

shutterstock_1457421710 (1) Courtesy: Shutterstock
26 September 2019

Quad in the Indo-Pacific

The foreign ministers of the Quad countries meet for the first time in New York today even as the Indo-Pacific has turned into a keenly contested geopolitical arena. Some countries are offering to play a mediatory role while other triangular equations are also undergoing change. An analysis of some of the relationships at work here

shutterstock_1170580723 Courtesy: Shutterstock
22 August 2019

Japan in India’s North East

India and Japan have emerged close strategic partners, particularly in the current decade. They are cooperating for the economic development of India’s landlocked North East Region through connectivity building and infrastructure projects. The Modi government’s Act East policy has been a major impetus in the flow of Japanese assistance. Such cooperation also comes in direct response to China’s BRI

modi-768x432 Courtesy: CNBC TV18
28 May 2019

PM Modi’s foreign policy 2.0

India's foreign policy under the second Modi government will take account of a turbulent world in which the old verities are disappearing and domestic political compulsions exert overwhelming influence on external postures

nehru Courtesy: Free Press Journal
2 May 2019

Tracing Indian merchants in Japan

Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s coronation on May 1, marking the dawn of the Reiwa Era, is a milestone also for the Indian merchant diaspora, which began arriving during the reign of the Meiji Emperor in the 1870s. The strength of the India-Japan bilateral relationship lies in the 150-year-old narratives of these family-run firms and the success of many Indo-Japanese  collaborations

IMG_6024 Courtesy: Gateway House
17 April 2019

Realising Japan’s G20 priorities

Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute, outlined some of the issues that will concern Japan, which is president of the G20 this year. He was in Mumbai for the India-Japan dialogue, organised by Gateway House recently

regan Courtesy: Pacom
11 April 2019

Canada in the Indo-Pacific

Canada, which has been slow to respond to a changing trans-Pacific neighbourhood, can join India and the ASEAN member states to embark on a trilateral dialogue on the Indo-Pacific’s importance in terms of political, strategic and other domains. An alignment in outlook can strengthen the security and prosperity of a region, currently mired in U.S.-China rivalries

ibc-center-oil-gaz-4-696x392 Courtesy: ibctrain.com
2 April 2019

India & the influential SCO Energy Club

The main objective of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Energy Club, when Russia formed it, was to market its member states’ substantial oil and natural gas reserves. This map shows some of the important natural gas pipelines, originating from Russia and its neighbouring countries that are not members of the SCO. What can India do to secure supplies from these abundant but currently inaccessible natural gas reserves?

41608961145_bcfb0f1515_o Courtesy: MEA Flickr
26 February 2019

Indo-Pacific, the contested theatre

The key global powers are redefining their roles in the Indo-Pacific to promote national interest. China’s rise and increased activism in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region is an uncontested reality even as Asian countries worry about the new cold war in which the U.S. and China are locked. The Quadrilateral Dialogue has reemerged to prevent a unipolar Asia — these are some of the trends unfolding in this arena