The importance of being neighbourly
India is subtly adding four new elements in the policy matrix
Courtesy: Twitter/@MaithripalaS
Courtesy: Twitter/@MaithripalaS
Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal
Suu Kyi, more politician than icon
The Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy, which has been in power for three years, has shown a modest score card, winning more censure than praise. Suu Kyi’s civilian-military equation has been good, but not her reluctance on the Rohingya issue. What chances does her party have of winning in Myanmar’s elections in 2020?
Courtesy: NY Times
Foreign policy continuum with the BJP
India’s foreign policy is increasingly blended in with its domestic agenda – and vice versa. Prime Minister Modi’s past proactive foreign policy has paid dividends in bringing global attention to India, a fact young voters have noticed and approved. In his second term, what will India’s foreign policy look like? A continuum of the past, but also new frameworks for the future
Courtesy: CNBC TV18
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
Courtesy: Dying Regime / Flickr
A power change in Maldives
Maldives’ new president, Ibrahim Solih, has had two election wins in a span of six months – his own in September 2018 and his Maldivian Democratic Party’s landslide victory in the Majlis elections about three weeks ago. An analysis of what this win says about democratic politics in Maldives, improved relations with India and the complex equation it shares with China
Courtesy: ibctrain.com
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?
Courtesy: The Hindu
Can India sanction Pakistan post-Pulwama?
India has used military and diplomatic offensives against Pakistan as a response to the February 14 terrorist attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. There are two more options available - legal, through sanctions, and economic - to curb Pakistan's dangerous adventurism. Gateway House explores both in the infographic below
Courtesy: AFP Photo/AREF KARIMI
Making Afghanistan whole again: development against odds
The people of Afghanistan, torn by war, ethnic strife and geoeconomic contestation for their country’s rich natural resources, have paid by forsaking the assurances of daily life. But President Ashraf Ghani has shown them that normalcy can return and it is possible to hold regular elections. The author, a guest of the President and First Lady, travelled through the country in October 2018 to record her impressions of a resilient people who have reason to hope for a different future
Courtesy: The Daily Star
Bangladesh’s India-China balancing strategy
Bangladesh faces several major challenges in its external relations. It showed humanitarianism in receiving the fleeing Rohingyas, but its diplomatic efforts to repatriate them have not succeeded. It must also maintain a balance between relations with India and China and show proactive leadership in garnering regional cooperation
Courtesy: thenews.com.pk
Gwadar 2.0: Pakistan’s Saudi vs. China play
Pakistan’s aspirations for oil and gas prospecting off its Makran coast, south-western Balochistan, are diverging from those of China, which has had a nearly two-decade long presence in Gwadar as an infrastructure provider. To turn Gwadar into the petrochemical hub it desires, Pakistan has sought out other benefactors, changing geopolitical equations in the region