Courtesy: iChowk.in
Islamabad recently lifted a ban on the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a violent Islamist group in Pakistan, and released its leader from jail. This is worrisome, with serious implications for India and counterterrorism efforts as a whole, for the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Army to activate its proxies like the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, to advance its domestic political ambitions and openly support extremist organisations.
Courtesy: ANI
India hosted a summit with five Central Asian states on January 27, marking 30 years of diplomatic relations with the region, and an important step forward to pursue greater connectivity between India and Central Asia. New Delhi's engagement holds promise for ambitious bilateral agendas including security in Afghanistan, the revival of dormant projects, and potential collaboration in renewable energy, space and information technology.
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The current crisis in Europe is a lesson in the diplomatic costs of lost opportunities, of reforming NATO as a basis for constructing a new security architecture in Europe at a time when such reform was possible. Now perhaps it is too late.
Courtesy: UNODC
The Taliban's resurgence since 2001 has been largely funded by the creation of an opium economy and extortion. Now, with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, legitimate aid from Afghanistan and the freezing of Afghan funds abroad, the Taliban will revive its informal sources of finance to stay afloat. A look at the financing that brought the Taliban back to Kabul.
Courtesy: Times of India
In 2021, India expedited budgetary clearances to activate its Deep Ocean Mission. Most mission projects are currently confined to the network of institutions operating under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. To truly shine, they must follow the model of developed economies where ocean innovation clusters are public-private partnerships, to focus on attaining India’s strategic objectives.
Courtesy: Deutscher Bundestag
The most significant international task ahead of Germany’s new three-party ‘traffic light’ coalition is to strengthen the relationship with Europe, reduce the imbalance in the relationship with the U.S. and influence the behaviour of important economic partners, Russia and China.
Courtesy: Town Mumbai
There is no better way to celebrate the winter festive season in Mumbai than to visit the many Bombay East Indian enclaves dotting the metropolis, urban villages that once made up the city before the 17th century. Attending Midnight Mass in the Bombay East Indian dialect of Marathi in a parish church and feasting on a traditional Christmas lunch is the best way to experience Mumbai before Bombay.
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General Bipin Rawat served as India's first Chief of Defence Staff, the top rank in the Indian military. His achievements in this pioneering role were many, but most significant was his initiation of structural reforms in the armed forces and indigenisation of military equipment.
Courtesy: OpIndia
India’s ban on the separatist group Sikhs for Justice helps to conceal what they really mean by “justice”. SFJ's continuing firehose of publicity shows no interest in the human rights of the thousands of innocents who died in Khalistani terrorist attacks during the 1980s and '90s. Quite the contrary.
Courtesy: Shutterstock
The India-Russia leaders’ summit and ministerial meetings in New Delhi on Dec. 6, scored big. Differences were set aside to make transformative progress in defence, fintech and connectivity among other sectors, commencing a new era of India-Russia relations fit for the 21st century.