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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan this week presents a paradox. He is likely to unveil massive plans for the expansion of economic and strategic partnership between the two countries during the visit, as well as highlight the emerging vulnerabilities of a relationship that has long been celebrated as “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the Indian Ocean and sweeter than honey”. Xi’s travel to Islamabad, coming three weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China, raises interesting questions about New Delhi’s changing approach towards Beijing. During his two-day trip to Pakistan, Xi is expected to launch infrastructure projects worth more than $40 billion. any of these are part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, considered one of the cornerstones of Xi’s ambitious “one belt, one road” initiative aimed at transforming China’s ties with its neighbouring regions. The “belt” refers to the overland industrial and transport corridors that will link C...

China on Monday said its role in ties between India and Pakistan is to “promote peace talks” between them that will benefit all parties in the region, as Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Islamabad on his maiden visit to boost their “all-weather” strategic ties. China also said it will step up coordination with Pakistan on regional hotspot issues and deepen pragmatic cooperation. “We will deepen defence cooperation with Pakistan and step up cooperation and coordination on regional hotspot issues with Pakistan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said here. “This will be beneficial to the two countries and two peoples and meet the interests of all parties.”Asked to elaborate on the regional hotspot issues and whether it concerned India and Pakistan, Hong said: “Our role in relations between India and Pakistan is to promote peace talks between the two countries and improve relations. The statement came as Xi landed in Pakistan on a two-day state visit to boost str...

You know, I know and every Pakistani I know also knows that there is never going to be ‘azadi’ for Kashmir. Nobody seriously believes that there will be another redrawing of India’s borders. So it is time that this becomes the fundamental principle of a new policy to deal with our oldest political problem. Prime Minister Modi has the best chance of finding a permanent solution, since Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and he must seize the chance. Atalji tried but failed because instead of a fresh start he chose to adopt the same Kashmir policy that successive Congress governments followed since 1947. This was a crucial mistake. Prime Minister Modi has indicated that he is not burdened by past Congress mistakes and that he is ready for a new beginning. Otherwise the BJP would not be part of a government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Before writing this piece, I had a chat with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, one of the architects of the Common Minimum Programme. He suggested that I read it. I...

Tehran's nuclear programme will shrink significantly under a framework deal to make any Iranian moves towards building an atom bomb virtually impossible for years - but the devil is in the detail. Iran has agreed with six world powers to curb its nuclear activity in three main areas: the size and grade of its uranium stockpile, the number of centrifuges that enrich uranium, and the maximum fissile purity of the product of these machines.

On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India on April 1, 1950, the Chinese Ambassador to India, Le Yucheng, in written answers provided to a set of questions posed by Srinivasan Ramani,  emphasised the need for a renewal of China-India ties in tune with the realities of the 21st century. Excerpts follow. Later, in an interaction in Chennai, the

If the West genuinely wants to fight terror and promote a peaceful future in the troubled West Asia region, it will have to confront its selective silence and dual standard on the serious challenges that threaten the region today.

Left over from a previous phase of conflict, India’s landmines are no longer useful,instead producing severe hardship on border communities India, since its independence, has been a passionate advocate of disarmament measures in the United Nations system. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, “India has a long-standing commitment to the goal of general and complete disarmament based on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and verification...” In 1996, India voted in favour of a UN General Assembly Resolution urging states to vigorously pursue an international agreement banning anti-personnel mines. However, in 1997 when the Mine Ban Treaty came into existence, India chose to remain outside it. This key contemporary disarmament measure has saved thousands of lives. Eighty per cent of governments in the world have joined this treaty, and the UN Secretary General has acknowledged it as a ‘near universal’ convention. But India is still waiting and watching from...

The re-election of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu after his Likud Party  secured the first place  with 30 out of the 120 seats in the 2015 Israeli legislative elections came as a bit of a surprise. Exit polls pointing to a better showing by the centrist-moderate coalition, the Zionist Union including the Labour Party, turned out to be wrong as the Likud emerged with far more votes than what was expected. While the Likud lacks a majority of its own, it now gets the right to form the government in coalition with other parties, and it is clear that Mr. Netanyahu will be Prime Minister for a fourth term. The Likud victory, belying expectations, can be attributed to the polarising campaign led by Mr. Netanyahu who took a hyper-racist position denouncing Israeli Arabs and rejecting, in the run-up to the polls, the statehood demand by Palestinians. The triumph of the right wing also reflects the sharp change in attitudes in Israeli society that has become militantly oppos...

The Central government headed by the BJP does not possess the kind of levers needed to deal with the ground realities in Kashmir. It needs to do more than merely making strong statements from time to time in the belief that this would check the profligacy of the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and his cabinet on matters of security Events in Jammu and Kashmir seemingly appear more surreal than real, making it difficult to separate the truth from perceptions. The 2014 elections in Jammu and Kashmir had raised expectations of a significant shift in a progressive direction as far as the State was concerned. The national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had between them secured over 45 per cent of the vote, an increase of more than 14 per cent when compared to the 2008 elections. Thus, the perception was that this would herald closer cooperation between Srinagar and New Delhi. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be happening — at least not yet. Skew...

PTI China's Navy Chief Admiral Wu Shengli being received on the deck of INS Shivalik by its Captain Puruvir Das when he visited the ship at Qingdao on Tuesday. Admiral Wu Shengli, China’s Navy Chief, this week caught Indian officials off guard by asking for an impromptu tour of the most sensitive nerve centre of the advanced Indian missile frigate, INS Shivalik, while on a brief courtesy call on the visiting ship. The Shivalik arrived at this eastern port city, which is the base of the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) North Sea Fleet, on Sunday to take part in exercises on Wednesday to mark the Chinese Navy’s 65th anniversary. Indian officials told Admiral Wu that the ship’s operations room — the Combat Information Centre — was among the Indian Navy’s most advanced and was kept locked when the frigate was docked at harbour. Under standard operating procedures, it cannot be opened without exception. The Admiral’s request surprised Indian officials as navy official...

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin with Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.    India and China will on Monday afternoon hold the sixth round of their strategic dialogue, with the talks expected to lay the groundwork for a series of high-level engagements between the two countries set to take place in coming months following the Lok Sabha elections.

Maritime Silk Route emphasises on improving connectivity but more importantly, it aspires to improve China’s geo-strategic position in the world China is experiencing a “Deng Xiaoping Moment 2.0.” The new Chinese leadership

 Aimed at attracting the world's best and brightest, the US will soon come out with a series of policy initiatives and changes in the existing rules including allowing the spouses of H-1B visas to work in America. 

With an unsettled neighbourhood, an increasingly aggressive China and a politically weak and ambivalent U.S., India’s external environment is defined by uncertainty. Yet, unfortunately, in all the party manifestoes released so far, the weakest sections are on foreign policy Foreign policy has rarely mattered in Indian elections, yet one of the biggest challenges the new government in New Delhi will face is in confronting an international system that has felt systematically let down by India over the last few years. The world is hoping — as are India’s impatient and angry young voters — for a quick recovery of India’s self-esteem and a more robust engagement with the international system. The challenges are enormous, and overcoming them will require leadership from the very top. Only a thoughtful, forward-looking and determined Prime Minister — aided by an equally deft External Affairs Minister — can get this task right. New foreign policy archi...

AP With a renewed possibility of closer engagement with Sri Lanka, New Dehli will have to put political pressure in those areas where progress has been grossly inadequate. Photo: AP Sri Lanka’s response to the UNHRC vote suggests that to Colombo, what India thinks matters more than what many other powerful nations do With 23 countries backing a relatively strong resolution against Sri Lanka at the recent U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, one would have thought the country would feel effectively cornered. However, a day after the resolution was adopted, Sri Lanka only seemed too pleased, thanks to its neighbour. Amid all the buzz around the strategically-timed elections to Sri Lanka’s Sinhala majority Southern and Western Provinces, senior politicians including President Mahinda Rajapaksa were rather prompt in expressing their happiness over India’s decision to abstain from voting. Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris termed India’s departure from its voting pattern ove...

The fragile Libyan constitutional arrangement, reached after the dictator Muammar Qadhafi was overthrown in a regime-change operation instigated by NATO governments under cover of a United Nations no-fly resolution in 2011, is disintegrating. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was kidnapped on October 10, 2013 and released within a few hours, fled the country in March 2014 after the General

AP Chinese President Xi Jinping. (file photo) China's President Xi Jinping has said that multiparty democracy and development models of other countries "did not suit China" and would "lead to catastrophic consequences" if adopted by Beijing. Mr. Xi, who began a decade-long term as President in March of last year, said the Communist Party of China (CPC) would "never stop" taking forward reforms, but at the same time as far as the ruling party was concerned the one-party political system would not change.

It would be a nightmarish scenario for the United States, if western sanctions push Russia closer to China Beneath their tough political rhetoric, European leaders are still wrestling uneasily over the ambit of punitive economic measures to be used against Russia for its role in the Ukrainian and Crimean developments.

1.Report exposes rights abuse by Sri Lankan forces post war A report by rights groups on Friday said there was enough evidence that the Sri Lankan military was still waging a war against Tamils.The report — published by the UK Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and the International Truth & Justice Project, Sri Lanka — is one of the first documents to detail alleged rights abuse by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the post-war context

1.Russian Parliament approves treaty on Crimea The Russian Parliament has approved a treaty making Crimea part of Russia even as Ukraine proclaimed the region an “occupied territory” and threatened to go nuclear. 2.No overseas duty for Pak. troops’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday dismissed speculation that Pakistan was sending its troops abroad. News reports quoted him as saying in response to questions that no forces were being sent to Bahrain or Saudi Arabia and these countries had not asked for assistance. 3. My mission is to better India ties: Xi China’s President Xi Jinping said Thursday he saw improving relations with India as his “historic mission,” as the top Chinese leader met with the Indian envoy here. The Indian Ambassador to China Ashok Kantha, who began his term here in January, formally presented his credentials to Mr. Xi at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday afternoon. 4.Obama calls on Iran to seize oppo...