The ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 22 to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of China’s entry into the Korean War turned out to be a major event in regional politics. In a speech on the occasion, President Xi Jinping made his strongest ever remarks […]
Author: M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
New START: Putin’s “Win-Win” With Trump
The Russian proposal of October 20 for a simple one-year extension beyond February when the New START treaty expires, has received a curt reply from Washington within hours. Something is still better than nothing, as the curtain comes down on Russian-American relations at the end of the US President Donald […]
Arc Of Instability On Russia’s Periphery
An arc of instability has appeared on Russia’s peripheral regions to the west and southwest — Belarus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Kyrgyzstan. These regions are vital to Russia’s national security and weakens its capacity to be a resurgent power on the world stage. Belarus is a de facto buffer zone for Russia […]
Europe Marks Distance From Indo-Pacific Strategy
The European Council special meeting in Brussels on 1st October had Turkey, Belarus, Russia and China on its agenda. The foreign-policy decisions of the summit — comprising the heads of state or government of all EU countries, the European Council President, and the European Commission President —show a moderate line, […]
The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia (III)
Part I, Part II Caucasian chalk circle The United States and Russia are increasingly in each other’s crosshairs on the global stage, be it in the Arctic, the Black Sea or the Middle East. But they have joined hands with alacrity to take a common stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. […]
The Time Of Troubles In Transcaucasia (II)
Part I The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin on October 2 that the European Union seeks a “constructive dialogue and a positive agenda” with Turkey. She had just returned to the German capital after a 2-day summit meeting of the EU countries in Brussels. Germany played a key […]
The Time Of Troubles In Transcaucasia (I)
Three days into the renewed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in the Transcaucasian region — also known as South Caucasus — it is becoming clear that the binary narrative dished out by western commentators of this being a Turkish-Russian clash of wills and strategies is either simply naive or purposively deceptive. The […]
Russia Has Key Role To Play In Iran Issue
In what must be one of his sharpest rhetorical outbursts against the Trump administration, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States on Saturday of “savagery” for inflicting $150 billion of damage on Iran due to sanctions. In televised remarks, his voice shaking with anger, Rouhani said, “With their illegal […]
How’ll Covid-19 End? With A Bang Or A Whimper?
The number of people who have died of coronavirus in the United States has crossed 200,000, by far the highest figure for any country in the world. One way of looking at the figure is that America is a large country and a superpower where everything assumes a larger-than-life proportion. In […]
The Sino-Russian Alliance Comes Of Age (III)
The first part of the three-part essay is here. The second part is here. Discourse of shared legacies The disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991 was a geopolitical disaster for Russia. But the watershed event, paradoxically, prompted Moscow and Beijing, erstwhile adversaries, to draw closer together, as they […]
Pompeo Threatens To Light The Fuse In Persian Gulf
The US Fifth Fleet announced on September 18 that a Carrier Strike Group comprising USS Nimitz passed through the Strait of Hormuz with the guided-missile cruisers USS Princeton and USS Philippine Sea and guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett. After a gap of some ten months, a US aircraft carrier is being […]
The Sino-Russian Alliance Comes Of Age (II)
“I look for the land of the Poles that is lost to the Germans, for the moment at least. Nowadays the Germans have started searching for Poland with credits, Leicas, and compasses, with radar, divining rods, delegations, and moth-eaten provincial students’ associations in costume. Some carry Chopin in their hearts, […]
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