Comment & Briefs

Joining SCO could help India get out of the current tight geopolitical spot - wedged between a wall of Pakistani hostility and fear of cooperating with China.

It is difficult to figure out the basic motivation of US policy. It might be sheer inability to decide or it might be the desire to lend support to the progressive realization of the 1982 Yinon plan.

China’s new military strategy as it applies to the Indian Ocean is not a matter of a minor shift in the balance of maritime power, but one that impacts India’s capacity and will to impose a deterrent cost.

In spite of the existence since October 2006 of a SAARC Disaster Management Centre, the Nepal earthquake brought to the fore the difficulties faced by this organization and its failure to rise to the occasion.

The revised defence guidelines have added value to the US-Japan partnership and the fundamental shift in Japanese security policy complements the US call upon Japan to shoulder greater security responsibility as a partner.

In the last two months, the large-scale exodus of Rohingyas towards the coastlines of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia has been a concern not only for the region but also for the international community.

India’s ministerial presence at the Shangri La Dialogue could have helped India to articulate the new government’s strategic thought and expand from the realm of military diplomacy to defence diplomacy. So, is India’s defence establishment blind to probable benefits of participating in the Dialogue or are they thinking differently?

In the true spirit of a democracy, Modi should reach out to leaders of all major political parties in Bangladesh and convince them of India’s intention to work as a partner in progress and development.

Stakeholder regional countries threatened by Islamic militancy need to get together under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and fight a joint war to end the menace.

While both Saudi Arabia and Iran vie for power and influence, Yemenis continue to suffer and the country seems to be slipping into further instability.