Comment & Briefs

The Joint Statement catapulted India-Japan strategic and global partnership to a “New Stage” in which the bilateral relationship is going to be deepened on all fronts, embracing regional, global and economic issues.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is visiting India on January 10, 2009. Both India and Bangladesh are looking foward to resolving some of the key bilateral issues. In the light of the new political climate in Bangladesh ever since Sheikh Hasina returned to power, what are the options for India?

Clearly, there is immense scope for cooperation between India and Myanmar to deal in agro-based products, floriculture, engineering, timber and tobacco and expand business cooperation. Although there has been a significant increase in bilateral trade in recent years, full potential has yet to be realised.

The participation of the PLA Navy in escort missions in foreign waters is a radical departure from the historical point of view because this is the first time that the PLA Navy is carrying out such tasks not in national waters.

The point of significance is that even as the Army prepares for the worst case, it would be a political-diplomatic-strategic exercise to ensure that such a scenario does not arise.

To assuage fears, Japan might see merit to take India on board in the form of a naval cooperation framework to secure peace at sea. Developments in the past 4-5 years in India-Japan relations point towards that direction.

Given the divergence of views in the industrialized and industrializing countries as was demonstrated at Copenhagen, it is too early to expect any comprehensive result from the Copenhagen Accord. One needs to wait till June 2010 if the UN meeting at Bonn will yield a different outcome.

The Copenhagen Accord is weak and a step back from the Bali Action Plan which talked about four pillars of negotiations – mitigation, adaptation, financial support and technology transfer.

The Internet’s blurred boundaries and its existing vulnerabilities have led to unhealthy trends, which, if not addressed adequately, could pose severe problems.

Vietnam’s third national defence white paper shows its commitment to greater transparency in defence modernization and strategic planning.