The way forward for New Delhi is to seize the momentum and develop a strategic partnership with the UAE to safeguard its core national interests while avoiding regional entanglements.
While Iran and its European interlocutors (along with Russia and China) can be expected to mount a tough challenge to continue to make the JCPOA work in the light of Trump’s May 8 decision to ‘withdraw’ from the agreement, it remains to be seen to what extent they can succeed.
Given the structural fragility of SAARC and its inability to promote South Asian regional integration, an attempt to reboot the organisation would be futile.
While the provisions of the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) are unlikely to be imposed on India anytime soon, it is nonetheless likely to prove a dampener on an otherwise booming defence relationship between India and the United States.
Geopolitical competition between the great powers with or without direct conflict will lead to a situation where productive cooperation among them on critical international issues is likely to prove difficult.
External balancing is re-emerging as an element of policy driven by the yawning power asymmetry between India and China and China’s turn towards assertive behaviour and territorial claims.
India should carefully understand the evolving foreign policy strategy of China under Xi Jinping, and notably, his worldview, and try to position bilateral relations accordingly.
This Issue Brief highlights five major issues and concerns that may merit the SCoD’s attention while examining the latest Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Defence.
Pakistan’s desperation to keep itself off the list of defaulting countries maintained by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) underlines the increasing effectiveness of the organisation, which has become the spearhead against global efforts combating the financing of terrorism (CFT).
