A growing Sino-Russian-Pakistani maritime nexus in the IOR poses a challenge to India’s influence in the Indian Ocean and heralds a potential change in the Asian balance of maritime power.
This fresh move on the Indian Prime Minister’s part is perhaps meant to signal to Pakistan that if the latter continues with its hostilities and political rhetoric towards India, then India and other countries may consider an alternative arrangement.
While it is Japan’s responsibility to pave the road to reconciliation, but for any meaningful progress China and South Korea must reciprocate since reconciliation is a two-way process.
There is a conscious effort on the part of India to re-energise the INSTC. However, sustaining the momentum achieved remains a major challenge before the member countries of the North-South connectivity project.
For the 70th commemoration anniversary of the end of World War II to be meaningful, Japan, China and South Korea need to jointly address the issues involved through a combination of moral responsibility and political maturity.
For the people of Sri Lanka the choice is clear – between de-democratisation represented by Rajapakse and his supporters, and democratisation represented by Sirisena and his political allies.
While India has a reliable vehicle for launching less than 2 tonne satellites into LEO, it lacks the necessary infrastructure to obtain larger commercial benefits from this capability.
At the very least, the decision on text-based negotiations has brought some more
legitimacy to the process of reform. However, there is no guarantee yet that
Security Council reform is any closer or any less complicated.
The emergence of the AU as a player in maintenance of peace and security should
not mean prioritising regionalism over the true spirit of internationalism that the
UN ought to represent. This may need a reform or two on both sides.
