Macron hopes to offset Marie Le Pen’s popularity by appointing a young loyalist in Gabriel Attal with firm views on far right’s forte, i.e., immigration.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece titled ‘India-UK defence, economic ties have upgraded. But London must handle Khalistani issue’, has been published in The Print on 12 January 2024. Rajnath Singh’s UK visit has given a fresh impetus to all defence and economic initiatives but much ground remains to be covered, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s chapter titled ‘Choke Points in the Baltic Sea Region: An Unfinished Project of Nordic NATO-isation’ has been published in the edited volume "Geopolitics Redefined: Punctured Truths and Glamourised Lies-II" (edited by K. Siddhartha), published by Kitab Mahal Publishers, New Delhi.
Associate Fellow, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘COP28 climate deal is a win for India. It got semantics right for developing economies’ has been published in The Print on 16 December 2023.
In a victory for India and other developing economies, the agreement avoids the term ‘phase out’ for fossil fuels, using “phase down of unabated coal power” instead, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘A war-torn Europe needs military supplies to modernise itself. India can fill the gap’ has been published in The Print on 1 December 2023.
While there has been considerable improvement in Europe’s inertia to send heavy weaponry to Ukraine, it is still not enough, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘Braverman’s exit and Cameron’s entry is good news for India. It can fast-track FTA’ has been published in ‘The Print’ on 17 November 2023.
Braverman’s remark of Indians being the largest group of visa overstayers had irked New Delhi. Therefore, from India’s perspective, a change in the govt might mean fast-tracking FTA, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s article ‘For IMEC to have any real impact, fix the finance first. Only then it can counter China’s BRI’ has been published in The Print on 07 October 2023.
In the aftermath of an unequal economic recovery from the pandemic, several interconnected factors are transforming global capital markets. De-risking financing for IMEC remains a crucial challenge in harnessing its full connectivity potential and pursuing plans for expansion, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘Europe can’t de-risk from China fully. It’s not the era of cowboy capitalism’ has been published in The Print on 22 September 2023.
There is more work to be done when it comes to India being a direct beneficiary of the EU diversifying its investments from China, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘How do you count the takeaways from India’s G20? It’s as simple as ABCD’ has been published in The Print on 10 September 2023.
The connectivity partnership between the US, EU, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India is a truly big ticket announcement that will be a game-changer, says Dr Rao.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Swasti Rao’s opinion piece ‘At the G20 minus Xi, EU looking to further its China+1 strategy—partnership with Asia’, has been published in ‘The Print’ on 08 September 2023.
The real takeaway for the bloc at the G20 would be to posit and reiterate itself as a development partner to the Global South, says Dr Rao.
Macron’s Latest Cabinet Reshuffle and Implications
Macron hopes to offset Marie Le Pen’s popularity by appointing a young loyalist in Gabriel Attal with firm views on far right’s forte, i.e., immigration.