Ashok Kumar Behuria replies: In international politics, de-hyphenation means dealing with two countries, having adversarial relationship between them, in an independent manner. This would mean building relationship with one, ignoring the complexities of its relations with the other. If a third country were to be too conscious of the adversarial relations between two such countries, locked in enduring hostility, it is likely to face foreign policy challenges in conducting smooth relationship with both.

S. Kalyanaraman replies: Cold War 2.0 is a misleading term that has come to be employed by excitable commentators for characterising the United States-Russia relations in recent years. Drawing upon the analogy of the Cold War rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union to describe US-Russia relations in the current era is, however, misleading because of three main reasons.

Pushpita Das replies:The so-called Agartala Doctrine is a distillation of the principles derived from the policies and postures adopted by successive governments in Tripura vis-à-vis East Pakistan and later Bangladesh. The same has been recommended for the Union government’s consideration. According to its advocates, the doctrine would not only help state governments in safeguarding the interests of their own people but also work towards strengthening the Union government’s neighbourhood policy.