China’s Xi Jinping meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un

Xi Jinping’s Loosening Leverage Over North Korea Amid Shifting Indo Pacific Security Dynamics

China in recent times has elevated some of its key bilateral relations, Vietnam, Pakistan, North Korea, to the level where they are now considered by Beijing as  consequential to regional and global peace and stability. China’s foreign and 'grand strategy' is aimed at realizing a shared destiny for mankind and nurturing a new type of great-power relations within a multipolar world. This requires a strategic alignment between China’s strategy and others.

Bangladesh's 'Red Telephone' Breach: More to it Than Meets the Eye?

More importantly, the alleged sabotage occurred during a period of political transition following the developments of August 2024. Institutional loyalties, political rivalries, and competing networks of influence continue to shape Bangladesh's political landscape. In such a context, any breach involving the Prime Minister's secure communications infrastructure deserves careful examination.

Between the Melody Moment and the Hard Work Ahead: Modi's Europe Tour Outcome Will Depend on Delivery in Coming Years

India's MSME sector, the backbone of its export economy, remains largely unequipped to navigate European standards and certification requirements. As ABC Live noted, the next stage will be tougher than negotiation: India must now prove that its exporters, MSMEs, regulators, ports, testing labs, and state governments can actually use the agreement. A framework signed in Gothenburg means nothing to a textile exporter in Tiruppur who cannot get a product certified to EU standards.

Why India and Pakistan Must Move From Rivalry to Responsibility: In Fragmenting Global Order, South Asia Cannot Afford Internal Paralysis

The central lesson is simple: unresolved India-Pakistan hostility weakens South Asia from within. It prevents trade, blocks institutions, raises nuclear risk, politicizes water, militarizes borders, and diverts attention from human development. Both countries will continue to disagree on major issues. But disagreement does not require permanent hostility. Strategic maturity means building rules to manage conflict before conflict manages the region.

More on Geopolitics and Strategic Affairs

Gwadar and Mundra: Strategic importance of two ports to Pakistan and India

Both Gwadar and Mundra ports are close to a turbulent region that is violent and militancy-prone. If Gwadar has security problems from within, Mundra has them from without

Chronicles of Rohingya genocide in Myanmar and international failure

India has repositioned its earlier policy of providing a home to refugees from Tibet, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka and is forcefully deporting Rohingya refugees

Who can take on Narendra Modi in 2024? Contradictions and ego hassles mar opposition unity

Given these roadblocks, it is not a surprise that the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a runaway winner in every opinion poll to the dismay of its adversaries who wonder why the economic difficulties of inflation and unemployment are not holding it back

India’s coastal security challenge - and preventing another 26/11

While this exercise was a long overdue and necessary measure, the whole gamut of India’s coastal security in view of terrorist threats and other crimes must function effectively and consistently as there have been instances of breaches in coastal security after 26/11

Sri Lanka allays Indian concerns, says it believes in regional solidarity; extra regional powers have no strategic leeway in South Asia

Defence sources said it was significant that the Dornier was handed over to Sri Lanka by India a day before the high-tech Chinese satellite tracking ship docked at Hambantota

Indian outreach to Latin America and Caribbean: Needed more frequent and diversified interactions

India should also project the values and aspirations of the Indo-Pacific into Atlantic waters to help global development. The SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region) model can be extended to a much larger canvas of mutual cooperation and benefit

International education as a building block in growing India-Australia relations

If Australia is to emerge as the destination of choice for Indian students, its India strategy needs to be rethought. If this were to happen, international education and institutional collaboration would emerge as a critical building blocks in the bilateral space

Will Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Bangladesh expedite Rohingya repatriation?

The world must remember the refugees’ lives depend on how the international community responds to caring for them as Bangladesh alone cannot afford to support this huge Rohingya population

Pakistan@75 does some welcome introspection on minority persecution

The question being raised in Pakistan@75 should be welcomed, that how come Pakistan, carved out as a safe home for the Muslim minorities of the Indian subcontinent, has failed to provide safety to its own minorities? Only Pakistan has the answer

India's weak-kneed response to Beijing's bullying sets a bad example for neighbours

We need to learn a lot from China’s foreign policy; and when our own response to China is weak-kneed, how do we expect Sri Lanka to take up cudgels with Beijing?

Starvation, poverty and all-round despair: Afghanistan and its people face a bleak future

If the Taliban’s original purpose in taking over Kabul last year was to gradually gain some international recognition for what it calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it now stands fully destroyed

India@75 : Much to be proud of, amid some worrisome trends

The ideological shift in politics towards prioritizing the majority religious denomination that has morphed into assertive political Hindutva goes against the fabric of the 'Idea of India' enshrined in the constitution

India@75: On right path, but some drags on growth

During the last eight years, Prime Minister Modi has elevated the quality of governance to a higher level  and has introduced several imaginative schemes,  keeping in view the requirement of the people at the lower economic level as well as the compulsive need to forge ahead in terms of technology and productivity

Make in India in defence manufacturing: Significant initiatives but still a long way to go

In recent years there has been a paradigm shift in the manner in which the government is bringing about significant policy measures to make India self-reliant and instituting mechanisms to overcome bureaucratic bottlenecks which had plagued the system for long

India-Maldives ties set for consolidation, but China remains elephant in the room

Although the Solih visit went off very well, concerns remained over domestic politics in the Maldives.