The Malabar-2015 has created fresh ripples in the already rough sea of the Indian Ocean. After a gap of eight years, India will be hosting another multilateral naval exercise of three nations with USA and Japan. All the members of the original five nation multilateral naval engagement held in the Bay of Bengal in September 2007, developed cold feet after China issued diplomatic demarche to all the five nations asking them if they are ganging… Read More »Malabar naval exercise

After nearly a decade of political struggle, the land-locked South Asian nation of Nepal recently passed a constitution. Nepal has adopted a new constitution aimed at bolstering its transformation to a peaceful democracy after decades of political instability and a long civil war. Nepal’s monarchy, which ruled the country for more than 2 centuries, came to a formal end in 2008, and birthed the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The new constitution is the final… Read More »Nepal’s new constitution

Yet another trilateral grouping has emerged along with India, US, Japan and US, Japan and Australia. The latest and third trilateral comprising India, Japan and Australia are part of the same quadrilateral India, US, Japan and Australia, which prematurely died in the womb in 2007. The four countries had earlier conducted a joint maritime exercise in the Bay of Bengal called the Malabar in September 2007 in which Singapore was the fifth partner. Now this… Read More »Global power axis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a whirlwind tour to Central Asia on the way to attending the BRICS and SCO summits in Russia in the second week of July. Though the visit cannot be termed as a game changer, Prime Minister Modi was able to convey the Central Asian leaders that India has revived its interest in Central Asia and has made sincere moves. India has till now lacked a cogent Central Asia policy. However,… Read More »Modi’s Central Asia visit

While the regional countries are grappling hard to stabilize Afghanistan, President Abdul Ghani chooses to obediently toe the Pakistani line and even walks all out to soothe Pakistani concerns unmindful of the realities in his own country . Ghani’s approach virtually entails the rolling back of the entire Indian influence in Afghanistan. First, by sending Afghan troops for training in Pakistan military academy instead of India as done previously. Second, by suspending his own country’s… Read More »Situation in Afghanistan

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much hyped recent visit to China was not expected to deliver any unexpected outcome on boundary related issues, Modi certainly was able to drive home his point that boundary question remains the most important unresolved issue between the two Asian giants, which is hindering the further growth in bilateral relations . Since the Chinese leaders were not ready to move an inch on the boundary both sides have decided to… Read More »Modi’ China visit

India has, finally, expressed its displeasure at the Sino-Pak Economic Corridor project intended to link the Pakistan port of Gwadar in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea with the Chinese city of Kashgar through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This came after Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a 46 billion dollar deal to create an Economic Corridor connecting the two cities. The deal has been described as a “strategic game changer”. India will rue the failure do something to… Read More »China-Pak ties

The much awaited and desired maritime thrust to India’s foreign policy was witnessed during the three island nation’s whirlwind tour to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the month of March 2015. Maldives was the significant omission from his latest splash in the Ocean and was noted by the international strategic community. Critics may say that Modi’s sojourn to the three island nations was in response to the… Read More »India Ocean Diplomacy

As the geopolitics is picking up in Afghanistan in the post US troop withdrawal, India has taken a renewed position to develop Iran’s Chabahar port which can provide Afghanistan an alternate access to the sea. Indian move has come at a time when Iran is also looking for a second port option which can serve as a unique deep sea port located at the crossroads of global trade, commerce and energy routes. Now Rouhani government… Read More »Chabahar Port

Nepal is a tiny nation traumatized by its bloody past, uneasy present and uncertain future. Six prime ministers and two elections later, Nepal is nowhere near the end of the process of drafting its long-awaited Constitution due to profound political differences among its political class. As long as new constitution does not come into force, the ongoing political instability cannot be expected to end. On 22 January, 2015, Nepal has again failed to meet the… Read More »Instability in Nepal