14452 results found
Will Belarus join Russia in a unified state — or will it maintain the status quo and mend relations with the West?
The end of the Cold War in 1991 presented Russia and the European Union (EU) with an opportunity to reorganise their bilateral relationship. For more than a decade, they did manage to nurture close ties. Beginning in the mid-2000s, however, the relationship steadily declined, reaching its lowest in 2014 in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis. As mutual grievances have accumulated since then, there has been an absence of a forward-looking agenda
While Russia is aware of Islamabad's role in fomenting international terrorism, it realises that any successful resolution of the problems associated with Afghanistan must involve Pakistan. A cancelled presidential visit cannot change the relevance of this, or of Russia's goal, in enhancing ties with Pakistan.
Pakistan, which has seen military assistance from US frozen during the Trump administration and a worsening of overall ties, has been eager to embrace
The positions of Russia and South Korea on regional affairs — given their respective relations with the China and US — will have a bearing on how
At a time when it is facing Western sanctions and a proxy war on oil prices, Russia sprang a huge surprise early this month by signing a gas deal with Turkey. The deal will enable Russia to pump natural gas into a Turkish hub, near the Turkey-Greece border and from there into the southern EU market.
Will the course and the outcome of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war alter New Delhi's foreign policy towards Moscow?
The US-led backers of Ukraine are facing a dilemma — arm Kiev quickly, or take time to train Ukrainian forces
Does multipolarity create more scope for conflicts and act as an impediment to global action or does it aid in conflict resolution and act as a harbin
रूस और यूक्रेन के बीच जारीwar को समाप्त करने और शांति स्थाप�
The Syrian rebels are not back to square one, but to minus one. They have been outsmarted by the Assad regime, just as the Russians outsmarted the Americans.
While Russia has been very careful of not antagonising China, which has emerged as Moscow's second largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific, Beijing is uncomfortable by the nature of Moscow's involvement in Hanoi.
The absence of earnest multilateral discussions could send more states down the path of space weaponization, making access to space increasingly tricky.
Even as the war of words continues, there will need to be practical measures to deal with the increasing threats to space.
Humanity depends heavily on the various benefits that nature provides us. It's impossible to truly estimate its value. However, economists and environmental scientists have estimated in dollars what it would cost us to accomplish the services nature provides. Using multiple databases, they estimate that nature provides $33 trillion dollars worth of services every year¿that's nearly twice the annual Gross National Product (GNP) of all the countri
If the Indian government appropriately leverages Russia's goodwill, Russian Far East could turn out to be a growth area for Indian business. Innovatively implemented, India's ties with the Russian Far East could help cement Indo-Russian relations as well as bolster its ties with Central Asia and East Asia.
Although Russia plays an important role in Africa, it still falls short of exercising a wider influence
Given its vast coastline, Delhi should devote its attention for now to importing hydrocarbons by sea, investing in equity oil in Russia and other energy-rich countries, and concluding swap arrangements rather than grandiose transregional pipelines.
It is important that Berlin and Moscow take steps to address the deterioration in bilateral ties. There exist mutual areas of cooperation that need th
Demographic trends in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 have largely been unfavourable. Deaths exceeded births for the first time in 1992, and a period of negative growth followed which continued unabated until 2012 when marginal growth was achieved for the first time in two decades. This paper studies the demographic patterns in Russia since 1991, which are unique for several reasons. While population decline is common amo
Africa has become essential to Russia’s geostrategic posture as Moscow seeks to overcome the backlash to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, in the face of isolation and a contracting economy, Russia has realised that cultivating an entry point in Africa through conventional means such as foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, development assistance, or cultural and educational exchanges may not be its best option. Instead, Mosc
In the face of sanctions imposed by the West, Russia and Belarus look towards developing and maintaining economic and geopolitical partnerships with c
This paper outlines the development of Russia’s relations with the countries of Southeast Asia, focusing on the years after 2014. As relations with the West reached a new post-Cold War low, Moscow has intensified its efforts at building stronger ties with the East. The paper deals with the impact of these developments on the state of its political, economic and defense engagement in Southeast Asia, both bilaterally and multilaterally. It will s
The US wants to grab a major share of the Indian defence hardware market. But any imposition of sanctions will dampen chances of defence cooperation gaining further traction
It is not yet clear how the U.S. will respond to India’s receipt of Russia-made S-400 air defense systems.
SAARC conjures up an image of jamborees and no results. The South Asian Association of Regional cooperation with its seven members ( India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh) remains one of the most dysfunctional trade blocs and there is hardly any freedom of movement of goods, services and people. The next (13th) SAARC summit is going to be held in Dhaka in the beginning of January 2005.
India has said that the regional efforts to counter terrorism in South Asia continue to face significant challenges though there are various SAARC frameworks on suppression of terrorism since 1987.
The SAARC energy agreement signed may have given some hope for the realisation of energy cooperation in South Asia. But, it needs to be understood that an overarching agreement has little impact on project-based cooperation, owing to the centrality of India in the South Asian geography.
Amb M Rasgotra, International Affairs Adviser, Observer Research Foundation, and former Foreign Secretary of India, was invited as Chief Guest at the Convocation of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lnaka, held on June 23, 2005. The complete text of his Convocation Address is reproduced below:
The 17th SAARC Summit was held at Addu Atoll, Maldives on the 10th and 11th of November 2011. The venue, in the words of the Bhutanese Prime Minister, reflected the vastness of South Asia.
Despite SAARC's failures of the past, the repeated declarations by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the need to reinvigorate ties with neighbouring states have created a renewed interest in the possibilities of multilateral cooperation under SAARC.
The failure of SAARC to nurture cooperation in South Asia has pushed regional players to search for an alternative. BIMSTEC, grouping the nations in the Bay of Bengal region, is popularly favoured as the viable option. Two decades since its inception, however, BIMSTEC’s successes have been minimal. How workable is BIMSTEC as an option for pursuing regional cooperation in South Asia? Are SAARC and BIMSTEC competitors or do they complement each
The 17th SAARC Summit, held on 10-11 November at Addu City in Maldives, will be remembered for three things - for the inspiring speech of the outgoing Chair,
In context of SAARC, the reality of the situation demands that India handles Pakistan separately. India also has to approach the rest of SAARC neighbours with a more accommodative mind-set. Such mind-sets cannot be confined to sharing history and culture, economic prosperity and development-spending.
SAARC is nearly 30 years old yet is still weak. Today, South Asia is one of the world's least integrated regions. Members have weak economic ties, issues of national identity persist, and political tensions remain. What lies ahead for SAARC?
Hard-nosed realists around the world are impressed with Modi's diplomatic flair seen during his visits to Nepal and Japan. But they ask if Modi can go beyond the atmospherics and bring about a substantial change in the relationship with China. Here again, Modi has the opportunity to introduce change.
While the Constitution provides the ECI with a sturdy framework within which to operate, this same edifice has become a handicap to the organisation a
Within a fortnight of the death of Osama bin Laden, news came of the appointment of a senior al Qaeda leader, Saif Al-'Adl, as the interim chief, indicating clearly an internal tussle for the leadership of the global terrorist group, raising, in the process,
Saintliness is rigid in adapting to the world. Effectiveness — getting results on the ground, requires flexibility in implementation.
The buzzword across three principal Asian countries � India, China and Japan � is 'reform'. While the test for China is tough enough, the challenge for India is far tougher. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has promised "the most drastic reforms since the end of the Second World War".
To understand the different aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme and its impact on the region, especially India, Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), organised a workshop on March 4, 2013.
Unlike the crowded and competitive Republican presidential nomination field, the Democratic field, for a long time, looked empty with only Hillary Clinton. The strong entry of Sanders in the Democratic nomination has given the American voters a fair choice between Clinton and Sanders' respective brands of politics.
Good performance invites the curse of heightened expectations unless tempered by realism. The BJP manifesto fails to walk this tightrope.
In yet another bizarre turn to the Sankararaman murder case, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested Mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer and junior pontiffs brother Raghu under the anti-drugs law. They have now been charged with conspiring to murder construction contractor Ravi Subramaniam, who has turned approver in the Sankararaman murder case,
