Professional diplomats will find little that is new or startling in the Wikileaks cables. For them the quality and content of reporting in the leaked cables is quite standard fare. Transmitting to Headquarters information gleaned from contacts, asse
Apropos our decision to resume a “comprehensive” dialogue with Pakistan, the question needs to be asked why we want to play the same game with our neighbour again and again when we know that it does not want to play by accepted rules, or interpre
Increasingly, Pakistan is being viewed as a dysfunctional state by the international community. The assassination of another Pakistani Minister for opposing the pernicious blasphemy law is causing more soul searching within sections of the beleagured
Criticism of India’s perceived reluctance to endorse the democratic urgings surfacing in many Arab countries is misplaced. The Indian media has, of course, covered the upsurge in Egypt very extensively, to the point that outside observers may concl
We have decided to resume the so-called composite dialogue with Pakistan, without admitting as much. Why not be frank about the change in our position? Why resort to word play to obfuscate? If we are going to discuss counter-terrorism, peace and secu
President Medvedev’s recent visit to India (December 21-22) has contributed to retrieving some of the ground being lost in India-Russia ties. A perception has been growing that the relevance of Russia to India has declined in the context of the c
President Hu’s just concluded US visit has naturally attracted international attention, as the challenger was meeting the champion, as it were. The US is seen as a slowly declining power, and China a rapidly rising one. The dwindling of US power w
The dramatic killing of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, epitomizes all that is steadily going wrong with the country- large scale sectarian terrorism causing domestic mayhem, growing religious fanaticism within society, e
Much has been made of the fact that leaders of all the permanent five member countries of the United Nations security council have visited India in 2010 in quick succession. This degree of bilateral attention to India within a short span of time may
President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent visit to India has given fresh lustre to a relationship that had begun to lose its sheen. Indian political and economic circles, as well as the media, have been too obsessed with our developing ties with the US. T