Like a typical school bully, China is big and strong, but it doesn’t have a lot of friends. Indeed, now that the country has joined with the United States to approve new international sanctions on its former vassal state North Korea, it has just one real ally left: Pakistan. Read Here – Project Syndicate
The port at Chabahar and the attendant road infrastructure being built by India, Iran and Afghanistan is not an event to turn our backs on. There is every reason for Pakistan to ask for a place on that table. The possibilities that regional cooperation open up are far too great to be sacrificed at the […]
New Delhi has invested heavily in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Tehran visit but it is going to be equally closely tracked in three world capitals – Islamabad, Beijing and Riyadh. Read Here – Business Standard
On Monday, the leadership of India, Iran and Afghanistan will get together to finally operationalise the much-anticipated Chabahar agreement. Beyond the geo-strategic agenda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit will also bring back Iran as an important actor in India’s energy security, finding solutions to clogged banking channels and untapping the Farzad-B gas field. Read […]
Dubbed by Newsweek a decade ago as “the most dangerous man in Iraq,” Muqtada al-Sadr, the figure at the center of Iraq’s current political storm, isn’t the man many might recall from the past. Read Here – NPR
Until now, India’s ability to balance conflicting interests and to engage all relevant parties in the Middle East has served it well, but it remains to be seen whether the renewed focus on the Gulf states will affect India’s traditional ties with Iran or further delay Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel. Read Here – Carnegie […]
When President Obama travels to Saudi Arabia later this month for a summit meeting with Gulf Arab leaders, he will need to reassure these longstanding American allies that the United States intends to stand by its friends in the increasingly turbulent Middle East. Read Here – Defense One
Much has been written and said in recent months about what some — myself included — have described as a “strain” in US-Saudi relations. Those who subscribe to this view have focused on what appears to be a philosophical difference between the administration of President Barack Obama and the Saudi leadership. Read Here – Al Monitor
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets foot on the Saudi soil on April 2, he will be hoping to give the strategic partnership between New Delhi and Riyadh a fresh fillip during his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. A boost to economic ties and attracting greater Saudi investment in India too will be on the […]
The United States has consistently tilted toward the Saudis. Even when Washington’s ally, the Shah, ruled Iran, one could notice at least a slight bias in favor of Riyadh. Once the Islamic Revolution engulfed Iran in 1979, U.S. hostility toward Tehran became consistent, persistent, and intense. At the same time, the strategic relationship between Washington […]
looking beyond borders 