There is little doubt that the move to make Gwadar port fully operational will have a transformative impact on Pakistan. Still, there are good reasons to keep the optimism controlled, and to be mindful of the challenges ahead. For one, much of the engagement with China is being seen in Pakistan through an emotional lens, […]
Welcome to Uzbekistan, a country that in recent months has been home to a drama that could have come straight from Shakespeare’s pen. Playing the leading roles are: a dictator, who has had his country under his iron grip for a quarter-century; his glamorous daughter, who he had been grooming as his successor; and his […]
Like Barack Obama, Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, took a big gamble last week, but his was riskier. In a speech on Friday, Rouhani declared that the proposed nuclear deal with the United States and five other major powers marked the “first step” in reaching “the highest point of constructive interaction” with the world. Iranians should […]
For the Pakistani man on the street, the relationship with Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam’s two holy sites, is literally an article of faith. A Pew survey in 2013 found that 95 per cent of Pakistanis had a favourable opinion of the desert kingdom, and Pakistan was the only country in the Islamic world […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Europe and Canada should help restore some balance to India’s international engagement. India is preparing to host the Africa Summit later this year and raise its game in the Middle East, where political turbulence is shaking up the old regional order. If geographic regions are one way of organising […]
Sri Lanka’s new leader plans to dissolve the country’s Parliament in May, setting the island nation on course for general elections in late June or early July — around the same time that he plans to announce details of a probe into allegations of human rights abuses during Sri Lanka’s long civil war, he told […]
China says that 30 countries have been approved as prospective founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Read Here – Xinhua
Sri Lanka’s new government fears that defeated Tamil Tiger rebels could regroup and orchestrate another conflict, six years after their defeat in the island’s separatist war. Read Here – Yahoo/AFP
China has unveiled details about its proposed Silk Road initiatives, which would impact 4.4 billion people and, within a decade, could generate trade above 2.5 trillion dollars. Read Here – The Hindu The Chronology – Read Here
“One of the asymmetries of history,” wrote Henry Kissinger of Singapore’s patriarch Lee Kuan Yew, “is the lack of correspondence between the abilities of some leaders and the power of their countries.” Kissinger’s one time boss, Richard Nixon, was even more flattering. He speculated that, had Lee lived in another time and another place, he […]
looking beyond borders 