On a table in the office of a senior Indian diplomat sits an unusual piece of memorabilia: a baseball bat. It is signed not by members of the official’s favourite baseball team, but by the U.S. officials who participated in the inaugural session of the now well-established consultations between India and the United States on […]
Is China having a first lady moment? It would certainly seem so. Peng Liyuan, a.k.a. Mrs. Xi Jinping, the wife of China’s new president, has emerged swiftly and seemingly decisively, into an overtly more prominent first-lady role than we’ve seen for some time in China. To be fair she has the track record to be […]
President Xi Jinping is expected to hold his first meeting as China’s new leader with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week, along the sidelines of the March 26 BRICS Summit in South Africa. The talks — they are expected to be a brief event according to officials in Beijing, who cited the limitations of Mr. […]
As a defender of Tamil rights, Karunanidhi is in competition with the state’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. She has been proactive on this front, recently ordering a school football team home from Colombo, even going to the extent of suspending a sports official. Under her watch as Chief Minister, ordinary Sri Lankans (including Tamils) have been […]
If Pakistan’s former president, General Pervez Musharraf, returns to the country tomorrow — as he has promised, ending five years of exile — many Pakistanis will find it hard to reject him simply for his undemocratic past. Musharraf’s planned return may remain surrounded by uncertainty till the last moment, given that he has previously promised […]
The atmospherics surrounding Xi Jinping’s coming trip to Russia – his first visit to a foreign country as China’s new president – remind me of a slogan from my early childhood in the late 1950’s: “Russia-China, Friendship Forever.” The irony is that, even in that slogan’s heyday, Sino-Russian relations were deteriorating fast, culminating in spasms […]
The party, for Xi Jinping, is paramount. It should not only lead and unite the people, but also build socialism with Chinese characteristics. In there is a message for the Chinese people: The party is the only organisation that can look after you and ensure your well-being; it will continue to do so even it […]
In the early hours of March 4, 1924, a middle-aged man and his family left the Dolmabahce Palace in central Istanbul and headed to the train station. Their destination was Switzerland and then Paris, where the man, Abdulmecid II, died 20 years later, and was buried in Medina. Abdulmecid II was the last caliph of Islam, the […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Tuesday that cooperation among BRICS countries will help make the global economy more balanced, improve global economic governance and promote democracy in international relations. Read Here – Xinhua
It is still, on occasion, good to be the king. It is not necessarily good to be the king of a Middle Eastern country that is bereft of oil; nor is it necessarily so wonderful to be the king during the turmoil and uncertainty of the Arab Spring. It is certainly not good to be […]
