'Manmohan Singh's fond hope of avoiding conflict over territory by 'making borders irrelevant' is increasingly difficult to realise in a world where institutional restraints on aggression are weakening and the new game in town is unalloyed power play,' notes T N Ninan.
The 2.3 million strong People's Liberation Army, the world's largest, adopts a more aggressive posture with massive structural revamp.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Extending the range of the DF-21D could challenge Indian aircraft carriers if the missiles are launched from southwest China. Also, if Pakistan acquires these systems, these missiles could directly challenge India's aircraft carriers.'
The PM will have an audience with the Emperor of Japan and hold the annual summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe that could see a civil nuclear cooperation pact being inked.
Donald Trump on Thursday branded President Barack Obama as "ignorant" and "incompetent," alleging that a rising China had reduced the United States to a "third-world country".
India has experienced hands and will emerge with flying colours, declares Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd).
The Chinese military, on the last day of its largest-ever military exercises to vent out its anger over United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, carried out island saturation attack drills in the Taiwan Straits, amid global concerns of a full-scale attack to annex the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
Analysts, however, predict it would be an uphill climb for export-reliant China's economy going forward as it faced intensified conflict with the US and the negative fallout on its external trade due to Beijing's increasingly aggressive policies towards countries like India resulting in bans of its products and services.
India and Japan are set to intensify defence cooperation with the two sides likely to launch a security consultative framework involving their foreign and defence ministers.
He said India would continue to actively pursue and promote its geo-political, strategic and economic interests on the seas, in particular the Indian Ocean.
'The Modi-Xi and Modi-Obama meetings, with an interval of just 12 days, are juxtaposed superbly at a crucial point in the prime minister's life. Can Modi carve out a win-win situation with the superpower and the emerging superpower at the same time?'
Trump telephoned Modi to congratulate him on the historic electoral victory in the Lok Sabha polls, the White House said.
The trilateral AUKUS security alliance complements partnerships like Quad and there was a "very warm embrace" of the deal by India and Japan as both the countries totally understood and supported what it is seeking to achieve, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.
Parrikar also released the revised strategic guidance document in view of the prevalent geo-economic and geo-strategic scenarios.
'China made it evident that neither the swing-ride at Ahmedabad nor the red carpet at New Delhi worked, by timing its muscle-flexing in Ladakh to coincide with Xi's visit.'
The India-Japan 2+2 dialogue added strategic heft to the special relationship in the wake of growing Chinese assertiveness on regional affairs, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The UK said the deployment of the carrier strike group marks the start of "a new era of defence cooperation with allies in India and the Indo-Pacific."
'There will be much for President Trump and Prime Minister Modi to discuss including growing Chinese military cooperation with Pakistan, which heralds a new attempt by China and Pakistan to neutralise India's influence in its Indian Ocean neighbourhood,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy.
Trade between Australia and India stands at around $15 billion a year, or just a tenth of that between Australia and China.
Donald Trump on Wednesday started his maiden visit to Beijing with both sides inking deals worth $9 billion.
It is often said that the India-Indonesia relationship is overshadowed by mutual neglect.
;The world paid a heavy price for the megalomania of the Third Reich's fuehrer.' 'Will it pay a similar price for the ambitions of China's leader-for-life?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
'The PLA has continued to do exercises and drills and recently carried out air exercises with fighter jets.'
"The first squadron is being deployed in the Punjab sector. The batteries of the first squadron would be capable of taking care of aerial threats from both Pakistan and China," government sources told ANI.
Japan could soon be the second country after the US with which India has a logistics support agreement. Besides the LSA, India and Japan may also sign a maritime domain awareness agreement which would enable the two navies to share information. For example, if a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol aircraft detects a Chinese submarine in the Indian Ocean, it would pass on the information to the Indian Navy, reveals Ajai Shukla.
China on Tuesday ruled out involvement of its nationals on board the missing aircraft in a hijack attempt, but launched search operation on its own territory in Tibet and Xinjiang after inputs that the Malaysian plane might have flown to Central Asia through the northern corridor.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The newly discovered debris, found over the weekend, is on its way to Malaysia for further examination. The wreckage is a piece of horizontal stabilizer skin, CNN reported, quoting an unnamed US official as saying.
The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.
Sitharaman, who is in Russia on a three-day visit, also met her Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the international security conference.
'The fact that Modi and Xi exuded confidence to accelerate the negotiations for a border settlement alone underscores that the Russia-India-China triangle has become very dynamic,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The two PMs called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure.
China is distributing millions of controversial updated maps to its military in the first upgrade in 30 years, reportedly reinforcing its claims over Arunachal Pradesh.
A study by an international team of researchers had warned two year ago that the South Lhonak lake in Sikkim may burst in the future and significantly impact the downstream region.
Describing Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province area as the "fountainhead" of terror activities in the region, India on Thursday said use of terrorism as state policy with deep roots in military establishment there is a major obstacle for peaceful bilateral ties.
Modi and Obama surely put India-US ties in fast-forward mode. But 5 things deserve careful attention.
In the test, a space rocket boosted a hypersonic glide vehicle, one capable of carrying a nuclear device, which circled the globe before impacting.
Trump had accused Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorists.
