India-France synergy is poised to open vistas of collaboration between the two countries, notes Rup Narayan Das.
The Sittwe deal is more significant than Chabahar in Iran, where India has rights to operate only two terminals and not the port itself.
The second batch of Indian military personnel manning a helicopter gifted by India to the Maldives has left the island nation as demanded by him, President Mohamed Muizzu has said.
Given the long distance from the closest land, the Indian Navy has deployed its state-of-the-art Boeing P-8I Poseidon long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, which have the endurance to reach the location of the incident.
All arrangements, including heavy security, are in place for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 45-hour stay at the famed Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on Thursday, as he would sit on meditation at the place named after the revered Hindu saint.
Maldivian Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer on Saturday said India's gesture to renew the quota to allow the export of certain quantities of essential commodities for his nation signifies the longstanding bilateral friendship and the commitment to further expand trade and commerce.
The compulsion behind India and Japan to deepen security cooperation is in response to China's growing political and economic clout and its assertive behaviour in disputed areas. This has been the key driver for bringing both India and Japan closer in the domain of security cooperation, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
The Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship in sync with its philosophy of 'all roles-all ranks' for female personnel, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Friday.
Indian Navy on Wednesday said its ships and aircraft remain 'mission deployed' for maintaining enhanced surveillance and undertaking maritime security operations.
The parliamentary election result was also to prove that the Maldivians want "autonomy in choosing their future, without foreign coercion," President Muizzu said, without naming any country, according to the Sun.mv news portal.
With more than 40,000 miles of coastline fronting its azure waves the Indian Ocean has become a vast playground of private islands, uninhabited coasts, and jetsetting sun-seekers basking in the balmy breeze.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
In a calibrated operation, the Indian Navy on Saturday 'coerced' 35 Pirates onboard a merchant ship around 1,400 nautical miles from the Indian coast to surrender and ensured the safe evacuation of 17 crew members without any injury, officials said.
The principal director of plans, policy, and resources management for the Maldives National Defence Force, Colonel Ahmed Mujuthaba Mohamed said that discussions are underway for withdrawing Indian troops from the Maldives.
Navy officials on Monday said that the swift response by the Indian Navy's mission deployed warship INS Sumitra ensured the safe release of the hijacked vessel and its crew.
Addressing a press conference virtually, India Meteorological Department Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said September was likely to witness normal rainfall in the range of 91-109 per cent of the long period average of 167.9 mm.
There are 88 military personnel manning the three Indian platforms that have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives for the last few years using two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft.
However, the Maldives government has no intention of removing the doctors from India at Senahiya, a media report said.
DFC is the US government's development finance institution. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) in a statement said that the US fund will support the development of deepwater shipping container terminal in the Port of Colombo.
The fresh incident comes amid growing global concerns over attacks on various commercial vessels in the Red Sea by the Houthi militants.
The Pakistan Army chief arrived in Washington last week on his first official visit to the US.
The Maldives Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim called on Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu to formally apologize to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India, Voice of Maldives, a Maldivian digital news outlet, reported.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
The President He said his administration will not allow any State agreements that may compromise the country's sovereignty, The Edition newspaper reported.
The meeting between Jaishankar and Zameer in the Ugandan capital city of Kampala came amid an unease in the Maldives' bilateral ties with India.
Lootere deserves points for originality and novelty, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Sri Lanka has decided to impose a one-year moratorium in allowing foreign vessels to conduct research in the island nation's territorial waters, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has said, amidst frequent docking requests from Chinese surveillance ships.
The aircraft deal worth around Euro 5.5 billion was cleared by the defence acquisition council just before the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to France as the state guest for their Bastille Day parade this year in July.
It is the first mega exercise involving the two aircraft carriers after induction of the indigenously-built INS Vikrant in September.
On being asked if the ongoing spat between the two countries is going to have an impact on the India-Maldives ties, as well the revenue that Indian tourists have generated for the island nation over the years, the Maldivian leader, who was also the former Minister of Economic Development of Maldives, asserted that it is much more than economics or revenue.
The attorney general's office filed the case on Sunday, the same day when clashes broke out in the House between pro-government MPs and opposition lawmakers following differences over the approval of four members of his cabinet.
The defence ministry on Thursday accorded its approval to procure 30 MQ-9B Predator drones from the US to crank up the surveillance apparatus of the armed forces, especially along the frontier with China, people familiar with the development said.
The Maldives still considers India a friend, the tourism-dependent country's economic minister has said while defending President Mohamed Muizzu's stand against the presence of "foreign soldiers" in the archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean.
The southwest monsoon season concluded on Saturday with India receiving 'below-average' cumulative rainfall -- 820 mm compared to the long-period average of 868.6 mm -- in an El Nino year.
India will replace its military personnel in the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by May 10 and the first phase of the process would be completed by March 10, the Maldivian foreign ministry said on Friday after a high-level meeting between the two sides on the contentious issue.
'The two sides agree to continue firmly supporting each other in safeguarding their respective core interests,' a joint statement issued at the end of Muizzu's talks with Chinese leaders said.
This would be the second cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea this year.
The EU mission noted that political and campaign fundraising and financial expenditure lack transparency and effective oversight.
The Indian Navy on Monday unveiled a 15-year plan to boost maritime infrastructure even as Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said the force is working with the Army and the IAF to ensure tri-services jointness and integration to meet future challenges.
President Mohamed Muizzu on Wednesday said by bolstering the defence capabilities of the Maldives, the country will soon reach a point where there is no 'foreign' military presence, weeks after he sought the withdrawal of Indian defence personnel from the archipelago nation.
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