The Modi government has to embrace the history of Tamil conquests in South East Asia and stop obsessing about Babar/Humayun, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A number of other frontline ships, submarines and fighter jets of the three countries will be part of the over week-long drill in the Bay of Bengal which is taking place in the backdrop of a major military face-off between armies of India and China in the Sikkim section.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington, DC, on Wednesday on an official visit to the United States during which he will hold the first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, attend the maiden in-person Quad summit and address the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that international travel should be made easier through mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, amid several countries adopting different sets of rules to allow foreigners to enter their territory in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Cooperation at sea involves not just ships going out together and carrying out exercises over a couple of days, but understanding the whys and the wherefores,' points out Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Defence and strategic experts on Monday said that China's posturing in the Indian Ocean will disturb stability and peace in the region.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
Asserting that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are 'responsible' leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said they both are capable of solving issues between the two countries, and that it was important that no 'extra-regional power' should interfere in the process.
A senior US official said that the plan of establishing OBOR alternative was still 'nascent'.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Modi cautioning that cryptocurrency can spoil the youth.
Whether it liked it or not, the Ukraine crisis forced India to choose between the aggressor Russia and the US-led free world, a decision it hated to make, Virendra Kapoor points out. In the end, it abstained from the vote in the Security Council.
Modi has the chance to break out of India's passive mode and firmly tell Russia that in this day and age, India will not support unilateral invasions, asserts Harishchandra Dighe.
Trump had accused Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorists.
The US House of Representatives and the Senate on Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included key components of Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi's resolution language urging the Chinese government to end its military aggression against India along the LAC.
China on Tuesday urged US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to stop sowing discord between Beijing and countries in the region, undermining regional peace and stability, amidst his visit to India for a high-level dialogue aimed at further ramping up their overall defence and security ties, and boost strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
'There are three pillars of concern: The expansion of Hindu majoritarianism, the concentration of executive power and decay of independent institutions, and curbs on free expression and dissent.'
'The aim of Russian policy is to reform European security, stop NATO expansion and in a more general sense -- set up the new rules of relations between the great powers.' 'From this perspective. the invasion of Ukraine is quite pointless.'
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark T Esper will visit India on October 26 and 27 for the high-level dialogue aimed at further boosting defence, security and global strategic ties between the two countries.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar left London at the end of a four-day visit to the United Kingdom on Friday with a message of convergence as the two countries agreed on an ambitious '2030 Roadmap' towards a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
India, Jaishankar said, is a "prisoner of its past image" and must get over it.
Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
'As Prime Minister Modi said, our ties are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship'
India cannot choose its geography and devise regional strategies to dovetail into the Western Indian Ocean hypothesis conceived in the Pentagon, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.
India must be aware that there is no question of the US fighting the Chinese on land. We have to fight our own battles, points out Virendra Kapoor.
'The credit for managing Trump should go to Modi.' 'Biden is a predictable and rational person with plenty of administrative experience,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
China also said that it was opposed to any third-party involvement in the resolution of the Sino-India boundary disputes.
Expressing grave concern over a US nuclear-powered submarine sustaining damage in the disputed South China Sea, China on Friday demanded Washington to reveal the details and the location of the accident and blamed America's frequent air and naval sorties in the Indo-Pacific to assert the "freedom of navigation" as the "root cause" of the incident.
Any form of entanglement with India or the US on the strategic plane will be anathema to Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa rulers, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"We have many relationships...they have a history. We will do what is in our national interest and part of that strategic partnership is the ability of each country to comprehend and appreciate the national interest of the other," Jaishankar said.
The Indian Navy has a big role to play in support of our strategic objectives in the Indian Ocean. The increasing Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean is a matter of concern and need to be factored. Hence, the requirement of an Aircraft Carrier is a foregone conclusion, asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
'India does not wish to remain silent in improving its strategic space so that its leverage to counter China's expansionist designs is maintained, besides enabling it to play a responsible role from a position of strength for peace and stability in Asia,' points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The 2015 round will support approximately 60 scholarships and provide around $8 million in mobility grants for Australian undergraduate students.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that India and China are going through a 'particularly bad patch' in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still doesn't have a 'credible explanation' and it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
'The BJP has done the Uri surgical strikes, handled the Dokalam crisis and the Balakot strikes.' 'So if there is a de-escalation only at the diplomatic level and not resolving this issue of a colonel being killed, then it translates into public anger.'
From Covid to climate change, Shankar Acharya's look at some of the trends and events that might shape 2022.
'This, together with Chinese revisionism, will constitute the major test of the international system.'
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, while reacting to Japan's plans to step up investments in the northeastern states, told the media that China is opposed to any foreign investment in the areas where it has disputes with India.
'Under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up its aggressive foreign policy toward New Delhi. Since 2013, China has engaged in five major altercations with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC),' said a brief issued by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
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