COVID-19 has emerged as an important form of diplomatic currency around the world as nations try to showcase their soft power gains. In this race, India has an edge as India is already a pharmaceutical giant having produced some 60 per cent of global vaccines and now justly seeking to strengthen ties and expand its influence in its neighbourhood and beyond, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The Underwater Photography Guide has announced the winners of their 8th annual Ocean Art Underwater Photography Competition: a selection that runs the gamut between beautiful, eye popping and, in the case of the Conservation category winner, tragic and unnerving. This year's contest attracted "thousands" of entries from 78 countries across the world.
Four-nation grouping Quad on Tuesday launched a major new initiative for the Indo-Pacific that allows the partner countries to fully monitor the waters on their shores and help ensure peace and stability in the region, a move that comes amid China's increasingly intimidatory behaviour.
Maldives' former president said he DIDN'T authorise any arrest in a criminal court in Male
Let's pack for a day out at the beach with the Oru Adaar Love actress.
Wreckage washed up on a remote Indian Ocean island is "very likely from a Boeing 777", Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday as speculation mounted it could be from MH370 that vanished mysteriously over a year ago with 239 people, including five Indians, on board.
'Very thankful to #IndianNavy & all who rescued me,' Tomy was quoted as saying in the Indian Navy spokesman's tweet.
'I do not agree that the intent was to send a political message to China that the US treats friends and foes alike.' 'In any case, such acts do not ruffle a feather in China,' observes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Six sailors, including two Indians, died while 13 others were rescued after an UAE company owned cargo vessel sank off the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean due to bad weather.
If things go as planned, the Centre will develop 12 new Lakshadweep islands under its island development programme. But they will limit their access to 'high-end' serious adventure and fun tourists -- those who won't mind spending more than Rs 15,000 for a one-night stay in some of the world's most exotic and unexplored places.
The announcement means that a total of five pieces of debris from the Malaysian Airlines' jet have now been discovered in various spots around the Indian Ocean since it vanished.
Three deaths have been reported and there are fears of more fatalities.
Rajapaksa's five-day visit to India assumes significance as his tenure as Sri Lanka's president from 2005 to 2016 saw expansion of China's footprints in the Indian Ocean island nation, triggering concerns in India.
Foreign minister Ali Sabry told the cabinet that the Chinese vessel had only asked for a refuelling visit.
China's embassy in Colombo has sought an urgent meeting with senior Sri Lankan authorities after Colombo sought a deferment of the planned docking of a high-tech Chinese research vessel at the strategic Hambantota port over which India raised concerns, sources said.
A massive earthquake of 8.7 magnitude hit waters off Indonesia triggering tsunami fears across the Indian Ocean nations, including India, reviving memories of the 2004 devastation that had claimed tens of thousands of lives in the region.
A massive quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale rattled northern Sumatra in Indonesia on Wednesday, at around 2:38 pm, because of which tremors were experienced across the eastern coast of India, principally in Kolkata, Chennai, and also in Bengaluru.
To avail this unbelievable piece of luxury, you will have shell out USD 50,000 (Rs 36.67 lakh) per night.
According to observers, with pro-China Rajapaksa winning the election, the result will have a bearing on India's presence in the Indian Ocean region where Beijing is increasingly making inroads.
Three naval ships of China's Nanhai Fleet left a naval port in Sanya, Hainan Province on Wednesday, kicking off an annual combat drill in the South China Sea, East Indian Ocean and West Pacific, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
'Although he was bed ridden most of the time he was in the vessel and unable to move on the upper deck, his condition is stable.'
The navy said the missile hit the target at maximum range with precise accuracy.
Cementing its strategic partnership with Seychelles, India on Wednesday signed four agreements with the Indian Ocean island nation to boost security and maritime partnership.
The row erupted on a day President Dr Mohamed Muizzu embarked on a week-long visit to China.
"We won't shift the search area as this was confirmed by our experts based on the drift patterns of the recovered debris," Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.
Cricket Australia is monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka ahead of the tour.
This is Modi's first visit to the Maldives as prime minister. The last visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Indian Ocean island nation was by Manmohan Singh in 2011.
What celeb wear when they visit their favourite beaches.
'Never expected, and never in history, not a single country has extended that kind of assistance'
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.
India has received 20 per cent less rainfall since the start of the monsoon period on June 1, with the rain-bearing system making no significant progress between June 12 and 18, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
No such decision has been taken either in the Indian Ocean or South China Sea.
"One of the reasons we give aid and platform and radar and things like that is to make sure that we are the dominant powers in the Indian Ocean Region," Union Minister of State for Defence, M M Pallam Raju told reporters in Begaluru.
The coming together of the Quad and the Australia-UK-US grouping would be a formidable adversary, moving toward the creation of a 'thousand ship navy' that reins in the PLA navy in the Indo-Pacific.
Modi emphasised the need to return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy in dealing with the Ukraine crisis.
Prabowo was accused in the late 1980s of making a number pro-democracy activists mysteriously disappear and for human rights abuses in the provinces of East Timor and Papua and was denied a visa to the US.
Riled by Sri Lanka's request to defer the planned docking of a high-tech Chinese research vessel at the strategic Hambantota Port, China on Monday took a dig at India, saying it was "senseless to pressure" Colombo by citing the issue of security concerns.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be the second Indian prime minister to visit Fiji after Indira Gandhi, comes at a time when the islands are moving to consolidate the new democratic system
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
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