'Our equations with China require engagement and not confrontation; its interfaces with Pakistan and with some other South Asian neighbours also add to the complexities,' says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
'China was a relationship from which Mr Modi had expected the most it seems.' 'It showed in a string of summits, and somewhat breathless celebration of Xi Jinping.' 'It was hasty and simplistic,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Delhi has come to accept the Taliban takeover in Kabul as a reality and seems increasingly unsure of its dogmatic view of the Taliban as a mere proxy of the Pakistani military and security establishment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'I made it known through diplomatic channels that I was unhappy.' 'So, he called me and tried to explain, but I said this is something that doesn't happen between friends.'
'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
There could be significant announcements about India's purchase of Kamov-226T helicopters, S-400 air defence missile systems, and the long-delayed contract for joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
'If there is one certainty in this visit, it is that Trump does not follow a script. He is unpredictable,' highlights Ambassador B S Prakash.
India is making clear efforts not to be left in the cold. It has extended a hand of friendship to Iran and is also seeking to forge a common front with Russia to ensure that its decades-long "aid and development policy" in Afghanistan does not go in vain.
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.
India-China relations have always attracted Parliament's attention and there have always been useful and productive and constructive discussions how to engage with China, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India's Rohan Bopanna and Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi reached the doubles final of the St Petersburg Open defeating Mikhail Mertinak of Slovakia and Lovro Zovko of Croatia 7-5, 6-2 in St Petersburg on Saturday.
China should not feel cornered by a raft of geopolitical moves by the US and Japan against it by forging closer ties with India, Russia and others in the region and Beijing should focus on becoming a strong economic and military power, a state-run daily said on Thursday.
'Analysts see BECA as a 'force multiplier' for India.' 'But China too is known to have such capabilities.' 'The military gap with China will continue to remain a fact of life, BECA notwithstanding,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
Both India and China are in Phnom Penh to participate in the two-day East Asia Summit, an offshoot of the Asean meet. China and India, along with the US, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are participating countries in EAS, besides the 10 Asean members.
Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes crossed the first-round hurdle in the men's doubles with their respective partners while Sania Mirza crashed out of the women's doubles after a first-round loss at the French Open.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis saw off the challenge of Australian team of Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur to move to the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells. The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated their rivals 6-3 7-5 in just 68 minutes in their opening round of the USD 6,844,139 hard court event. Sania and Martina saved four of the six breakpoints they faced in the match and broke their rivals five times in the tight contest. They next face local girl Vania King and Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova 4-6 6-3 10-5. In the men's event, Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded fifth, are up against Spanish team of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lpez in their first round of the USD 7,037,595 event.
Biden has reiterated America's support for India's permanent membership on a reformed UNSC and its entry into the NSG during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Modi at the White House.
The US side is yet to respond to the invitation but initial indication has been positive, it is learnt.
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea breezed into the pre-quarter-finals of the men's doubles at the Australian Open, beating Lukas Dlouhy and Jiri Vesely, on Friday.
Rohan Bopanna teamed up with Canada's Denis Shapovalov to enter the quarter-finals of the Rotterdam Open
A day after Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta made some harsh comments against Russia, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Tuesday said relations with Moscow were excellent and any issue between the two countries can be sorted out. "We have excellent relations with Russia. If there are any issues, we can sort them out," Menon told reporters in New Delhi
The first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant was synchronised with the southern power grid on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in power generation of the ambitious Indo-Russian nuclear collaboration in Tamil Nadu.
Around 1 out of every 5 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops breathing difficulty, according to the World Health Organisation.
Leander Paes's campaign at the Australian Open came to an end when he and Elena Vesnina of Russia were knocked out of the mixed doubles in Melbourne, on Tuesday. Paes-Vesnina went down 3-6, 2-6 to the Australian duo of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in a second round match.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Nadia Petrova of Russia entered the mixed doubles quarter-finals at the Australian Open, rallying from a set down to register a 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 victory over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in Melbourne on Tuesday.
'The Indian version is that the two top diplomats merely exchanged pleasantries, while the Pakistani side characterised the encounter as an 'informal dialogue'.' 'The truth, as always in such piquant situations, is somewhere in between.' 'It stands to reason that ice has been broken,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The exercise provides an opportunity to practice freefall techniques with the highly-experienced Russian diving team.
India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands notched up a straight-sets victory and advanced to the second round of the women's doubles competition at the Wimbledon in London on Monday.
India's poor run at the French Open continued as Leander Paes and his Austrian partner Alexander Peya crashed out of the second round of the men's doubles event after losing to Mikhail Elgin of Russia and Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 4-6, 1-6.
Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina stormed into the second round of the Australian Open women's doubles with a comprehensive 6-0, 6-2 victory over Greece's Eleni Daniilidou and Alexandra Panova of Russia, in Melbourne, on Thursday.
Sania Mirza and Jie Zheng moved into the semi-finals of the women's doubles with a straight sets win over Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng.
India's Leander Paes and his doubles partner Canada's Daniel Nestor entered the third round of the Wimbledon doubles after defeating the Russian-Chinese Taipei duo of Teymuraz Gabashvili and Yen-Hsun Lu 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 7-5 on Saturday.
Sania Mirza won her third WTA doubles title of the season, and 12th overall, when she and Yaroslava Shvedova pipped Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in the final of the Citi Open at College Park on Sunday. Defending their top billing, the Indo-Kazakh pair overcame the second seeds 6-3, 6-3 after an hour and five minutes' struggle.
'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.
"We have very little time left for deciding on the chief guest and the process will be completed soon," a source familiar with the development said.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
Three medical students studying at the Wuhan University, all natives of Kerala, who returned to India on their own recently and self-reported at a hospital in the state have tested positive for the respiratory virus.
It said cross-border terrorism is the main stumbling block in normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.\n\n
Hydrography (underwater geography) prevents the Indian Navy for opting for an all-conventional, or all-nuclear submarine fleet.