The coast guards of India, Japan, the US and Australia have launched the first-ever "Quad-at-sea" mission to boost operational coordination and interoperability in the Indo-Pacific.
How the UN's flagship climate summit lost its direction and what's at stake.
The 15th India-Vietnam Defence Dialogue signalled a move from routine talks to deeper cooperation, with new deals on submarine rescue and defence industry to support stability in the Indo-Pacific, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
If they act now, they can reshape the strategic map of Asia without firing a shot. If they wait, the next opportunity will come only after a serious Taiwan Strait incident -- by which time the price will be far higher, and the room for boldness far smaller -- the opportunity may well be lost by then. The question is no longer whether this can or should be done, points out Varun Arya.
The Russians have termed Putin's visit to India, his first to this country since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, as 'Druzhba Dosti', which means 'friendship' in Russian and Hindi respectively.
India and Japan have unveiled a comprehensive framework to boost their defence cooperation in response to security challenges, particularly concerning China's increasing military presence in the East and South China Seas.
India should simultaneously prioritise domestic exploration and production of more oil and gas in the country, and ensure we retain diversified suppliers for imports, points out former foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai.
There is a "high possibility" of a meeting between Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, a senior official said. The meeting comes amid strained ties between the two countries, marked by India's concerns over violence against Hindus and a rise of hardline Islamist forces in Bangladesh. Yunus's recent comments about India's northeastern states being landlocked and Bangladesh being the "only guardian of the ocean" in the region have drawn sharp reactions from Indian politicians. However, a Bangladesh official insists that Yunus's statement was misinterpreted.
The era where nations thrived through rigid alignments is giving way to an age where the connective State defines power. For India, that era has arrived, points out Dr Nishakant Ojha.
The government has identified 50 public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore, significantly surpassing the original targets of the National Monetisation Pipeline, said Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit on Thursday.
'One Chinese interlocutor said India should realise that "China can do without India, but India could not do without China", pointing to its inability to do without Chinese intermediates and components,' former foreign secretary Shyam Saran discovers on a visit to China.
A meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit is being planned.
Soon after he was sworn in by Vice President J D Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Penny Wong from Australia and Japan's Iwaya Takeshi for his first multilateral meeting as the top American diplomat.
The announcement for the QUAD Caucus came from Congressman Ami Bera, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee, Congressman Rob Wittman, and Senators Tammy Duckworth and Pete Ricketts, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ever since the Quad started taking shape in 2007, China has been saying that the four-member grouping will be bound to fail. But much to the chagrin of Beijing, it picked up pace in the recent years emerging as a premier strategic group especially challenging China's assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Quad is not against anyone, but for a rules-based international order and respect for sovereignty, in a veiled reference to China.
The Quad grouping has called for bringing the perpetrators, organisers and financiers of the Pahalgam terror attack to justice without any delay and urged UN member nations to extend cooperation for it.
The 'mediation' by the United States from behind the scene on the diplomatic track appears to be once again working, which calls on both Delhi and Islamabad to show restraint and pull back from a military confrontation, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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.
In a move sending a strong signal to China, foreign ministers from Quad countries -- India, Australia, Japan and the United States -- in a joint statement on Tuesday strongly opposed any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Sri Lanka, where he will hold talks with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and strengthen ties through agreements on defence, energy security, and digitalisation. This visit aims to further bolster the already strong relationship between the two nations and is expected to include several outcomes, including a defence cooperation agreement, debt restructuring, and a currency swap. This visit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is recovering from an economic crisis, where India played a significant role in providing financial assistance.
The China threat continues to resonate in the strategic partnership between India and the USA, points out Rup Narayan Das.
'Trump's aggressive stance towards China and preference for military posturing could shift the Quad's balance towards overt militarisation.'
Dr Jaishankar is expected to discuss the dates for the fifth Quad leaders' summit in India later this year.
India will invest USD 82 billion in port projects by 2035, raise share of clean renewable energy source in maritime sector, develop waterways and boost tourism around lighthouses as part of port-led development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. Speaking at the Maritime India Summit, he invited global investors to invest in Indian ports, shipyards and waterways. More than 574 projects costing USD 82 billion or Rs 6 lakh crore have been identified for implementation between 2015 and 2035 under the Sagarmala Project, he said. The government, he said, is looking to operationalise 23 waterways by 2030.
'We condemn recent illicit missile launches in the region that violate UN Security Council resolutions. We express serious concern over recent dangerous and aggressive actions in the maritime domain. We seek a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated one where all countries are free from coercion, and can exercise their agency to determine their futures,' the declaration said.
India is trying hard to erase Indonesia's wariness about New Delhi, building security cooperation in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. If Indonesia decides to buy the Brahmos missile, it would further strengthen relations between the world's most populous nation and the most populous Islamic country.
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for enhancing trade and investment ties between their countries and committed to further deepening their engagement in the Indo-Pacific. They discussed a full spectrum of bilateral relations, including key global and regional issues, and stressed the urgent need for reform in the United Nations Security Council. The leaders also underscored their commitment to ensuring the global AI sector can drive positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
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.
From highways connecting once-remote regions to aviation networks carrying millions, India's infrastructure story is one of transformation.
Saturday's Quad meeting in Delaware is taking place against the backdrop of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
Modi held a "productive meeting" with his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed Ali on a day when BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders officially endorsed Ethiopia's entry into the bloc.
The India-Japan joint naval exercises are a strategic signal for China, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
'While on the one hand, terrorism continues to be a serious threat to global peace and security, on the other hand, areas such as cyber, maritime and space, are emerging as new theatres of conflict'
India and China have made "some progress" in disengagement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday, describing it as a "welcome" move which opens up the possibility that other steps could happen.
PM Modi on Saturday met PM Abe and invited Japan to be part of the 'Make in India' programme.
Colombo can handle more container traffic than all of India's ports put together. For a country with a long maritime tradition, this is a pathetic state of affairs, saya T N Ninan.
Modi attended the 20th ASEAN-India Summit in Jakarta. Secretary-General of ASEAN Dr Kao Kim Hourn also attended the summit.
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.
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