Biden on Friday opened the first Quad Leaders' Summit held virtually and attended by Prime Minister Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
India, Australia, Japan and the US on Friday pledged to work together for ensuring peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific and the world, as top leaders of the Quad grouping announced a slew of new initiatives to take on common challenges, amidst muscle flexing by an assertive China in the strategic region.
'The world does not care about the tension on our border.' 'India has to emerge as a strong economic power.' 'Respect comes when the world sees a country with a direction and leadership that has a vision,' points out Ramesh Menon.
Amid questions over the 'boat' operation, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said "circumstantial evidence" indicated that the occupants of the vessel were "suspected or possible terrorists" and that they were in touch with Pakistani maritime officials and army.
As a percentage of the military budget, the navy's share has fallen from 19 per cent in 2010-2011 to just 15.5 per cent this year. With the Indian Navy's annual budget declining steadily, security planners are reluctant to green light crucial projects, discovers Ajai Shukla.
The Indian Navy and other stakeholders in the maritime domain are playing a pro-active role to avoid a recurrence of 26/11 type terror attacks, President Pratibha Patil said on Wednesday.
'Gwadar has the potential to facilitate PLAN's operations in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.' 'Reports of China setting up electronic eavesdropping posts at Gwadar to monitor US and Indian naval activity and shipping traffic through the Straits of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea lend credence to this,' says former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade.
Somali pirates are "shifting their location" towards India, but the country is watchful to deal with such threats, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said.
Asserting that "maritime muscle flexing" by some countries and other factors have made the Indo-Pacific region "more contested and more volatile," naval chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday said that the Indian Navy has its task cut out as it has been a major security provider in the region.
'Chinese companies have acquired stakes in 13 ports in Europe, including in Greece, Spain and, most recently, Belgium.' 'Those ports handle about 10 percent of Europe's shipping container capacity,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
We do not know, because there has been no discussion, no transparency and most likely no real thinking on this matter at our end, observes Aakar Patel.
The Coast Guard pressed into service several of its ships along with helicopters off the coast of Mumbai and Gujarat, an official spokesman said. EEZ of a country is the 200-km maritime region from its shores. In Indian waters, the Coast Guard has the responsibility of looking after this region.
Pranab Mukherjee inspected the fleet along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from aboard the INS Sumitra.
"With its maritime supply routes likely to become limited by its loss of land in north-west, unless a new political or military variable enters the equation, the decline of the LTTE is inevitable," it said.
Strategically located on the coast of the North Sea, on the axis of the maritime traffic routes between the United Kingdom and the European continent, Zeebrugge has emerged as the world's womb for new cars.
Quad leaders are also planning to roll out vaccine deliverables and announce a series of measures in the field of healthcare and infrastructure sector, officials in Washington, DC said.
For the first time after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, an Indian coast guard team visited Pakistan earlier this week to discuss the issues of fishermen languishing in jails and coordination between the two maritime forces.
The 'request for proposal' for the indigenous construction of the six submarines will be issued soon, they added.
'If the Russian forces do capture Kyiv and set up some sort of provisional government, they might run into an insurgency, for which the geography is just right, it could prove costly for them.' 'In that event, the whole exercise could turn out to be counter-productive -- and costly in both foreign policy and domestic terms.'
The ship, commissioned on November 16, 2013, celebrated her third anniversary on Friday.
If the aim is to become a player with some strategic space of its own, not just in the Indian Ocean region but also in the adjoining region, then greater interaction with China is desirable, even necessary.
The Major Ports Authority Bill, 2020 was passed through ballot votes in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with 84 votes in its favour and 44 against it. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill on September 23 last year.
'There is no Buddha or Gandhi among countries, existing for the service of others; they all exist for the good of themselves.' 'For each country, its own interests should be paramount, and it is futile and churlish to expect China to be an exception to this rule,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant and long-time China-watcher.
The government has adopted a multi-pronged approach involving the Army, the Indian Air Force and the Navy as well as diplomacy and economic measures to send out a firm and clear message to China that its misadventure in eastern Ladakh was not acceptable at all.
Trump had accused Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorists.
China has demonstrated that it has the power to not be isolated, and it is likely to become more powerful over time.
Giving final touches to its most ambitious plan to build a wide network of new silk roads on land and seas to enhance global connectivity, China has invited India to join President Xi Jinping's pet project that would revive the ancient trade route and benefit the region.
It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.
According to officials, the list of 101 items includes towed artillery guns, short range surface to air missiles, cruise missiles, offshore patrol vessels, electronic warfare systems, next generation missile vessels, floating dock, anti-submarine rocket launchers and short range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing in Beijing that the BRI is an economic cooperation project and it does not involve territorial disputes.
Once the scheme is implemented 70-80 per cent of the freight would move along national highways as against the current 40 per cent, says Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Unlike RIL, the Adani group has not yet brought in any big stakeholders to refinance debt or expand.
In fact, given the current tensions and massed troops on both sides, there is a danger that the LAC will become more like the Line of Control with Pakistan, a heavily fortified and strongly defended border where weapon fire exchanges regularly occur. Indeed, Stratfor Worldview research has listed a sharp increase in new Chinese facilities along the LAC in 2019-20.
'Does the country risk being enclosed in a geographical cocoon if it spurns a multi-continent project for which everyone else has signed up,' asks T N Ninan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitions abroad may run the risk of foundering on constraints at home.
The Indian Navy has just one aircraft carrier. The INS Vikramaditya carries just 26 unreliable MiG-29 fighters and 10 helicopters -- an insufficient capability to battle a serious foe.
Given our troubled relationship with Pakistan, we need to keep our security apparatus in a state of alert with state-of-the-art equipment. All bilateral issues with Pakistan -- political, military, economic -- will simply have to go on the back-burner till Pakistan decides it wants to live as a good neighbour, says Vikram Sood.
'Singh apprised the Japanese leaders about Islamabad's 'evil design' on Kashmir at a time when Pakistan has decided to internationalise the issue.'
Just like China wants Trump to lose the US presidential poll, it may want Modi to lose the Lok Sabha polls. So months before the 2024 elections, China may take possession of an important area, say one of the Char Dhams, warns Sanjeev Nayyar.
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