Diplomacy

Cuba-US detente: The long road ahead

- by India Writes Network

The reopening of embassies and establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US after 54 years marks the start of a new chapter in relations between the once estranged countries. Diplomatic engagement opens another road towards resolving many issues that have bedevilled relations between these two neighbours. But there are many difficult and long-standing differences that will require persistent efforts to resolve in moving from destructive conflict to constructive engagement. The development has been welcomed globally, and is especially welcome in the Americas. It is important to note various historical and political factors at work.

President Obama had indicated his intention to improve relations with Cuba as long back as 2005. But the opposition of hard-line Cuban Americans and their representatives in the Congress, and the imprisonment of USAID worker Alan Gross in 2009 stalled progress. The recent thaw began with the release of Alan Gross from a Cuban prison in exchange for the release of five Cubans imprisoned in the US since 1998 for spying. Gross was suffering from medical problems and there was a strong effort by the Jewish lobby to secure his release. The Vatican and Canada facilitated contacts that led to the agreement for the mutual release of Gross and the “Cuban five”. Gross’s release by the Cubans resulted in the Jewish lobby supporting détente with Cuba. A New Cuba-PAC has been set up to press for normalising relations with Cuba. The success on this front encouraged President Obama and President Raul Castro to move further, and led to the decision to resume full diplomatic relations, broken off in 1961.

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Maldives reassures India, will not to allow China’s military base

- by India Writes Network

Assuring India that its strategic interests will not be compromised after the Maldives passed a constitutional amendment to allow foreign ownership of its islands, President Abdullah Yameen in a statement said, “The Maldivian government has given assurances to the Indian government and our neighbouring countries as well to keep the Indian Ocean a demilitarised zone”.

The statement came in the backdrop of India raising concerns over the land law amendment passed by the Maldives. The Maldives’ Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb said, “We don’t want to give any of our neighbours including India any cause for concern. We don’t want to be in a position, when we become a threat to our neighbours.” He also said Maldives was not looking at strategic projects and was looking at projects on the lines of Dubai’s Palm Islands or Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. He criticised the opposition parties for raising concerns over the law.

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India’s Act East policy to get cultural and intellectual shine

- by India Writes Network

India’s Act East policy is not simply strategy and business. Taking a long-range view, New Delhi is planning to pitch multifarious cultural linkages to the fore as it moves to transform and reinvigorate this crucial relationship.
Ahead of the next India-ASEAN summit in Malaysia, India has underlined the importance of bolstering cultural linkages to impart a greater resonance to its burgeoning relationship with this enterprising and vibrant region.
Speaking at an international conference on “ASEAN-India Cultural Links: Historical and Contemporary Dimensions” in New Delhi on July 23, Mr Anil Wadhwa, India’s seniormost diplomat handling the region, spoke about ancient cultural linkages that bind India and Southeast Asia.

“India and ASEAN are today at the threshold of a qualitatively more substantive and reinvigorated relationship. As we work to give shape to our Plan of Action for the period 2016 to 2021, setting new goals to move the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership forward, we not only aim to strengthen the third pillar of our engagement, i.e. the socio-cultural pillar, but also wish to bring it to the forefront of our relationship.”

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War games in Indian Ocean: India-US-Japan Malabar exercise to raise stakes

- by India Writes Network

The stakes in the new game unfolding in the Indian Ocean are rising by the day. Against the backdrop of China’s growing clout and assertiveness in the region, the world’s three maritime democracies, the US, Japan and India, are set to conduct joint naval exercises in October. It’s not official yet, but senior military officials from India, US and Japan met at an American Navy base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo on July 22 to discuss the details of the forthcoming Malabar Naval exercises.
The three countries, who also hold a trilateral meeting every year, are expected to deny that the exercise is targeted at China, but Beijing will be watching closely how the Malabar exercise plays out.
While China objected to Japan’s Defence Review, it has not reacted with the same intensity so far on the proposed joint naval exercises between the three countries. The last time the exercise was held where Australia, Japan and Singapore were also invited by India to its drills with the US navy elicited such a strong reaction from Beijing that it was never held after that. The event is likely to send alarm bells ringing in Beijing, with more alliances being formed in the region against it. While China may have made inroads into the global financial system by setting up new financial institutions challenging the US, the US retains its military clout in the region, and still dominates the seas due to its naval superiority. China sees this strategy of the US as the one similar to forming groups such as NATO and a US-led security grouping in Asia-Pacific.

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