Diplomacy

Arabs hold the key to defeating the Islamic State

- by Aditi Bhaduri

June 29 marked the first anniversary of the Islamic state. It is an indictment of the international community that an entity so monstrous should move into its second year without showing any significant signs of recession. Instead, its recruitment drive is increasingly sophisticated and successful, the envy of other terror groups. While the ISIS prompts many conspiracy theories, it has not yet sufficiently unsettled Arabs to launch an assault on it as decisive as in the case of impoverished Yemen, for instance. No joint Arab force was mooted to battle the Islamic state. Differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran take precedence over joint efforts against it.

Whatever air power has been used has been done sporadically, more as revenge, and sometimes to deflect attention away from internal deficiencies. This is how Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Morocco have launched attacks. Western military initiatives led by the US have also been limited and also resented in the region. More resources have been poured into Syrian rebels battling the Assad government, which looks almost angelic compared to the IS. Shiite militias, Kurdish peshmerga, the weak Iraqi army are fighting the ISIS in what are more localised knee-jerk reactions.
Arab commentators and analysts continue to see Assad and Iran as bigger threats.

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India-US joint strategic vision: Implications for the Indo-Pacific

- by India Writes Network

The Indo-Pacific’s blurred geographical outreach with the larger Asia-Pacific region has overshadowed the former’s contribution to emerging trade facilitations and connectivity lines from and through the region. The emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a region which is distinct from the Asia-Pacific in terms of geostrategic significance, as opposed to it being a sub-region of the Asia-Pacific, is yet to happen. The cooperation between the US and India in this region has the potential to effect this much needed transformation. The due recognition of the Indo-Pacific as a credible maritime domain with its unique ability to provide access to both the Indian Ocean and the Asia-Pacific countries is likely to happen once India and the US will come together to cooperate through the waters of the Indo-Pacific, giving mutual access to each other in the Indian Ocean and the Asia-Pacific regions.

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It’s time for India’s diplomacy to raise its ambitions: Fashioning a new narrative

- by India Writes Network

Let’s focus on foreign policy underway today. How much of it is continuity; how much change? What do the changes signify? How much is substance; how much is optics? Some opinions have been offered already, not all of them without bias. I am sure that if we subject the diplomacy of the last year to a smell test, we can arrive at a reasonably clear conclusion.

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Ufa U-turn? India, Pakistan trade blame over ceasefire violations, ‘spy drone’

- by India Writes Network

Days after the leaders of India and Pakistan held an ice-breaking meeting in Russia resulting in “actionable propositions” to improve strained ties, the two countries are getting back to the depressingly familiar pattern of blame game. Senior ministers in India met on July 16 to discuss ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops and an out-of-the-blue controversy arising out of Islamabad’s claim of having shot down an allegedly Indian spy drone.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, with NSA Ajit Doval, discussed the latest developments that could undermine the much-hyped breakthrough meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the Russia city of Ufa on July 10.

Meanwhile, India has lodged a strong protest against Pakistan after its Rangers targeted five border outposts in Akhnoor sector and civilians in R.S. Pura and Tawi belts, in Jammu. This was the seventh ceasefire violation in July month alone.

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