Global Indian News
Iran and the major powers (EU3+3) have reached a very preliminary and extremely vague agreement on principles for an agreement, released in the form of an exceedingly brief joint statement of …
Read MoreAs the cherry blossom season starts in East Asia, a perennial debate has been raked up, this time with an added claimant over the birthplace of the popular sakura (cherry) trees. A Chinese industrial group has asserted that it is the Middle Kingdom, not Japan (with which the flower is traditionally associated) or South Korea (which has often claimed that its Jeju Island is the place of origin).
Cherry blossoms have a unique place in the Japanese society, which has guarded its traditions (tea ceremony, flower arrangements, origami) closely in the face of onslaught of Westernization, especially since the US occupation post World War II. The period over which the trees blossom sees a spate of traditional activities and festivities (much like monsoons in India).
Given its revered place in Japan’s cultural system, and acerbic relationship with China on the cultural front, China’s attempt at appropriation of the cherry blossom is often taken as assault on national identity (imagine the backlash from India, if say Pakistan says that yoga has its roots on the other side of the border). Group identities are an integral part of our being in the world, and often intangibles (such as concepts of honor, apology, food), have a potent emotional resonance to rake up political storms. Call it flowering feuds if you like: cherry blossom wars are here to stay.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is to visit India in May. On agenda is the further strengthening of bilateral defense ties. The Pentagon has said in a statement that Secretary Carter would visit …
Read MoreIn search of economic expansion and to gain strategic depth in the region, China has proposed a revival of the ancient trading route- the ‘Silk Route’- which connected East Asia to Eastern Europe, via Central Asia. While China maintains that its motives are purely commercial gain, others remain wary. India has been uneasy about the heavy investments made by China in South Asian countries, traditionally considered a part of India’s neighbourhood, and the hardliners see the ‘one belt, one road’ initiative as just a velvet coated ploy to further encircle India, as a possible extension of the ‘string of pearls’. In such scenario, there is a need for a nuanced examination of the initiative itself and India’s concerns and options.
‘Belt and Road’ initiative
In a very significant move, the blue print for the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative was spelt out by Xi Jinping in the recently concluded Bo Ao Forum for Asia, convened in Sanya, Hainan.
Xi JinpingThe concept was first proposed by Mr. Xi in a speech at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, in 2013. He said that to “forge closer economic ties, deepen cooperation and expand development” in the Euro-Asia region, there was a need to build an “economic belt” reviving the ancient trading routes, which had historically linked Asia to Europe. He proposed that traffic connectivity and economic integration needed to be promoted to open the strategic regional thoroughfare from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea, and gradually move toward the set-up of a network of transportation that connects Eastern, Western and Southern Asia.
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Underscoring India’s commitment to ensure the safety of Indians stuck in the violence-torn Yemen, New Delhi is continuing with the airlift operation. Two Indian Air Force flights carrying 334 Indian …
Read MoreAfter a long delay, the government has finally announced the much awaited new foreign trade policy (FTP) 2015-2020. The thrust of the new policy is on export promotion, reducing trade …
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Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has dismissed the opposition’s claim that his government had given fishing rights to Indian fisherman, and stressed he had issued clear instruction to Sri Lankan navy to seize boats that violated country’s territorial waters.
“We have not allowed fishing in our waters for the Indians. I have given clear instructions to the navy to arrest boats or trawlers that violate our water limits,” Mr Sirisena said in a gathering of representatives of the fishing industry and various political organisations.
Representatives of the Nationals Freedom Front, which sits in the opposition, had accused the government for giving fishing rights to Indians in Sri Lankan waters as an appeasement policy. The Sirisena government is already under fire for moving too close to India, even at the cost of hampering relations with China, which has substantial investments in the country.
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US President Barack Obama has hailed the nuclear agreement with Iran as a “historic understanding”, and said, if implemented, would make the world safer. Calling the agreement “a good deal”, …
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The historic nuclear deal between the West and Iran has sparked a wave of applause from around the world and elicited a strong welcome from India.
The P5+1 (US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany) have reached what US President Barack Obama has called a “historic understanding with Iran”. The framework agreement chalks out the agenda for future negotiations, the nuanced details of which shall be worked over the next three months. It allays the fears of Iran gaining nuclear weapons under the guise of pursuing a civilian nuclear programme (under these conditions the “breakout time” would be a year, if the deal is broken), and is a big step in ending the decades of sanction and diplomatic apartheid Iran has faced from the West and its allies.
Calling it a triumph of dialogue and diplomacy, India, which has shielded its partnership with Tehran from Western pressure, has promptly welcomed the accord in Lausanne. “A significant step seems to have been taken with agreement on the parameters of a comprehensive settlement to be negotiated by June 30,” India’s external affairs ministry said in a statement.
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India, a key partner of New Delhi in East Africa and home to a large Indian diaspora, has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on a university campus at Garissa in north-eastern Kenya and underlined the need for intensified international cooperation to combat the scourge of terrorism that cuts across terrorism.
“We stand in solidarity and sympathy with the bereaved families and the injured, and convey our heart-felt condolences to the Government and people of Kenya,” India’s external affairs ministry said in New Delhi a day after the barbaric terror attack on April 2.
“This outrageous terrorist act is yet another reminder that the menace of terrorism continues to threaten us all and the international community needs to further strengthen its fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” said the ministry.
In the deadliest attack in the country since US embassy bombings in 1998, at least 147 students were slaughtered when Somalia’s Shebab Islamist group attacked a Kenyan university.
The attack lasted some 16 hours from before dawn until well after dark and has ended with all four terrorists killed.
The university attack came barely a couple of years after the spectacular mall terror attack in the heart of Nairobi, and put the spotlight on the proliferation of terror networks in the African continent.