India voices SAARC scepticism, focuses on fast-track delivery

Is SAARC in danger of becoming irrelevant? India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, for one, certainly thinks so, reinforcing widespread skepticism about the bleak future of the grouping which remains mired in India-Pakistan rivalry and Islamabad’s stonewalling of SAARC’s key initiatives.
In her speech at an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of SAARC member nations on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Mrs Swaraj voiced India’s disappointment with the failure of the eight-nation South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to live up to its aims and objectives. The minister spelled out a host of roadblocks that continue to stall any significant progress made by the eight-nation grouping.
There was no clear indication regarding the SAARC summit, but the minister clarified that unless the high-level meetings translate into concrete actions on the ground, the relevance of the group would be lost. With India and Pakistan intensifying their war of words at the UNGA, the fate of SAARC, as of now, hangs in the balance.

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Trump Talk at UN amuses & shocks world

US President Donald Trump’s maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly unfolded on predictable lines, except for its highly combative tone which left many veteran world leaders and diplomats in the audience squirming in their seats. From vowing to destroy North Korea, to calling Iran a “rogue state” and lashing out at terrorist organisations and countries that provide them safe havens, Mr Trump unleashed his rage at “America’s enemies.”
Speaking from the green-marbled dais he had once mocked as ugly, Mr Trump’s fury was largely directed at the “depraved” Pyongyang and its despotic leader Kim Jong-un whom he referred to as the Rocket Man on a suicide mission. “No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the wellbeing of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea,” he said. Mr Trump, who got elected in November last year on America First plank, vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if it didn’t abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

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With an eye on China, India-US -Japan trilateral focuses on maritime security

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City taking up issues of connectivity, security and respect for international norms. The joint statement of the ministerial meeting highlighted three key areas – maritime security, connectivity and proliferation.
On South China Sea and OBOR
In an oblique reference to China, the statement stressed the need for “freedom of navigation, respect for international law and peaceful resolution of disputes”. China’s aggressive posturing on South China Sea where it is ramping up its military presence and accelerating construction of artificial islands has caused considerable distress to the international community since the annual global trade flow through these waters amounts to many trillions of dollars.
China’s One Belt One Road Initiate also figured in discussions. It has been opposed to it from the very beginning since a major part of it passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The joint statement called for the need to base such initiatives on “universally recognized international norms, prudent financing and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity”. It may be noted that US had urged a return to status-quo during the Doklam crisis while Japan had actively supported India’s position.

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Women Power: Swaraj, Ivanka Trump bond at UNGA

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an invite to the US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump to be her father’s goodwill ambassador and lead the US delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India this year, it was hailed as a significant diplomatic move considering how Ivanka has emerged as one of the most influential people in the Trump administration.

Taking a step forward, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Ivanka Trump on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly summit in New York and discussed women empowerment and the upcoming entrepreneurship summit in Hyderabad which PM Modi is very keen on promoting to showcase the best brains of the country.

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Indian diplomacy in times of flux: M.J. Akbar

The birth of a publication is always a reason for celebration. The birth of a publication at a time when print is under some strain is a cause for even greater celebration. But the birth of a print publication in a time of strain, on a subject that is of a close interest to the distinguished audience here, is perhaps the most welcome part of the evening. I hope the subject will actually determine the quality of the publication.

Foreign affairs and diplomacy are two of the most important aspects of government, have always been, particularly now in the current environment and context in which we live. Let me begin with a question that is immediate. What has happened in the last three years that is a significant change with the past? The first articulation of our foreign policy was made in March 1946 at the Asian Relations Conference and it is also an indication of how seriously the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took foreign policy. He had already begun, in a sense, the concept of multilateralism, established it with that conference, at a time when the post-war world was still searching for some way forward. At a time when colonisation still seemed one power that the world would not easily get rid of.
Now, it’s only in hindsight that we can say that 1947 was a seminal year because, in a real way, Europe’s colonial power began with Britain’s success in India and it also ended with Britain’s collapse in India.
After the British lost their raj, it was only a matter of time before colonialism all across the world collapsed. But in 1946, certainly the spirit of Lord [Satyendra] Sinha was more prevalent. As a law member, he’d famously remarked about Mahatma Gandhi that: “I don’t understand what this man in a dhoti is doing, the British are going to be around here for 400 years.”
That was the prevalent wisdom and that was a prevalent assessment. He wasn’t far off from what conventional thinking in 1917 suggested and yet, when Gandhiji started, the Empire could not survive more than 30 years. The reason was that a man had come who mobilised the will of the people against an elite. Previously, all the colonial powers had to do was to confront and defeat local elites in order to establish their expansion. They never had to deal really with the people.

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North Korea’s ‘Rocket Man’ top on Trump’s UNGA agenda

The deepening standoff with North Korea and the Iran nuclear accord are expected to top President Donald Trump’s agenda when he delivers his debut address to the United Nations General Assembly session next week. He will meet jointly with the leaders of South Korea and Japan for lunch on Thursday to discuss the looming North Korean threat.
In a tweet on  September 17,  Mr  Trump mocked Kim Jong-un as the “Rocket Man” adding to his long line of inflammatory comments directed at the DPRK chief. He said: “I spoke with president Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!”
The Trump administration is getting increasingly vocal about the possibility of a military action if North Korea does not put a lid on its nuclear programme. The United Nations Security Council adopted a new round of sanctions on North Korea last Monday, reducing gasoline exports and crude oil supplies, in response to the nation’s sixth and largest nuclear weapons test. But the defiant regime responded with a fresh missile launch over Japan on Friday warning sanctions will only further accelerate its nuclear programme.
Speaking to CNN, US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said, “If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behaviour, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed.”

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Chinese media to India: Don’t try to use Japan to contain China

There is nothing like the India-Japan connect that gives an ascendant and assertive China jitters. Given the bonhomie and bonding that was on display between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad and transformative outcomes that emanated from the summit meeting on September 14, the Chinese media’s backlash hardly comes as a surprise.
Dismissing the “growing intimacy” between India and Japan, the Global Times, the hawkish Chinese tabloid which led the propaganda blitz during the Doklam standoff, has warned India not to get into containment games with Japan.
“After the Doklam standoff, more voices in the Indian media instigate the country to step up cooperation with the US and Japan against China and exaggerate the geopolitical significance of closer India-Japan ties. Yet this to a large degree has exposed the vulnerable feeling of the Indian strategic circle in front of China”, the Global Times said in an op-ed article. It attacked Japan by saying “… Japan has been more narrow-minded in looking for allies globally to encircle China.”

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