India and the World

Namaste France: Celebrating Indo-French cultural connect

- by Manish Chand

Namaste France, Bonjour India! The cultural alchemy between India and France is for real, and is now seen in all its glory and myriad splendour in the moveable feast of Indian culture, songs, dance, films, plays and performances which has rolled out across cities in France, inviting the French to soak in the eternal wonder that is India.
The sheer scale of Namaste France festival is staggering and attest to the expanding canvas of India-France cultural relations: 75 days, 23 cities and the crème de la crème of India’s performing arts dazzling the French audience.

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From China to Laos: Why was Modi targeting Pakistan, ‘exporter of terror,’ in China and Laos?

- by Manish Chand

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a new twist to Islamabad’s trade balance with the world, telling the international community with a straight face that Pakistan’s sole competitive advantage lies in exporting terror.
Mr Modi’s unstinting indictment of Pakistan at two back-to-back multilateral summits has taken many by surprise. His remarks at the G20 summit in China and East Asia Summit in Laos, singling out Pakistan’s “sponsorship and export of terror,” were part of an “offensive defence” strategy designed to put a belligerent Islamabad under stress.
Why has Mr Modi, who started his stint in power by inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other SAARC leaders, for his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi, and followed it up with a surprise trip to Lahore in December last year, has turned up the heat on Islamabad? There is no point in indulging in esoteric speculation; one does not have to look far for reasons for Mr Modi’s vehement Pakistan-bashing. It’s clearly a sense of betrayal and promises not kept.
As he is not going to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this year, PM Modi has leveraged the two multilateral summits to expose Pakistan before the international community and send a strong message to Islamabad that duplicity and deception will not work any longer. Read more…

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Taj beckons: Modi invites ‘good friend’ Obama to visit India, NSG a work in progress

- by India Writes Network

It was the last meeting between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, but it looks like they will be seeing more of each other even after the American leader demits office.
“It was a very warm and friendly meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit. Both leaders reviewed the immediate priorities in the strategic partnership,” said sources after their meeting in Vientiane on September 8.
“PM also invited President Obama to visit India after he demits office,” said sources. “President Obama said that he would welcome any opportunity to visit India. As an aside, he added that he and Michelle were yet to see the Taj Mahal!”
It’s not clear what was discussed about the US’ plan to fast-track India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, for which the US support will always be crucial. There was, however, a cryptic hint that President Obama will do all he can and help in any way he can. “President Obama said that he has always been a friend of India and will continue to be a “strong partner of India and help in any way I can,”’ Said sources.
Reading between the lines, those in the know can expect that Mr Obama will do his best to advance India’s NSG membership, but going by current geopolitical complications and conflicted India-China relationship, New Delhi may have to wait a while before it enters the nuclear club as a member.

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Act East in Laos: Focus on Modi’s meetings with Abe, Obama

- by Manish Chand

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe were staying in the same hotel in Hangzhou for the G20 summit, and may have engaged in ritualistic pleasantries, but with China looking on, they will meet in Vientiane for a substantive bilateral meeting.
In a delicate geopolitical game, after engaging China’s President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou, PM Modi will now turn to India’s trusted strategic partner for support on the country’s crucial development agenda in which Tokyo has emerged as New Delhi’s prime partner. Significantly, Mr Xi and Mr Abe also met briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit, signalling prospects of a thaw in strained bilateral relations between the two estranged rivals.
The meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Abe, who have forged a personal chemistry and special relationship, will be watched closely in Beijing for obvious reasons. China suspects India to be locked into a containment game with Japan and the US, a perception that has been repeatedly countered by New Delhi.
In Vientiane, Mr Modi will also hold a bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama. Mr Modi met Mr Obama for a brief pull aside talk in Hanzhou, with Mr Obama lauding the Indian leader for the passage of the path-breaking Goods and Sales Tax. The two leaders will have substantive discussions in Laos, with India’s membership of the NSG topping the agenda.

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PM Modi singles out one nation for spreading terror at G20: Pakistan

- by Manish Chand

Without naming Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the world leaders at the G20 summit that “one nation is spreading agents of terror in the region,” and asked the world community to unite against this scourge.
“One single nation in South Asia is spreading agents of terror in countries of our region,” Mr Modi told the leaders of the world’s most powerful economies on the last day of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China on September 5.
“…there are some nations that use it as an instrument of state policy,” he added.
There is no prize for guessing who the Indian leader was referring to as Pakistan’s military-ISI establishment, in collusion with proxy jihadi groups, has targeted India by launching savage terror strikes in the country.
Lauding the G20 initiative to combat financing of terrorism, Mr Modi exhorted the world community to “speak and act in unity and to respond with urgency to fight” terror, Modi said. “Those who sponsor and support terrorism must be isolated and sanctioned, not rewarded,” he said.
“India has a policy of zero tolerance to terrorism because anything less than that is not enough. For us, a terrorist is a terrorist,” he said in a hard-hitting intervention shortly before he said goodbye to Chinese President Xi Jinping and left for Delhi.

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G20 summit: India, China converge on G20 agenda, Modi calls for action-oriented agenda for growth

- by Manish Chand

It’s time to move beyond empty talk and forge an action-oriented agenda for collective action to forge more efficient and effective global economic and financial architecture. This was the central thrust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention at the ongoing G20 summit of the world’s major economies in Hangzhou, the picturesque city famed for its iconic West Lake.
Mr Modi’s speech at the G20 summit saw a striking convergence with key thoughts expressed by President Xi Jinping at the opening of the summit on September 4, reflecting prospects of enhanced global cooperation between Asia’s second and third largest economies amid notes of dissonance on some bilateral issues. In his remarks at the summit, Mr Xi, the host of the G20 summit, lauded Mr Modi for his leadership of the Indian economy, and singled out India’s energy policy for special praise.
Building upon central tropes of his intervention on the Day 1 of the G20 summit the previous day, Mr Modi underscored the imperative need for “more efficient and effective global economic and financial governance,” and reiterated zero tolerance for corruption and black money, the twin issues which are also central to his domestic agenda for economic rejuvenation of India.
“G20 needs an action-oriented agenda of collective, coordinated and targeted action,” Mr Modi had told the world leaders on September 4. “To benefit all, G20 would need to act decisively. This will also require strong network of partnerships,” he said. Read more…

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