India and the World

Modi’s Africa odyssey: Raising the Bar

- by Manish Chand

2016 is set to be the year of Africa for India’s diplomacy, with Narendra Modi heading on the first-ever four-nation tour by an Indian prime minister to the continental Africa in decades. PM Modi’s visit, preceded by President Pranab Mukherjee’s visits to Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire and Namibia and Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s trips to Morocco and Tunisia, has raised the bar for India’s diplomatic outreach to Africa, and underscores the emergence of the resurgent continent as an important pole in the country’s foreign policy calculus.
The clichéd narrative of competition and rivalry between India and China in Africa is a tad overplayed as the two Asian powers have different core strengths and models of engaging Africa. India can’t possibly surpass China in terms of trade volumes in the near term, but Modi’s visit to the four African countries is meant to signal that India is raising the game and is ready to match its rhetoric with resources and core strengths to expand and transform a mutually empowering partnership with the renascent continent.

Read More

Dhaka terror: Outrage in India, PM Modi speaks to Sheikh Hasina

- by India Writes Network

The attack on an upscale restaurant in Dhaka has triggered concern and sorrow in the neigbouring India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi voicing pain beyond words at this despicable attack. Mr Modi spoke to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina and expressed condolences and solidarity at the devastating terror attack in Dhaka, which killed 20 people including a young Indian girl studying in California.
The terror attack in Dhaka is set to propel India and Bangladesh to step up their counter-terror cooperation in days to come. Indian intelligence and security agencies are closely tracking the rise of Islamist radicalism and the ramifications of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka.

Read More

Dhaka’s date with terror: Indian girl among 20 killed in café attack

- by India Writes Network

In a horrific 26/11 attack on an upscale restaurant in Dhaka, 20 foreigners were killed, including a 19-year-old Indian woman, putting the spotlight on the danger of rising radicalism in Bangladesh and the need for the world to double efforts to combat the scourge of terrorism.
Tarishi Jain, “an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka” was among those killed, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a series of tweets. She was studying at the UC Berkeley in the US, and was on a vacation in Dhaka, say sources in India’s foreign office.

Read More

India and SCO – Future Prospects

- by India Writes Network

The ball for the expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was set rolling at its Summit in Ufa, Russia, in July 2015, with the acceptance of applications by India and Pakistan. The process was taken forward at the recent Summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 23-24 June, with the two countries signing the SCO’s ”Memorandum of Obligations”. Over the coming year India will sign around 30 documents, and join as a full Member at the next Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan in June 2017.
India’s membership of the SCO is a win-win proposition for the Organization, for Central Asia, for Russia, for China as well as for India. Members will reap huge benefits if they conduct themselves with responsibility.

Read More

India focuses on youth power to bolster BRICS, rejects selective approach on terror

- by Shweta Aggarwal

Placing youth at the centre of its vision of a people-centric youth, India, the current chair of the five-nation grouping of emerging powers, has pushed for fast-tracking reform of the UN Security Council and collective response to tackling global terror.Ahead of the 8th BRICS summit in Goa on October 15-16, India hosted the second BRICS Youth Summit, which brought together young people from China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, to brainstorm on a slew of global challenges and enhance people-to-people connect between the five countries.
The minister also seized the occasion to send a message to “those countries which sponsor and harbour terrorists” and underlined the need to “work and fight together to eliminate international terrorism.”

Read More

Pakistan demands more proof from India for 26/11 trial

- by India Writes Network

Nearly eight years after the savage terror spree in Mumbai, unleashed by Pakistani militants, Islamabad has yet again asked New Delhi to provide “more evidence” for the early completion of the 26/11 attack trial. In New Delhi, it’s seen as a stalling tactic, with sceptics saying that with this attitude the Mumbai trial will never to its logical conclusion, with punishment for LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and six other accused.

Read More

India’s NSG Bid – The Way Forward

- by India Writes Network

The Seoul meeting concluded with members declaring their “firm support for the full, complete and effective implementation of the NPT as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime” [emphasis added]. The phrase “effective implementation’’ was introduced by some Western countries to provide an entry to India by ensuring that compliance with NPT obligations will be a significant consideration and not only signature of the NPT. Developments in Seoul are a temporary setback. They are not a disaster. With its unblemished and impeccable record, India can hope to enter the portals of the NSG during this year or soon thereafter.

Read More