Courtesy: TDB
Financial intermediaries are critical lubricants for business, growth and development. The Indo-Pacific countries are industrializing, but smaller nations lag behind economically. The Quad countries can aid the advancement of the financial architecture in the Indo-Pacific by helping to develop an ecosystem, modelled on the examples of Japan and India.
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The UN turned 75 this year but instead of grand celebrations, the world witnessed an empty UNGA with world leaders addressing it via video screening because of the pandemic. The UN is under unprecedented stress and being shown up for its inability to tackle the challenges of today like the pandemics, climate change, terrorism or global peace and security. The institution's key governing structures, especially the UN Security Council, are inadequate and demand reform. India must now use gritty resolve to ensure its place in these governing structures.
Courtesy: Shutterstock
The upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary session 16-21 February will be crucial for both Pakistan and Iran as the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing measures undertaken by the two countries will be reviewed by the 39 member states of the FATF. Decisions will be taken on their retention or removal from the grey list and black list respectively
Courtesy: to put
A conference in Doha on ‘Enriching the Middle East’s Economic Future’ offered many insights into the nature of geopolitical relations in the region and India’s significant role in it
Courtesy: The Iran Project
OPEC’s announcement of a cut in oil production shows that Saudi Arabia is being affected by low oil prices even as Iran gains ground
Courtesy: U.S. Staff Sergeant Aaron Allmon
Obama’s strategy to target the IS in Syria within the framework of a U.S.-led international coalition has met with a tepid response. There are reports that the U.S may offer India a non-NATO ally status during Modi’s upcoming visit in a bid to seek greater support – a gesture that India will do well to disregard.
Courtesy: European External Action Service
On November 24, the P5+1 and Iran reached a consensus on the interim agreement regarding Tehran’s long-disputed nuclear program. How comprehensive is this agreement, and what are its potential upshots for U.S., and West Asia – especially Israel and Saudi Arabia? More importantly, can India play a positive role?
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India often finds itself in the right place at the wrong time or vice versa, as our dogma of non-alignment trumps honest calculations of self-interest in policy-making – rendering it unfavourable. The national interest, hence, calls for selective alignment on some issues with Washington and on others with Beijing
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/Htoo Tay Zar
The West is quick to claim that their sanctions against Myanmar have forced the government to implement political and economic reforms in the country. However, such bans do not usually achieve their stated purpose of forcing regimes to change their behavior.
The scope for any process on nuclear talks with Iran to founder on distrust, misunderstanding and political in-fighting in both Tehran and Washington remains formidable. Equally disturbing are the wider political realities. Can the upcoming talks in Istanbul launch a process that can, over time, lead to agreement?