Courtesy: Narendra Modi Official/ Flickr
Vietnam has the highest level of bilateral relationship—or ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’—with three countries: China, Russia and India. It envisages a much more active role in the region for India, but many factors mar such a development currently
Courtesy: Gateway House
India’s global economic engagement, especially with the developing world, has increased in the last two decades, but trade with South Asia has remained low. It holds the potential for building greater productivity and more inclusive growth in India and the region
Courtesy: MEA/flickr
The year 2017 may change some equations in the East Asian region. Will the near parity that the U.S. and China currently share turn into a keener contest? Will strained relations between India and China persist? Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president casts the spotlight squarely on these inter-state relationships
Courtesy: United States Trade Representative
Amid the debate of a U.S.-centric TPP template or a China-led RCEP model, it is important to consider if such trade agreements are building blocks or stumbling blocks to global free trade. With the passage of the TPP still uncertain in the U.S. Congress, and the RCEP unlikely to be acceptable to the U.S., the more likely global trade scenario will be fragmentation
Courtesy: MEA India / Flickr
Perhaps South Block did not gain as much as it had hoped to: there was a gulf in member states’ perceptions. One takeaway, therefore, for policy makers was that while noise has its uses, it is now time for some quiet diplomacy
Courtesy: Google Earth
The recent BRICS summit and BIMSTEC outreach highlighted some laudable maritime endeavours linking geographically distant, emerging economies within the grouping. The BIMSTEC platform is also crucial to India's efforts to create a peaceful Bay of Bengal community through economic and cultural linkages.
Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs/Flickr
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Vietnam had both heads of state announcing an upgrade of their ‘Strategic Partnership’ into a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’. This added term captures the importance both sides have vested in the need to deepen the relationship and the prospect for future cooperation.
Courtesy: Quartz
Regulations are the new focus of economic statecraft. Their increasing importance is reflected in the negotiations on global financial standards, plurilateral trading rules, and regional economic unions.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
Does India plan to remodel its Andaman & Nicobar Islands as a launching pad for future security operations to check growing Chinese inroads in the Indian Ocean Region? Development of the islands has long been ignored to India’s detriment, and their strategic position in the Indian Ocean, underutilised.
Courtesy:
In two years, the Modi government’s Act East Policy has gone well beyond the focus on economic ties of its predecessor, the Look East Policy. It has made progress on many wider fronts, including connectivity and defence collaboration. India must now build on this success and further consolidate relations and trade links with ASEAN and beyond