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US Congress passes 4 crucial bills; govt keenly aware of geopolitics in Indo-Pacific.

For many in the Global South, the West’s contrasting reactions to Ukraine and Gaza conflicts mark a fitting requiem to the rules-based international order.

US’ expected policy shift favouring Moscow aligns with its renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific.

India's ability to successfully execute a 10-year agreement on the Chabahar port showcases New Delhi's continuing ability to manoeuvre in a geopolitically fragmented world.

The geopolitics around India’s play in Chabahar and Iran’s leverages are interesting

It is not only President Obama who feels boxed in by the Lindsay Grahams and John McCains of his country but Rouhani too has formidable set of foes to fight, before either can climb down from his stated position. Not everyone in Iran wants his President to negotiate the country out of its present misery.

The Chinese government and its private sector, both have reached out to nations as diverse as France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and even the US

Over the last five years, Brexit, the victory of Donald Trump in the US and the assumption of power by Xi Jinping in China, the seizure of Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis, the South China Sea disputes, and the emerging Iran crisis, have all helped upend the world order. Amidst these crises, the surge of Chinese acquisitions and investments in Europe did not draw much attention. The acrimony, however, between China and the US on trade and industri

Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed bilateral relations in March 2023, following a deal brokered by China and ending a hiatus of seven years. The diplomatic breakthrough underlined Beijing’s political inroads into the Middle East. Indeed, China’s relations with Iran have grown in recent years due to an alignment in their geopolitical interests, while China-Saudi Arabia relations have also notably strengthened. The deepening of the strategic partner

It is making giant strides where the US refused to go

The China-brokered Saudi Arabia-Iran deal puts the spotlight on New Delhi’s ties with Tehran

There is a periodic urge in the West to fix Iran. Syria and Iran had been listed on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list for decades even before September 11, 2001. In 2002, George Bush described Iran as a member of the 'Axis of Evil'. Despite all this, there were talks of negotiations.

The challenge for India is much larger than voting choices on the international resolutions on Syria. It is about finding effective ways to cope with the expanding Saudi-Iran rivalry, which is not limited to Syria.

The engagement by India and China in the West Asia region is a good example of their metamorphosing approaches

While successfully balancing relations between Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia power blocks, New Delhi’s affinity for this Gulf outreach is rooted in geopolitical and geo-economic realities

Justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel are more elusive than ever

The US's war in Iraq is over but it has ended in a fiasco. Iraq is unstable and Iran is emerging as the strongest force in the region.

E-commerce has made massive inroads in India’s retail sector: 220 million people are expected to shop online by 2025, and the industry is predicted to grow to INR 13,97,800 crore (US$200 billion) by 2027. Yet, about 90 percent of grocery retail trade in India are still driven by small-format traders and neighbourhood kirana (grocery) stores. The evolving retail scenario and changing consumer demands mean that these kirana stores must swiftly em

The US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal makes it an untrustworthy partner in any subsequent negotiations. The era of American leadership in the non-proliferation order is over

The Iran nuclear issue is touching yet another point of criticality. The build-up was evident to the naked eye, the crescendo almost predictable. It was six weeks ago that Secretary of Iran¿s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, expressed Teheran's frustration that EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) was stonewalling in the negotiations, meandering into blind alleys, lost in thoughts.

As Delhi focuses on managing Washington's pressure to reduce oil imports from Iran and avoid the imposition of unilateral U.S. economic sanctions on India, it could easily miss the unfolding power play in the Gulf between Tehran and Riyadh.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed in 1981 to counter the emerging threat from an ideological rival, Iran. While it has served the purpose of keeping the GCC countries together over the decades, the changing regional dynamics are raising questions over its continued relevance in its present form. The Hamas terror attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the consequent Gaza war has led to irreversible changes, Israel and Iran have engaged

Hamas was never a household name beyond a point unlike Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Until now

As the US provokes Iran, the onus is on Europe to somehow stand by its end of the nuclear deal

This episode illustrates the danger facing Indian foreign policy from domestic political developments, increasingly centered on religious conflict.

Considering India's vast energy needs and demand for natural gas, India should push to frame the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline as a trilateral project once more. The thaw in the Iran-US relations could possibly encourage India to increase its engagement with Iran. Also, India has shown signs in recent months of being open, once again, to engaging with Pakistan.

The defining moment in India's international relations did not occur when Delhi voted with the US and its allies on Iran on the IAEA board. The real watershed in India's foreign policy occurred in May 1998,

While the bilateral relation between India and Kazakhstan has strengthened in the past few years, accessibility remains a major obstacle to our economic cooperation. Given the present problems, India, in the immediate future, needs to focus on the Iranian route and the North-South Corridor.

It wants India to break its relationships with Iran and Russia.

To achieve all that Modi has promised, he needs a peaceful periphery and a stable world order. At home, Modi may be master of all he surveys, but abroad, there are other players, some positive, others inimical. There are issues, such as US-Iran tensions, US-China trade spat, rising climate of protectionism and Brexit, that he cannot control.

India needs to find money to put into strategic investments and projects across the IOR -- whether it is Myanmar, Iran, Sri Lanka or Mauritius. The way to do it is not governmental schemes which are all running late, but to draw strength from India's entrepreneurial class and the private sector.

India and the US may have policy differences on Russia and Iran, but keep big-picture focus on defense cooperation

The security dimension of Chabahar is based on a preferential approach towards Indian interests rather than one based on exclusivity by Iran

Greater engagement with the Taliban will create new possibilities for India as other regional players such as China, Russia and Iran look for ways to step up their engagement

A decade ago this month, the United States and its British auxiliaries abused international law by invading Iraq. India looked on helplessly then, but is it in a position to affect another unjust invasion, this time directed at Iran?

Although Nouri al-Maliki's government might be able retake the towns overrun by the IS and the tribes with the help of Iran, United States and Russia, it might not be able to bring peace and stability to the country until an exclusive and effective policy is introduced.

Israel has conducted multiple airstrikes over the past week, with reports claiming the deaths of senior Hezbollah military leaders, including Ibrahim Aqil and Ibrahim Mohammed Qubaisi.

To any intelligence analyst, it should be obvious that the US has already embarked on a psychological warfare (PSYWAR) campaign to keep Iran on tenterhooks in the hope of thereby breaking its will to resist US pressure to agree to the dismantling of its uranium enrichment capability.

An official delegation from Sri Lankan comprising Mr. Sunimal Fernando, Advisor to the President, and Mrs. Shirani Goonatilleke, Secretary of the government's Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), visited Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on October 9, 2006, and had an interaction with the research faculty.

Tel Aviv doesn’t seem to have any political endgame beyond the destruction of its adversaries. But without a political strategy, battlefield gains won’t amount to much

India, Iran and Russia have decided to begin using the part-ready International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal network of sea, rail and road routes between India, Iran, Central Asia and Russia. As the broader politics in the region undergo new configurations that may put to question the project’s prospects, and the evolving security situation demands continuous appraisal, it is time to refocus discussion on the economics o

The Iran nuclear deal could mark a strategic realignment between the US and its traditional Sunni allies in the region. The Arab countries have been vocal in criticising Washington's policies in Egypt, Syria and Iraq, which they say have given an upper hand to "Iranian allies".

Ties between Qatar and the three GCC members went downhill after uprisings in Arab countries that began in Tunisia, the beginning of the so-called “Arab Spring”.

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has earned the ire of the world by his much publicised remarks about the Holocaust. His logic is convoluted; his indiscretion has not gone un-noticed in Iran and in the world at large. A debate has also surfaced about the language used, its syntax and context.

Twenty-four undergraduate students, studying history, journalism, economics, political science, and commerce, in different DU colleges, such as Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Hansraj, Hindu, Indraprastha, LSR, Miranda House, Ramjas, and Sri Venkateswara, took part in the workshop.

With Saudi Arabia now so fearful of a rising Iran, it is quite clearly Pakistan's payback time. And Yemen could mark the beginning of a new and more significant phase in Pakistan's involvement in the security politics of the Gulf.