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As the Indo-Pacific region takes centrestage in international affairs, various stakeholder countries are engaging in different forms of economic and strategic cooperation. While such cooperation is implemented largely through bilateral or multilateral forums, certain countries are partnering to promote infrastructure connectivity in third countries across the region. This brief explores one such partnership that holds promise—that of Indi

Since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Indian prime minister and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, have been instrumental in what has been the most dramatic leap forward in India-Japan bilateral relations. While the two countries have made strides in strengthening cooperation in recent years, there are limitations that need to be overcome. This brief examines the challenges that remain in the relationship, including their sub-par bila

This paper argues that even when the India-Japan-Australia minilateral is inspired by a need to ensure their interests against the current global power transition, it remains limited in its aim: to restrain China from achieving regional hegemony as it may threaten the liberal security order in the region. In the face of China’s rise and the US’ retrenchment, Asia’s regional powers are hedging their bets on a regional security order that is

As leading Asian democracies, India and Japan are perfectly poised to stake their claim in the sphere of geopolitical influence by increasing regional cooperation with countries like Myanmar

Experts identified trade in hydrocarbons and uranium as the two important cogs of bilateral energy cooperation

Despite the deep divisions within the Maldivian polity, which often gets reflected in Parliament, Maldives offered a near-full House when Singh became the first visiting Head of Government to address the People's Majlis (Parliament).

This report presents an initial stocktaking of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) announced in 2023 following a meeting in New Delhi between the leaders of India, the US, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France, Germany, and the European Commission. Given that the participating economies contribute to almost half of the global GDP, there are many opportunities and challenges associated with the economic corridor.

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

The reality of India-Myanmar land connectivity is increasingly becoming a possibility as militancy and insurgency are on the decline in the region, says Mr. Rajeev Bhattacharyya, a journalist who has lived with several insurgent groups in Myanmar and India?s North East.

In an important advance in the bilateral security cooperation between Delhi and Yangon, two naval vessels from Myanmar have arrived in Vishakhapatnam for joint exercises. While India's naval diplomacy with Myanmar is headed in the right direction, Delhi needs to step up the pace of cooperation.

The 41 km India-Nepal pipeline, designed to supply cost-effective and environment-friendly petroleum products to the landlocked the nation, is the first trans-national pipeline in the SAARC region. This initiative represents a win-win outcome for both the countries which will also enhance regional connectivity and economic development across the region.

The just-concluded round of India-Pakistan dialogue (July 27) was an opportunity for both the countries to articulate their positions on two critical challenges facing the region, terrorism and Afghanistan.

At the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif meeting, it was agreed that the incidents across the LoC would be taken up by the DGMOs of both the countries. This seems to be the only worthwhile outcome of the meeting, though it remains to be seen how effective this arrangement would be. Sharif also assured the Indian Prime Minister that the most favoured nation protocol would be extended to India in order to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Ceasefire along LoC has not really solved any of India's problems.There exists a dire need to look beyond the existing CBMs of providing advance warnings for military exercises and ballistic missile tests which are relatively "high level" issues.

As in the Shimla Summit between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, nothing came out of the Delhi meeting between Dr. Manmohan singh and Zardari on April 8. However, it is now clear that focus has shifted to official discussions in the coming months and the eventual visit of Dr Manmohan Singh to Pakistan.

The insistent demands today that India adopt an inflexible and hard policy will only undermine the larger strategy. Were an alternative strategy and tactical mix on offer, it would be something worth considering, but the only items on the menu offered by the chicken hawks are jingoistic slogans and war cries.

While 1947 may have liberated India and Pakistan from the colonial yolk, the two countries have become slaves to the historical baggage they carry. It's therefore important for both sides to unburden themselves in whatever ways possible.

The decision about whether to escalate or not is much more complex than it appears.

The Kartarpur corridor, inaugurated in November 2019, is regarded as an important peacemaking measure between India and Pakistan. Various international organisations have welcomed the corridor, including the United Nations. Drawing from history, this brief argues that opening a pilgrimage corridor or renovating a place of worship, and other such attempts to bridge India and Pakistan using religious sentiment inevitably fail to address the deep-ro

It is important for both countries to think outside the box and create constituencies of peace outside New Delhi and Islamabad, especially in the two Punjabs. While Punjabi tarka can not be the core of India-Pakistan relations, it must not be overlooked either.

During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh¿s early-December 2005 visit to Moscow, India and Russia signed landmark agreements to further cement their defence cooperation that dates back to almost half a century. These include an agreement on the defence of intellectual property rights that prevents either side from using technologies received from the other without special permission, joint construction of a multi-purpose transport plane

India-Russia defence relations have already become mature which normally comes in alliance politics like anglo-saxon model or very special relationship like US-Israel. Very few parallel example can be found in case of other countries like the ones that Russia has developed with India.

Economic ties were the cornerstone of Indo-Soviet relations. Even the 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which was essentially of a political-security nature, stressed upon “economic, scientific and technological cooperation”.[1] Although the India-Russia ties in general survived the upheavals of the early 1990s, economic relations began to cool in the post-Soviet period. Despite many ambitious targets set during various

The India-Russia military technical relationship has withstood the test of time. Despite strains since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the relationship has remained highly critical both in terms of the level of trust between the two states and the imperatives of sustaining a military-technical relationship to counter the growth of Chinese power. A more synergistic military-technical is possible, and Moscow and New Delhi must explore ways to con

Economic ties between India and Russia have remained the weakest link in their bilateral relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both countries have set out to correct this in the past two years, making efforts to diversify their relationship beyond the defence and energy sectors as they navigate a changing world order. This brief analyses the developments in India-Russia relations since the May 2018 Sochi informal summit and the 201

India’s relations with Russia have made little progress since they got stalled following the end of the Cold War. Today their bilateral ties—officially labelled “special and privileged strategic partnership”—focus heavily on defence cooperation, while the economic partnership remains listless even as the respective relations of the two with other states have grown rapidly. This paper analyses the ebbs and flows of India-Russia relations

The Fourth India-Saudi Arabia Workshop held recently in Delhi felt that India must play an active role in ensuring peace and stability in the region, which should not be limited to maritime security. It also stressed the need to move forward the relationship to a genuine strategic partnership.

India's Look East policy, launched in 1991, has made steady progress in widening its economic and strategic reach to Japan and South Korea. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to South Korea should be seen in the expanding context of India's Look East Policy.

Do the Modi government think that the worse was over for its bilateral ties with Sri Lanka, first with the exit of the LTTE, and later the electoral defeat of President Rajapaksa? If so, PM Wickremesinghe's interview should be seen as a lesson in the 'right direction' - though not necessarily on the 'right lines' as India would have wished.

India is all set to further its energy cooperation with Sudan. Reports suggest that ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has decided to invest $1 billion in Sudan to acquire 25% stakes of the 5A/5B oil projects in Sudan. The project is currently owned by Austrians.

Opening a new page in India-Turkey relations clearly needs to wait for better times

India’s growing strategic importance as a balance to China in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as convergence between New Delhi and Washington DC about Beijing’s aggressive stance on emerging technology, have resulted in warming relations between the United States (US) and India. Indeed, in recent years, there has been a spur of cooperative agreements between the two sides on domains such as defence technology, 5G, and semiconductors. This br

India’s ties with the UK are at an interesting crossroads. Regardless of the direction taken, relations seem poised to move in an upward trajectory

Despite multiple crises in Europe and the Middle East, the 2+2 strategic dialogue demonstrated that Washington has not entirely lost sight of what needs to be done in the Indo-Pacific.

India, the world’s largest democracy, and the United States (US), the world’s oldest democracy, are heading to elections this year. The elections come when both democracies are increasing their cooperation in South Asia (SA) to maintain a ‘free and open’ Indo-Pacific and push back against an assertive and aggressive China.

Although India's entry into the field of cyber security has been relatively late and much of the internal institutional streamlining is yet to take effect, the level of cooperation between India and the US in the field of cyber security has been substantial.

The Indo-US strategic partnership is still evolving. At present, it seems that political sensitivity, deep-seated distrust, bureaucratic and procedural hurdles and some short-sighted domestic policies in both countries are stalling this process.

The strong reactions to the non-inclusion of American firms in a major Indian military procurement tender, in the backdrop of proposed aggressive weapons sales by the Americans, paint a contrasting picture that could influence India-US defence relations in the near future. This Paper looks at the entire gambit of Indo-US Defence relations and, based on past experiences and ongoing deliberations, the challenges ahead.

This brief explores the factors informing the Donald Trump administration’s continuity on the US’s defence trade with India. The administration’s impetus to maintain US-India defence trade stems from factors like the ‘reverse revolving door’ policy that has increased the influence of US defence contractors, its ‘Buy American’ policy to boost US arms exports, and defence trade being construed as an incremental means to correct the bi

Bilateral ties between India and the United States have strengthened remarkably in recent years and nowhere has cooperation been greater than in the area of security. Despite certain divergences, both countries realise that there is a need for cooperation in combating terrorism to keep their homelands safe from extremist threats. Ever since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014, India has invested political capital in improving

There is huge potential for development of the relationship between the US and India. Yet achieving this promise will require careful strategic planning from the governments of both nations, according to panellists at a discussion on the "India-US Partnership".

As political India wakes up to a more complex security environment enveloping it, Delhi needs to demonstrate greater pragmatism in enhancing cooperation with Washington.

iCET will be led by the US National Science Foundation and Department of Science and Technology of India. Among its goals is an ambition to foster a partnership, joining six of India's technology innovation hubs to support at least 25 joint research projects with the US in areas such as AI and data science, and apply its gains to agriculture, health and climate, etc.

On December 10-11, 2003, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the RAND Corporation held a ¿strategic dialogue¿ in New Delhi. The meeting brought together scholars, diplomats, and functionaries from the governments of India and the United States to discuss policy issues important to both countries. This report , which summarizes the discussions, should be of interest to high-level policy makers in the Indian and US governments, as well as