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The Prime Minister’s Japan visit highlights India’s steady strategic intent, with signals to China and the U.S.

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

Military engagements between India and Japan have been on a steady growth path that mirrors the shared political and strategic goals of Delhi and Tokyo.

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.

Prachanda’s visit highlights the two countries willingness to move beyond contentious issues and focus on mutually beneficial aspects

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.

For New Delhi, the path forward lies not in indulging theatrical appeals to ‘Asian brotherhood’, but in resolutely preparing to confront Chinese fire with the tempered steel of Indian resolve.

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

Even before coming to office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had implied that his government would address Pakistan-sponsored terrorism differently.

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

The Paper makes a critical appraisal of India-Pakistan relations and explores their future trajectory in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 2008. The rising tide of terrorism within Pakistan after 9/11 and the importance of South Asia to the United States made Pakistan selectively withdraw support to terrorist groups. This, in turn, helped India's efforts to initiate the Composite Dialogue in 2004.

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.

Despite the kind words, emergency cooperation, and the defence relationship, there are longer term difficulties in the India-Russia relationship that are unlikely to be easy to resolve.

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.

While energy security continues to dominate the agenda, security and defense cooperation are becoming more important in the India-Saudi relationship.

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.