Search

Even as India engages China in a dialogue, or becomes a way station in the sea silk route, New Delhi needs to take some lessons from China and anchor its maritime policies on a strong navy. As of now, we can more than hold our own in the Indian Ocean against all but the US Navy. But, tomorrow is another day.

If Delhi talks to anyone, it must be to Kashmir's elected representatives and other stakeholders, not waste time on the perfidious and pointless Hurriyat, which has only harmed India's interests.

There is a certain - surprising - amount of unease ahead of the visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to New Delhi. Why analysts and policymakers in India alike are worried, that their country could lose out on the latest developments in Afghanistan? The main reason seems that with the change of government in Kabul last year, a new sound keeps emanating from the Afghan capital.

India’s regional relations are almost all in states of distress. That’s a big problem for New Delhi.

A mix of marginalisation, mobilisation and militarisation has helped Delhi take away a key facet of Pakistan’s outreach, allowing India to be more ambitious on the regional and global stage

A diplomatic visit highlights the cautious engagement between New Delhi and Kabul.

New Delhi should become more proactively involved in the peace process and not shy away from drawing its own red-lines

The security architecture in maritime Asia along with the rise of China is compelling India to define its strategic interests and review its maritime policy. And it is only a matter of time before New Delhi acknowledged the changing dynamics within its area of maritime interests.

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,

As the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, what are the stakes for New Delhi?

New Delhi must stand committed to its rhetoric on the Freedom of Navigation (FON) and to defend its interests should the need arise. This in turn would involve deepening naval cooperation with the key countries of the ASEAN and major powers sharing India's interest in defending the principle of FON.

Following up with the SIPRI-ORF-SWF seminar in New Delhi earlier this year, the Secure World Foundation organised a panel discussion in Washington on "India's Military Space Efforts and Regional Security Considerations".

At moments like this in Delhi, of political surrealism and bizarre events, it is worth turning to Robert Greene's "The 48 Laws of Power". Greene describes how politicians and leaders elsewhere in the world and, in history, had conducted themselves.

Delivering the 30th Bhimsen Sachar Memorial Lecture for 2009 in New Delhi, the former Chief of the Army Staff highlights the flaws in India's strategic thinking and stresses the need for a more focused and clearly defined vision for the future.

Senior journalists from India and China discussed various important issues affecting the India-China relations and the role of media in both the countries in giving a right perspective to issues and help improve relations further. The platform was the India-China Media Exchange, organised by ORF in Delhi in association with the Global Times Foundation.

Dr P R Kumaraswamy, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, initiated a discussion on ¿India, Iran and the US: The Problematic Triangle¿ at the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 22 December 2007.

Both Tokyo and New Delhi want to create a stabler Asian order by redefining partnerships in the region. Can India and Japan take the lead in this regard and form a concert of nations that would bring about balance of power in the Asia-Pacific?

India, Japan and the United States are planning to conduct their first trilateral meeting in New Delhi later this year to discuss issues of strategic interests, according to Japan's Ambassador to India, Mr. Akitaka Saiki.

The Modi government came to power in New Delhi pledging a muscular approach to relations with Islamabad. But now, the government has realised that while it can control the narrative at home, it cannot do so abroad. Most countries saw New Delhi's actions as somewhat over the top.

Both India and Russia need to start thinking strategically about the Central Asian region, not letting emotions guide their foreign policy decisions. This was the consensus reached at a conference organised recently in Delhi.

After the attacks, which killed more than 250 people, making it one of the most successful pro-ISIS attacks anywhere, information was leaked out to the Indian press that New Delhi shared intelligence with Colombo of an impending attack of similar nature.

US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad’s visit, a mere formality, should act as a wake up call for Delhi.

It has been a cliché to refer to India and Africa as natural partners. With the recent India-Africa Summit in Delhi, there is a chance to make it a reality. But for this, concerted action is needed on the parts of the governments, private sectors, civil societies, think tanks, academics and the media on both sides.

The World Bank shares a lot of the optimism that prevails in India today¿, said Michael Carter, World Bank Country Director for India, in his opening remarks at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

India's deepening engagement with the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Israel could also moderate New Delhi's diplomatic ties with Tehran. India-Iran relations were at their peak during then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Tehran in 2001 and then Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's visit to India in 2003.

The visit by Iran’s president to New Delhi has come at a tricky time in the bilateral relationship.

Displaying a shift from the previous administration, the Narendra Modi government has initiated high-level political engagement with Israel. Modi met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, sent his Home Minister to Tel Aviv, and received former President Shimon Peres in Delhi recently.

His Excellency Mr. Akitaka Saiki, Ambassador of Japan to India, addressed an eminent gathering at the ORF campus in New Delhi on June 29, 2011. In his lecture, Mr. Saiki outlined the huge potential for cooperation between India and Japan to build a strong partnership in the context of the rapidly changing security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the text of his lecture and the proceedings of the event.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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

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.

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

The dynamics of the India-US relationship under the Trump administration bear significantly on the two countries’ security partnership. This relationship, however, is being challenged by President Donald Trump’s increasingly apparent transactional worldview. As witnessed in the case of the United States’ relations with its allies and partners across Europe and Asia, Trump has often linked US defence commitments and partner nations’ securi

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

How will the US establishment come to terms with the fact that for the better part of the 21st century, India will be the larger economic partner? Has Delhi realised the potential and consequences of this shift?

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

The ties between Delhi and Washington seemed headed for the doldrums due to a policy error on Biden’s part, but the US reversal is a good sign for both nations

Given that the China threat looms large for both Vietnam and India, the bilateral relationship between New Delhi and Hanoi is likely to gain even greater traction.

Social activist Arvind Kejriwal announced on October 2 in New Delhi with lots of fanfare that a new political party has come into existence whose name would be decided later, but it has started functioning.

Eager to discover the road to Delhi's throne, India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is trapped in a cleft, not knowing whether to follow the dictates of 'realpolitik' or stick to its original principles as formulated by the party's elders in close consultation with the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) mentor.