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India and China have recognised their comparative and cooperative strengths - even while acknowledging their shared concerns and competitive edge, vis-a-vis each other, and when pitted against the rest of the world. Not surprisingly, the strategic community, in general, and policy makers, in particular, have been keenly engaged in following the developments related to the countries over the part four decades.

India and China do differ radically on the kind of Asian layout for the future. India work at an inclusive approach as opposed to China's exclusivist approach which appears directed against India, US and Japan.

It is fashionable in China today to speak of a 'new model' of great power relations, indeed of international relations as a whole. Applying this approach to India-China relations offers some interesting insights. Both at an abstract and practical level, the three propositions that constitute this 'new model' appear unexceptionable.

In the backdrop of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India, a roundtable discussion was organized by ORF on 1 December 2006 to assess the outcome of the visit and its impact on the relations between the two countries. The discussion focused on how India-China relationship will evolve in the wake of the visit.

India has seldom been demanding on strategic issues. At the strategic level, one requires a long memory and a longer foresight and vision. With China, we need to balance our strategic, security and economic relationships.

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.

The hurried sense of negotiations taking place between the EU and India is becoming a cause of worry. The Indian government should tread cautiously so as to safeguard the domestic concerns and public interests at large. If structured well, the FTA can push up India's growth for the next decade.

By broadening the scope of bilateral cooperation from the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to encompass the entire Indo-Pacific region, the India-France Indo-Pacific Roadmap, released in July 2023, underscores the importance of moving beyond the traditional self-centred approach to foster a more outward-looking dynamic with key regional partners. The cooperative trilateral mechanisms established by India and France in 2020 (India-France-Australia) and i

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.

India's ties with Iran have clearly been strained by the latter's tumultuous relationship with the United States, with the Iran factor equally imposing constraints on India-US relations. India has had to walk a diplomatic tightrope in balancing its relationships with these countries.

India and Iran are not in the place they deserve to be in the global order, and they can play a more important and significant role by enhancing their cooperation, according to Mr. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, presidential advisor for press affairs to Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran.

India has completely stopped the import of oil from Iran to comply with a US order reimposing sanctions on the country.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

India and Thailand have long-standing civilisational ties shaped by centuries of cultural and commercial interaction. Despite the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1947, bilateral cooperation between them gained real momentum only after the Cold War, driven by shifting regional dynamics and deeper integration into multilateral forums. In recent years, mutual initiatives such as India’s “Act East” and Thailand’s “Act West” polic

The Indo-Pacific region has become a crucial area of the India-United States (US) partnership. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two countries have increased their alignment on the Indo-Pacific, with both sides giving greater priority to the region and acknowledging sharper shared concerns about China. The US and India are also increasing cooperation via the Quad and engaging in other platforms such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (I

People voted for change in three of the four Indian States that went to polls recently. While the voters in Tamil Nadu severely punished the ruling DMK combine, which included the Congress Party, for their reported large-scale corruption and inefficiency,

The provisional figures of the decennial Census-2011 has just been released in India, with the final head-count to be commuted and made public in about a year's time.

The principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be all ready for the big electoral battle of 2014 in India. It is sniffing power. It feels that its time of reckoning with the people of India has arrived and it only needs to put its act together to realise the dream.

The three-month-long budget session of the Indian Parliament, which began with the constitutionally mandatory address of President Pranab Mukherjee to a joint sitting of the two Houses on February 21, is both crucial and critical.

Allegations of financial scams have continued to trouble the UPA-2 Government as the Opposition has scented its path to power by keeping them in public domain. The proceedings of Parliament during the winter session were stalled as the Government declined

A victory by almost retaining its 2007 tally of 117 seats in Gujarat and a defeat in Himachal Pradesh for the BJP has not only set the tone for the next Lok Sabha elections but has also created a new set of problems and challenges for the two national parties in particular and for the entire political class otherwise.

The race for the 'Rashtrapati Bhavan' (President's House) has begun in right earnest though no political party has yet played its cards formally. A new President is going to be elected in two months as the term of the present President Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil ends on July 25.

Technology is important, but who you get it from is even more important. U.S. drones in the Indian inventory would have a huge value in terms of messaging, to friends and foes alike. Strategic partnerships are among the best force multiplier options in an uncertain Asia, and India should leave no stone unturned.