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M K Bhadrakumar l
These are early days and Yemen has witnessed many a ceasefire in its tortuous civil war that began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sanaa, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government. There is a feeling of déjà vu about the 2-month long Ramadan ceasefire that has...
M K Bhdrakumar l
An indignant Russia has angrily demanded a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday over the allegations of atrocities by Russian troops in areas around Kiev through the past month. Prima facie, this allegation is fake news but it can mould misperceptions by the time it gets exposed as disinformation.
A Tass report says: “The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Last Thursday, the Acting Foreign Minister of the Taliban interim government Amir Khan Muttaqi made a stunning remark to greet the visiting China Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kabul when he said, “This is the most important high-level delegation received by Afghanistan.” It spoke volumes about the quiet success of Beijing’s diplomacy to turn the...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Belying the predictions of western media, Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is entering a successful endgame on the political and diplomatic track much sooner than one would have thought.
A close reading of the outcome of the 3rd round of peace talks in Belarus last night is that the Ukrainian negotiators have sought some more time to...
What Happened: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan publicly unveiled the country's first National Security Policy (NSP), which concerns economic security, citizen-centric national security and economic diplomacy, Dawn reported Jan. 14. The policy will remain in effect from 2022-2027.
Why It Matters: The NSP will facilitate Pakistan's active engagement with China and other Central Asian states, and it highlights a balanced approach to...
What Happened: Beijing has built more than 200 buildings and roads along Bhutan's disputed border near India's strategic Siliguri Corridor, Reuters reported Jan. 12.
Why It Matters: China's construction activity directly threatens India's Siliguri Corridor, which links India's major landmass to its northeastern states. Chinese activity in Bhutan, along with Beijing's ongoing standoff with India on both eastern and western fronts, will...
Egypt's Suez Canal achieved a total of $6.3 billion revenue in 2021, the highest in the canal's history, official data showed yesterday.
The state-run Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief, Osama Rabie, said in a statement that the high revenues had stemmed from a "significant increase in the transit rates of various types of ships compared to 2020."
Rabie pointed out that...
M K Bhadrakumar l
When Pavel Zavalny, the chairman of Russian parliamentary committee on energy, made the forecast last Friday that Nord Stream 2 pipeline could start shipping natural gas to Germany as early as next month, it was received with disbelief. But Zavalny was categorical, and was quoted by Reuters as saying, “I can say with a high degree...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Russia is reiterating its ‘red lines’ seeking long-term legal guarantees against NATO’s further advancement to the east and the deployment of weapons on Russia’s western borders.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on December 10 putting on record its expectation that long term legal guarantees must be given “within a specific timeframe and on the basis of the...
News Desk l
Israel's ministerial committee that oversees defence procurement on Sunday approved a deal that will allow the air force to purchase Lockheed Martin's CH-53k helicopters at a cost of $2.4 billion as part of preparations for an anticipated attack on Iran, Ynet News reported.
Israel's the Marker newspaper said the discussion surrounding the new helicopters lasted less than an hour before the purchase...
M K Bhadrakumar l
A new vector of immense geopolitical possibilities surged in “post-coronavirus” West Asia with the visit of the UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Ankara and his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.
The Crown Prince, popularly known as MBZ, was on a visit to Turkey after a gap of nearly a...
News Desk l
Turkish military officials have denied, late Wednesday, a Sky News Arabia report that the S-400 missile defence system was moved to Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, Daily Sabah reports.
According to the report, officials speaking to Daily Sabah said that the S-400 missile defence system was not moved to the air base which is used by NATO. Earlier, Sky News Arabia...
M K Bhadrakumar l
The Glasgow summit on climate change has been a media extravaganza. The ruling elites from all continents cooped up in their national capitals due to the raging pandemic, finally got a break to throw away their masks and take to their private jets to fly off to “Global Britain” to display their leadership qualities.
There are some...
The US is sanctioning an Israeli spyware company, NSO, by putting it on a trade blacklist, the Washington Post reports.
According to the report, the NSO Group was accused of supplying technology to foreign governments to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics and embassy workers.
Last July, NSO Group had been accused of assisting despotic regimes in targeting journalists, political dissidents...
News Desk l
Israeli authorities have stopped dozens of Jewish families of the Lev Tahor ultra-Orthodox sect from fleeing to Iran where they had applied for asylum.
"Israel and the US are working to prevent members of an extremist ultra-Orthodox sect from moving to Iran, amid fears they could be used as a bargaining chip by Tehran," the Times of Israel newspaper reported,...
Saudi Aramco aims to achieve net zero emissions from its operations by 2050 while also expanding its maximum sustained production capacity to 13 million barrels per day, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Saturday, reported Reuters.
Nasser also warned that global spare capacity of crude was declining fast and there was a need for more investment, saying "demonising" the hydrocarbon industry...
M K Bhadrakumar l
I read a stimulating essay recently co-authored by Paul Dolan, professor at the London School of Economics, and his research assistant Amanda Hedwood analysing, against the backdrop of the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic, how dominant narratives powerfully influence decisions and create the ‘narrative trap’ in decision-making.
The LSE academics wrote: “We contend that the failure to step...
M K Bhadrakumar l
While on a ‘farewell’ visit to Israel, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday in Jerusalem at a joint press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that negotiations in Vienna over the return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have entered “very decisive weeks.” She noted, “I never considered the JCPOA to be ideal,...
News Desk l
The Algerian National Navy detected an Israeli Dolphin submarine last week on the edge of Algerian international waters, chased it and forced it to rise to the surface before leaving the area, MENADEFENSE reported on Friday.
This came after Russian journalist Darko Todorovski revealed information about the incident in a tweet on Thursday: "Off the coast of Algeria, an Israeli submarine –...
News Desk l
Turkey has started mass production of 122 domestically designed patrol boats to secure the country's coasts, the project's in charge said on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency.
The boats will be supplied by the defense and shipbuilding industry to the Coast Guard Command and General Directorate of Security.
The project is run by ARES Shipyard in the southern province of Antalya.
The...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written yet another opinion piece in the Washington Post, sensing a turning point lies ahead with the Biden Administration assembling a sustainable, durable policy toward Afghanistan taking into account the new reality of the Taliban government.
Quintessentially, Imran Khan revisited his argument in the earlier WaPo piece in July where he had concluded: “I believe...
News Desk l
On 29 Sep 21, presidents of Russia and Turkey began talks on curbing renewed violence in northwest Syria and on possibly expanding Moscow's sales of military defence systems to Ankara despite US objections.
The talks took place in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi and the Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin was ending a period of...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Given the state of the Indian media today, it is difficult to cut through the Indian-American rhetoric from a distance of 10,000 kilometres and get a rounded view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States and his meeting with President Biden.
So much has changed since Modi last visited America two years ago. India...
News Desk l
A critical railway in Turkey's region, the Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad (ITI) Freight Line, expected to relaunch in 2021, has created a positive atmosphere for those in the business world, reports Anadolu Agency.
The train, which connects three countries and provinces in 14 days from end to end, was initially launched in 2019 but was suspended in 2011 due to several delays...
The Cairo Review l
In 1843, shortly after his return from the battlefields of the First Anglo-Afghan War, the army chaplain in Jalalabad, the Reverend G. R. Gleig, wrote a memoir about the disastrous expedition of which he was one of the few survivors. It was, he wrote, “a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange...
Sadia Wasti |
The entrance of the nuclear weapons changed the paradigm of overt conflict throughout the world. Not only did nuclear weapons stopped aggression against nuclear armed states but also a global taboo against the use of nuclear weapons deterred nuclear states from using their strategic weapons as leverage against other nations. This change caused modern conflict to largely...
Bulgarianmilitary l
In the battle of equivalent aircraft carrier formations and groups, the Chinese side suffers significantly large losses, even with the possible use of promising hypersonic anti-ship missiles.
The key role that determines the course and outcome of combat operations at sea in modern conditions is played not so much by the power and number of strike weapons as by...
M K Bhadrakumar l
Like in a Wagnerian music drama, there is an associated melodic theme that accompanies the situations behind the two big regional developments last week — the announcement of the AUKUS, security alliance of three “maritime democracies” on September 15 and Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as full member on September 17.
Both developments broke...
The Saudi and Emirati militaries have arrived in Greece to begin joint exercises with the Greek and Egyptian militaries, in what they are hailing as further cooperation between allied states.
The Royal Saudi Land Forces' paratroopers and special security forces arrived in the Elefsina airbase north-west of the Greek capital Athens yesterday and were welcomed by the Emirati Colonel Khaled...
Turkey has risen to the world's top three in combat drone technology, the Turkish president said on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency.
"With our unmanned combat aerial vehicle Akinci, Turkey has become one of the three most advanced countries in the world in this technology," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the delivery ceremony for the Bayraktar Akinci combat drone in the northwestern...
