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Sabah Aslam l
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is much more than just a development deal between two states; it is to a large extent a mega-project which encompasses many foyers of economy, trade and politics as well as strategy between two highly important states within Asia. It incorporates developing a network of roads, pipelines, and railways which connects Balochistan province in...
TIC Analysis l
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned against any emotional attempt from the people to cross the Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan into India held Kashmir, saying on Wednesday any such attempt would, in fact, affect the struggle of the people in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Prime Minister declared any bid to “wage jihad in Kashmir” would be...
Amb. Munir Akram l
Let's explain hybrid warfare. For over 60 years, nuclear weapons have deterred a major conflict between nuclear-armed states, and, because of the global revulsion against the use of nuclear weapons, the nuclear powers have been also unable to realise offensive objectives through nuclear coercion, even against non-nuclear weapon states. Thus, most conflicts are in the form...
M K Bhadrakumar l
The geopolitical fault-lines of the drone attack on the Saudi Aramco plants on Saturday are surfacing. These are early days but three broad trends have appeared. One, Saudi investigators have begun pointing finger at Iran, which is certain to exacerbate regional tensions. Two, the all-important US response to the event is unfolding on multiple templates, each...
Sabah Aslam l
New equations of the world order are being drawn and global orientations have been changing. It is time for Pakistan to step-up its diplomatic ties to extract the maximum for itself. In the past few years, growing alliance between Kremlin and Islamabad is getting a lot of limelight. Irritant for Pakistan’s enmities, this alliance grew from military...
TIC Analysis l
Saudi Arabia's crown prince has told US President Donald Trump the kingdom was "willing and able" to respond to the latest attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels on its oil facilities, state media reported. "The kingdom is willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ( MBS) told...
Dr. Najam Abbas l
The Persian Gulf has emerged as a major point of contention between different powers specifically the USA and Iran. Relations began to deteriorate since the Trump Administration pulled out of the Iran Nuclear deal in May 2018. The ensuing period has seen a rise in hostilities in the form of sanctions, drone attacks, sabotage of tankers...
Oriental Review l
After 18 years of war in Afghanistan– America’s longest – US and Taliban negotiators are said to be close to an agreement that may see the withdrawal of many of the 14,000 US soldiers in that remote nation.
That’s the official version. President Donald Trump keeps changing his mind about the number of US troops to be withdrawn....
Andrew Korybko |
India’s zero-sum plans of using its reinvigorated strategic partnership with Russia to “balance” China in the region of “Greater South Asia” are at risk of being ruined if Iran goes through with its recently announced interest in building a CPEC-parallel LNG pipeline to China (E-CPEC+, with the “E” standing for “energy”) and receives Moscow’s world-class support in constructing this...
Muhammad Sharreh Qazi l
Islamabad is under a new administration that aims to play a far more active part in regional priorities than previous regimes. It aims to diplomatically involve itself as ‘peace-broker’ or ‘ice breaker’ for any regional issue at hand. All Islamabad asks in return is fair share in economic assistance from stakeholders. Somehow, this strategy works fine...
Sabah Aslam l
It has been almost six years now, since CPEC was first conceived and approximately four years since the mega project became a ground reality. So far, the project has ushered long lasting and positive results for both, Pakistan and China. Its first phase of early harvest projects worth USD 18.9 billion is almost complete as you read...
M K Bhadrakumar l
At a press briefing Tuesday afternoon in Washington, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned against any rushed estimation that the exit of National Security Advisor John Bolton signalled a seismic shift in the Trump administration’s foreign policy.
Pompeo said, “I don’t think that any leader around the world should make any assumption that because some one...
TIC Focus l
According to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “the Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint because its daily oil flow of about 17 million barrels per day in 2015, accounted for 30% of all seaborne-traded crude oil and other liquids”. According to the EIA, about 80% of the crude oil that...
The debate on the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Russia have been deliberately whipped up by the West as an opportunity to lodge various historical, political and even financial grievances with Russia and discredit the country’s foreign and domestic policies. To that end, a series of resolutions were passed between 2006 and 2009 by PACE, the European Parliament, and...
M K Bhadrakumar l
The stunning news that India’s GDP growth rate is hitting a six-year low figure of 5 percent in the past six-year period comes as reality check. Many economists even hold the view that in actuality, take away the statistical jugglery, India’s actual GDP growth figure could be somewhere around 3 percent.
Either way, it is a dismal scenario. As...
Andrew Korybko |
Sri Lanka catapulted to global attention a few months ago when it was victimized by one of the worst-ever suicide bombing attacks since 9/11, but the island nation’s latest security-related crisis is conspicuously being ignored by the Mainstream Media. Its pro-Western Prime Minister is collaborating with the US to replace the 1995 Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in order to make it...
Farid A Malik |
The Prime Minister (PM) is right in saying that by invoking Article 370 of which 35A is a part of the constitution, India has played the last card on Kashmir. Unlike the Nehru family led Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to settle Kashmir as they desire to build a Hindu State....
Asif Haroon Raja l
Till the Islamic revolution in Iran in March 1979, Iran under Reza Shah Pahlavi was a strategic partner of USA and was lionized as the policeman of the Persian Gulf.
Friendship turned into deep-seated animosity once Imam Khomeini took over power. There was no letup in their animosity till Hassan Rouhani was elected President in June 2013....
M K Bhadrakumar l
The US President Donald Trump’s remarks at the Oval Office in the White House on August 20 regarding the Afghanistan peace talks and related issues exuded an overall sense of satisfaction that the “endless war” is finally ending —although issues still remain to be sorted out before the deal is closed.
This was also Trump’s first public assessment of...
Andrew Korybko |
An interesting sequence of events has recently taken place that makes many wonder what Russia’s up to in the Iranian port of Chabahar. It’s widely known that Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and India are cooperating on the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) project to integrate each of their economies more closely together, with Chabahar being this initiative’s terminal port...
TIC Focus l
The United Nations has accused India again of human rights violations in Kashmir and has called for the formation of a commission of inquiry into the allegations. A 43-page report released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also accused Pakistan for detaining Kashmiri separatists in its portion of the...
M K Bhadrakumar l
The three-year old Russian-Turkish tango in Syria has been incisive, exciting and provocative, but the inability of the two partners to trust each other or surrender to the care and needs of the other has deprived the relationship of the energies to work symbiotically.
If tango serves as a metaphor of relationship, an overall imbalance of energy...
TIC Analysis |
Prime Minister Imran Khan affirmed on Wednesday that he would no longer seek dialogue with Indian officials over the escalating issue of Occupied Kashmir. In an interview with The New York Times, PM Khan inveighed against repeated rejections of his offers for dialogue by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at, both before and after the August 5...
Sabah Aslam l
The terrestrial and maritime connectivity proposed by the Chinese government back in 2013 with six connectivity corridors reflects the vision of shared future for humanity. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an omen of modern transformation of the globe. The journey of transition from geo-politics to geo-economics is itself a huge achievement. As geo-economics brought in the...
TIC Focus |
The UN Security Council held a consultative meeting on Friday to discuss the Kashmir issue where Pakistan urged the world body to implement its own resolutions on this 70-year-old dispute.It being a closed-door session, no formal statement was issued after the meeting. However, Pakistani, Chinese, and Indian representatives talked to the media and presented their own opinions.
Pakistani...
