India Narrative

On Monday, when the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dialled Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the two had quite a bit on their plate other than just synchronizing their watches on the situation in Ukraine, Yemen and Iran's nuclear programme.   With a massive 376-metre long oil tanker at risk of leaking, spilling, or exploding at any time in one of the world's vital shipping lanes, both top officials knew time's running out to avoid a catastrophe. Blinken, as stated by the US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price later, discussed efforts to avert the economic, environmental, and humanitarian threats posed by the Safer oil tanker in the Red Sea region. The Safer, a rapidly decaying and unstable supertanker, threatens to spill more than 1 million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, devastating the coast, destroying livelihoods, depleting fisheries and potentially disrupting traffic through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Constructed in

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded an alert about a mysterious liver disease outbreak affecting children in Europe and the United States as it said at least one death has been reported due to the ailment. The WHO said that it has so far received reports of at least 169 cases of “acute hepatitis of unknown origin” from a dozen countries. The cases were reported in children ranging from one month to 16 years of age, and 17 of those who fell ill required liver transplants. The UN health agency did not mention in which country the death occurred. The first cases were recorded in the UK, where 114 children were infected. “It is not yet clear if there has been an increase in hepatitis cases, or an increase in awareness of hepatitis cases that occur at the expected rate but go undetected,” WHO said in a statement. Experts say the cases may be linked to a virus commonly associated with colds, but further research is still going on. “While adenovirus is a possible hypothesis, inve

India has said that it has a "decent sense" of what is in its interest and knows well how to "protect and advance it" while emphasising that ensuring their energy and food security remains a legitimate concern of countries as a global fallout of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. New Delhi's stand on the situation in Ukraine was once again conveyed to Washington on Monday by Prime Narendra Modi during his virtual meeting with the US President Joe Biden and the face-to-face India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and their US counterparts, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. As the US continues to press its allies and partners not to increase their purchases of Russian energy, India highlighted that there are bigger concerns of rising prices, increasing premiums and limited supplies besides energy and food security which demand an urgen

The United States is working closely with its Allies to provide longer-range anti-aircraft, artillery and coastal defence systems as part of its military assistance to Ukraine which it says is having a "critical impact" in the ongoing conflict with Russia.     Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor, said on Monday that the Ukrainians are "effectively defending themselves" with US-produced air defence systems and anti-tank systems, such as Stingers and Javelins, as well as radar systems that give early warning and target data, and multiple other types of arms and munitions. "The administration is working around the clock to fulfill Ukraine's main security assistance requests — delivering weapons from US stocks where they are available and facilitating the delivery of weapons by Allies where Allied systems better suit Ukraine's needs. This is happening at what the Pentagon has described at an unprecedented pace," said Sullivan at a briefing

Calling it as "another production by the Kiev regime for the Western media'', Russia has slammed accusations of allegedly killing civilians in Bucha, a town about 26 kms northwest of the Ukrainian capital. Russian troops have been accused of committing atrocities as photos and videos from Bucha depicting killing of civilians in Ukraine have gone viral on social media. While the United Kingdom said that increasing evidence of appalling acts by the invading forces in towns such as Irpin and Bucha is emerging as the Russian troops are forced into retreat, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday called for an independent investigation, saying he is "deeply shocked" by the images of civilians killed in Bucha. "You can't help but see these images as a punch to the gut. And look, we've said before Russia's aggression that we thought it was likely that they would commit atrocities," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washingto

For the West to build pressure on India to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as some kind of a political and moral obligation for a democracy is a brazenly manipulative exercise. If western democracies genuinely believe that all democratic countries have an obligation to band together against Russia on this issue shows how much they have become prisoners of their own rhetoric and are incapable of seeing the incongruities in their position. If, on the other hand, they are aware that they themselves have not adhered to the principle that they now espouse in the case of Russia, it denotes outright cynicism bred by a sense of unaccountable power. India, which has been a democracy since 1947, has not received any special consideration on the political economic and security fronts from the West. On the contrary, it has been subject to decades of sanctions in the strategic nuclear, space and high technology areas. It was pushed toward a close relationship with the Soviet Union in the

 Amid the debate surrounding the changing global landscape and future of diplomacy in a Covid- and post-Covid world, a 2021 announcement by the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, and Israel offers a new template. This new grouping is expected to hold their first in-person meeting of foreign ministers in March 2022, which will focus on collaborating in technology and infrastructure projects, enhancing political and economic cooperation, and maritime security issues. While recent more tentative diplomatic templates in the region like the UAE’s and Saudi recalibration bids with Qatar, Turkey and Iran, are focused on tension management, the most promising is the ‘partnership for the future’ also referred to as the ‘new quad’. However, this nomenclature is misleading. This US-UAE-India-Israel bloc, unlike the original quad is rooted in increasing regional cooperation, rather than competition with China. The visit of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Abu Dhabi and the impend

  Russia's worst fears of terrorists from Afghanistan penetrating into the countries of the Central Asian region could be coming true with the current state of emergency in Kazakhstan, country's Ambassador to the United States has suggested.   Moscow has been worried for the past many months about the current situation in Afghanistan, saying that the return of "international terrorist organisation" Taliban does not give "cause for optimism" as people with radical ideology can even slip into Russia through the Russian-Kazakh section of the state border. Early Monday, Anatoly Ivanovich, Russia's top diplomat in Washington , said that thousands of "jihadists" are involved in attempting a "colorful" revolution and causing massive unrest in Kazakhstan. "Kazakhstan was hit by radicals confessing a human-hatred ideology. Thousands of jihadists and looters tried to undermine the constitutional order. Weapons are being used against civili