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Kanwal Sibal


It’s a new era in India’s foreign policy as countries compete to woo Modi

In foreign policy, Prime Minister Modi has hit the ground running, taking unexpected initiatives. He reached out to our neighbours, taking the unprecedented step of inviting their leaders to his…

Narendra Modi Wang Yi Foreign Minister China

India has to take a long hard look at its foreign policy

Internally, much can improve with the spectacular electoral success of the Bharatiya Janata Party. India can now look forward to a strong and stable government at the Centre which the…

Modi Saarc Members

A Modi government must project a more robust foreign policy

Now that it appears that the next government in New Delhi could well be Modi-led, questions about the possible changes in India’s foreign policy are being raised inside and outside…

Narendra Modi Photo

India must revamp its policy towards Pakistan

Several aspects of our Pakistan policy need a fresh look by the new government in May, though how much change can be brought about remains an open question as the…

Manmohan Nawaz Shariff

Modi’s Foreign Policy

Modi has not yet expressed his thinking on India’s foreign relations. His focus and that of those opposing him or tracking his national rise has been on internal politics and…

Narendra Modi Photo 300x270

China’s maritime ‘silk road’ proposals are not as peaceful as they seem

China’s proposition of a maritime silk route connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans is part of its propaganda drive to convince the world about its peaceful rise. Its actions do…

Xi Jinping

The right way to look East

Much has been achieved during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current visit to India and much has not. In reiterating a clear intention to strengthen bilateral ties, the visit has…

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Meeting The Prime Minister Of Japan Mr. Shinzo Abe

It is cherry blossom time in India-Japan relations

Politically speaking, it is cherry blossom time in India-Japan relations. For the first time in history, the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited India December last. That visit had great…

Manmohan Shinzo Abe Japan

Abe’s visit will bolster security ties

Japan’s Prime Minister Abe will be the chief guest at our next Republic Day, a decision that marks India’s reciprocal interest in deepening bilateral political and economic ties. Until now…

Manmohan Shinzo Abe Japan

Fixing the Fault Lines in 2014

Our major foreign policy challenges are enduring and no dramatic change in our security environment is likely in 2014. Relations with Pakistan could actually worsen. Nawaz Sharif is focusing on…

Indian Army Martyr Salute Siachen

Managing the neighbours

India’s search for a successful neighbourhood policy continues. Sections of our society are anxious about our failure to manage our relations with neighbours properly. We tend to blame ourselves for…

Manmohan Singh Nawaz Sharif

US: Bullying Not Diplomacy

The arrest and hand-cuffing of India’s Deputy Consul General (DCG) Devyani Khobragade in New York as if she is a criminal with all the intrusive personal indignities heaped on a…

Devyani Khobragade

India’s expanding power gap with China

We have a tendency to overstate the positives of our relations with China and downplay the negatives. This creates the impression that our ties are better than they actually are,…

Pm Manmohan Premier Li Keqiang

Did the PMs of India and Pakistan need to meet just yet?

Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in New York on September 29 produced limited results. After Singh himself mentioned toned down expectations from the encounter, it became…

Manmohan Nawaz Shariff

US ties pegged on Indian appetite for technology

The aim of India-US dialogue is that as India rises and seeks an adaptation of existing rules, it does so in a concerted manner with the US. Our ties with…

President Obama Manmohan

Should the PMs of India and Pakistan meet in New York?

Whether the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, should meet his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in New York in September has become a politically controversial issue. The government is being cautious in…

Syria: Two-faced in West Asia

President Obama’s plan to take military action against Syria can be legitimately questioned on legal, political and moral grounds. Syria has not, strictly speaking, violated international law in using chemical…

India lost in Afghan endgame

The situation in Afghanistan is full of uncertainties and the prospects of India’s neighbourhood becoming even more difficult for us are real. We have little control over the situation in…

Manmohan Singh Hamid Karzai

Dialogue With Pak A Trap

Our response to the killing of five Indian soldiers last week by the Pakistanis inside our Line of Control has again shown our inability to deal effectively with the dual…

Killing Of Five Solidier

New hurdles on the road to peace in Kabul

In 2014, power will be transferred to a new president in Afghanistan. The army of the United States of America will complete its withdrawal and the Afghan National Security Forces…

Attack Near Indian Consulate Jalalabad

Mounting threat from China, lackluster Indian response

India will have to manage its relationships with China and Japan with greater finesse. China constitutes by far our most difficult diplomatic challenge as its rise impacts us directly in…

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Manmohan Singh

New Iran Prez can’t do wonders

Hassan Rowhani’s election as President of Iran on June 14 is unlikely to materially change the dynamics of the conflict between Iran and the western powers.  The “reformists” in Iran…

Hassan Rowhani Iran Preside

Make most of Japan’s overtures

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan from May 27 to 30 was opportune as the circumstances today are more propitious than ever for India and Japan to forge a…

Manmohan Shinzo Abe Japan

India’s China Syndrome

India-China relations are complex enough not to be seen in black and white terms. Amidst all the good reasons for India to mistrust China and deal with it as an…

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Manmohan Singh

Bowing down to the dragon

Our statements on the recent India-China face-off in Ladakh continue to confound. One would have thought that we would have analysed the incident in depth, tried to figure out China’s…

Salman Khurshid Chinese Wan

Italy goes back on its word

The latest turn of events in the Italian marines case is most unfortunate for both India and Italy as the bilateral relationship is being put under serious strain. The Indian…

Italy Marines Arrest

Failing On Terror Yet Again

Hyderabad is bloodied again by terrorism, exposing once more our failure to marshal the political will, the legal instruments, the organizational structure and the required technical skills and manpower resources…

Hyderabad Bomb Blast

India’s compass on terror is faulty

Afzal Guru’s hanging shows the ineptness with which our political system deals with the grave problem of terrorism. The biggest challenge to our security, and indeed that of countries all…

Pakistan Let Terrorist

Pakistan: Time to end unilateral concessions

Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh’s remark that there can be no business as usual with Pakistan after its troops mutilated the bodies of two Indian soldiers they killed, and that…

Manmohan Singh Zardari

Still comrades after all these years

The India-Russia summit saw positive formulations on many issues, while providing an opportunity to address difficult questions like Kudankulam. Russia was the first country with which India established a strategic…

Kudankulam Nuclear Plant 300x225

Method in the madness

If it was wrong to invite Pakistan’s interior minister Rahman Malik to India because he prevaricates on investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and lets Hafiz Saeed make hate…

Rehman Malik Pm Manmohan

Rehman Malik’s visit: Going by the script

All those who have criticized the Indian government’s decision to invite Pakistan’s interior minister Rahman Malik to the country to operationalize the revised liberalised visa regime have missed several pertinent…

Rehman Malik Pm Manmohan

Bested by China’s Strategy

China’s two-track policy towards India, that of targetting our territory as well as our market is proving effective. The Chinese calculate that they can periodically rile India politically without much…

China Chinese Peoples Congress

Indian Foreign Policy: Future Challenges

I feel honoured at being asked to speak today to such a distinguished audience on a subject that is of great interest to foreign policy practitioners and commentators alike. What…

Pm Manmohan Asean Summit

Expanding the Idea of Asia

As economic power shifts increasingly to Asia and affects global political equations,  adddressing security issues in the region becomes more pressing. Can the often discussed pan-Asian security architecture be created?…

Pm Manmohan Asean Summit

SOFT POWER counts for very little!

If the US lacked the overwhelming “hard power” it has, if global institutions were not dominated by it, if it did not actively propagate its political,economic and societal values world-wide,…

Manmohan Singh Zardari

India has no reason to trust China

We have to deal with China pragmatically, within the framework of our serious political differences and opportunities for economic engagement. China has grown into a formidable economic power, with swelling…

China India E1340983817767

Why PM should avoid visiting Pakistan now?

As the bigger country, India is often exhorted to be generous with Pakistan. Those advocating a sustained dialogue with Pakistan, irrespective of its conduct towards us,   have such thinking, an…

Manmohan Singh Zardari

Granting Pak the Upper Hand

Another round of the India-Pakistan dialogue has been completed with External Affairs Minister Krishna’s visit to Islamabad on September 8. The agreement on relaxing the visa regime and holding the…

Krishna Hina Indo Pak Dialo

Emerging Asian Security Environment

To address the security challenges that Asia faces, the question needs to be asked whether any coherent concept of Asian security exists. Is Asia an integrated geographical entity, are its…

Indian Army Troops Relaxing Siachen

India’s Foreign Policy: Right Choice of Friends

A new debate has started on the nature of a redefined Indian foreign policy that takes into account the country’s transformed relations with the United States of America. The latter…

Sm Krishna Hillary Clinton

India’s defence ties with Europe

To appreciate better the subject of India’s defence relations with Europe some reflections of a general nature would be pertinent. The point needs to be made right at the start…

Pm Manmohan At Indo European Summit

A Diplomatic View of the MMRCA Deal

The Americans seemed to have proceeded on the assumption that with India placing orders for advanced US defence equipment such as 6 C-130J aircraft and 8 P-8I long range maritime…

Dassault Rafale1 E1370586444124

Our real adversary is China not the US!

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to India on June 5-6 and the third round of the India-US Strategic dialogue at Washington on June 13 have provoked much commentary on…

President Obama Pm Manmohan1

US offer calls for finesse

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent visit to India brings to the fore again the question of    the depth India should impart to India-US defence ties. Panetta has been explicit…

Leon E Panetta Ak Antony

Pak bigger terrorist threat than Iran

India-US relations have neither burgeoned as much as the enthusiasts may have wanted nor withered as much as the skeptics may have anticipated. The relationship is neither in an impasse…

Map Pakistan Export Terrori

No Ground to Vacate Siachen

Peace with Pakistan is a desirable goal, but peace should be equally desired by both sides and both should contribute to it in equal measure. The burden of making peace…

India and its neighbours

It is considered almost axiomatic that management of relations with neighbours should be the first priority of any countrys foreign policy. The stakes are always high as conditions in its…

India-US Relations: Future Trajectory

  The confidence of the Indian establishment that India–US relations were set on a steep upward trajectory has eroded noticeably with President Obama replacing President Bush. Even though personalities can…

The Darkness in Afghanistan

  Even as the US is withdrawing, its leaders insist that they are not going to abandon Afghanistan, that they will maintain their long term commitment to it and not…