KN Pandita
Powers fomenting Red Sea terror hold naval exercise to “Counter Terror”
Hindsight The war in the Middle East is escalating. Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in Israel’s massive reaction in Gaza Strip. Some say that Israel is…
Maldives Archipelago is of much strategic importance to India
Muizzu’s antics Traditionally, India-Maldives relations have been cordial. A day after being sworn in as the President of Maldives, Muizzu formally requested India to withdraw her troops stationed in the…
On the way to the modernisation of Indian naval power
India is determined to modernise its navy to meet the security demands of a vast coastline and the crucial Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Submarine-launched Cruise Missile (SLCM) is to be…
Somalia piracy is extending to the East African coast
The concern For quite some time, Somali pirates have been on the prowl in the waters off the East African coast, harassing commercial vessels or looting them at gunpoint. This…
Book Review: Pakistan Invasion on J&K (1947 – 48) Untold stories of victims
This work falls in the category of oral history but with conspicuous differences. It is not a tell-tale story: it is a piece of classical research entailing a stupendous effort…
The world is shifting towards multipolarity
Multipolarity is the new buzzword among political leaders. In the totality of geopolitical transitions during recent years, Indo-Pacific has emerged as the global strategic centre of gravity. Indo-Pacific has assumed…
For China Taliban-Afghanistan is a hard nut to crack
China was the first country to receive a formal Taliban delegation soon after Kabul fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2019. The Taliban were desperate to befriend China for…
Gen Asim Muneer inherits a can of worms
“The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced an end to the months-long “indefinite ceasefire”, accusing the government of beaching the agreement brokered by the Afghan Taliban,” wrote the Dawn on…
Pak Army Chief’s selection issue: Does it mean President’s ouster?
The selection of a new army chief after the retirement of General Bajwa on 29 November was already a political issue in Pakistan; now it has been given a legal…
The prospect for the US-Taliban engagement are dim
Secretary of State Blinken’s dinner reception to Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, when the latter was in the US for attending the session of the UN General Assembly, has…
South Korea is important in India’s Look East policy
On May 10, 2022 the Republic of Korea elected Mr Yoon Suk-yeol as its 20thPresident. In his inaugural address President Yoon spoke of the relevance of liberal democratic values of…
Israel, the Middle East and Pakistan
Pakistan’s policy has been not to come close to Israel until the Palestinian issue is resolved. Islamabad has stuck to this policy to give no cause of disappointment to the…
Upgraded tactics of Pakistani terror in J&K
In a press conference at Jammu, the Additional Director General of Police, J&K, disclosed some sensitive information about the drone deployment strategy of Pakistan’s ISI in its Kashmir terror policy.…
Pakistan’s ambition for westward depth thwarted
Failing to grab Kashmir through proxy wars, including the ongoing one, Islamabad concentrated on two major policy decisions. One was to clandestinely carry fundamentalist-jihadist ideology to the Indian administered Kashmir,…
How long the alliance of the evil?
Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan from early days of creation of Pakistan has been motivated by two main objectives. One is to acquire strategic depth westward and the second is to…
Tehreek-i-Taliban-i-Pakistan has not an easy go
A by-product of Al Qaeda, the TTP claims that its armed struggle aims at establishing an Islamic political system in Pakistan based on the group’s interpretation of sharia, a task…
India faces a threat of destabilization
Stating the issue India faces the threat of destabilization by external aggression and internal subversion. External aggression can be from China and/or Pakistan, her two contiguous hostile neighbours.Aggressive and intimidating,…
Afghanistan: The Outpost of Central Asia
Situated on the crossroad to the Indian sub-continent, Afghanistan is a rugged land of warriors living in many tribes, passionately faithful to their tribal chiefs and often spending the entire…
Afghan Crisis and Regional Strategy: A Hindsight
The withdrawal of the American and NATO troops from Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 was more ignominious than the departure of the Soviet troops from their Afghan incursion in 1991.…
Will the AUKUS alliance eclipse the Quad?
The trilateral alliance among Australia, UK and the US (AUKUS), recently announced by President Biden from the White House, has given rise to two controversies. One is whether it undervalues…
Afghanistan: Post-American Future in the Region
The fall of Ashraf Ghani regime in Kabul and the return of Taliban to power is a triumph for Pakistan’s Afghan policy. Thirty per cent of Taliban fighting force comprised…
Democratic Quad versus China Quad
PLA centenary celebration has generated over-confidence in the Peoples’ Republic of China. Together with that, President Xi’s aggressive tone does not reflect a conciliatory mood towards her neighbours with whom…
New Weapons in Pak’s Jihad Arsenal
The Hindustan Times of 1 Dec 2020 published alarming news. It said: “Pakistan’s ISI, inspired by the success of using cheap drones to carry out small bomb attacks, has been…
The US’ pull out in Afghanistan: What are the implications?
In the later phase of his administration, former President Trump had expressed his desire of sending the American troops “back home for Christmas”. The Doha conference of 2020, arranged after…
The Intricate Deal of Chahbahar Port
At a time when India, after a temporary halt, resumed and accelerated work at Chabahar seaport in the Gulf of Oman, the Iranian Foreign Minister gave an intriguing statement that…
Fast-tracking of Indo-Pacific Partnership
The Eurasian Times of 17 January reported de-classification of a US highly confidential ten-page report prepared by Assistant Secretary Robert C O’ Brian which, among other things, highlights the importance…
A new chapter in India-Saudi relations
In his six-day-long (9 – 14 December 2020) visit to the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Army Chief, General MM Naravane was given a red carpet reception by…
Isn’t the Dragon getting oversized?
Expansionism by force and by treachery is China’s well-known forte. If the originator of the chain-Hindi Bhai Bhainaiveté became its hopeless victim, bring not the onus to the doorsteps of…
Iran in New Regional Alignment
CIA overplayed capitalist hegemonic role in Iran during the Iranian oil nationalization movement under Dr Mussadegh in the 1950s. Thereafter Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, inexperienced in national politics and regional…
Pakistan finds a new defence partner
Of late, Erdogan has begun to dream of becoming the global Islamic leader after the European Union rejected Turkey’s admission. Opting for Islamic card, he is cozying up with Imran…
Pakistan cannot integrate PoK
In a formal statement, Pakistan foreign office spokesperson rubbished the rumours of Islamabad proposing the integration of PoK into the mainland and thus terminating the status of the region as…
India must help defuse Iran-US tension
After some select Asian countries, China, India, and Pakistan achieved nuclear capability, its impact on regional strategy was obvious. Even repercussions of the neo-proliferation possibility had its impact on regional…
Dissection of Pak’s frustration
Imran messaged his debut as Pak PM with India-Pak peace rhetoric. Pak army imagined that with a former popular cricketer as the show boy, it can repair its terror-daubed image…
Depoliticizing Kashmir is the way out
Upturning of a plethora of Kashmir political rubble accumulated over seventy years is the sum and substance of Governor’s recent interview to some pressmen. It is for the first time…
Why India rejects mediation
In 72-year-old Kashmir dispute, India persistently rejected third party mediation. Some superpowers volunteering to offer mediation are morally on the back foot to accept historical truths fearing it might jeopardize…
Emerging political scenario in the sub-continent
Days ahead of the parliamentary election in our country, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan remarked in a press briefing that with a right-wing government in New Delhi chances for the…
Strangulating the Neelam Valley
Kashmir historian Kalhan Pandit (mid-12th century) has made a mention of river Krishnaganga several times in his chronicle Rajatarangini and has also given some useful hints about its geographical location…
South Asian Nuclear Power in a Debt Trap
It sounds ludicrous that Pakistan, a South Asian nuclear power, is caught in a debt trap and is beating every nerve to be bailed out. Amusingly, the debt trap is…
Goodwill dialogue before political dialogue
As India announced cancellation of the proposed foreign ministers’ sit together on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Pakistani media has gone berserk in bringing accusations against India…
Re-structuring of the RR Headquarter?
In a recent issue, the Daily Excelsior of Jammu informed that the Army was contemplating re-structuring of the Rashtriya Rifles Headquarters for better operational capability and strategic and logistic efficacy.…
Convergence of the strongest and the largest
The US high power delegation led by the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and including the US Army Chief, has just concluded its visit to India. The two countries are…
The US-Pakistan relations at crossroads
A fracas over a telephonic message from the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Imran Khan on 23 August only added to the already strained relations between the US and…
The breaking of impasse in Kashmir
In all probability the stalemate in J&K is finally heading towards an end and the legislators hitherto hibernating in suspended animation are gearing up for resumption of their normal function…
UN Human Rights Commission discredits itself
For the first time in the history of Kashmir question at the UN, the Chairman of Human Rights Commission Mr. Zeid Ra’d Al Hussein of Jordan has issued a 49-page…
Historic Message of Jordanian King
During his three day royal visit to India beginning 27th of February, King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan had a number of engagements in Delhi which kept him busy…
The Roots of Afghan War
A US official spokesman said that the Saturday devastating attack in the centre of Kabul city was planned and executed by Taliban and the Haqqani Network. 103 people were killed…
South Asia: Re-alignments on the Anvil
In bilateral relations, there are no permanent friends or foes: there are only permanent interests. US-Pakistan relations almost reached nadir when President Trump; twitted “lies and deceit”. Nobody had anticipated…
Trump–Pakistan Jihad Love
The news has come that Pakistan has imposed a ban on Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation from collecting donations. Pakistani media have given wide publicity to this news…
Simmering Cauldron in the Himalayas
We shall be entering twenty-eighth year of sponsored Kashmir insurgency. The bloodshed on either side has neither thrown out India nor brought in Pakistan. The position of Kashmir uprising is…
Iran-US Relations: The Nuclear Spat
The spat is about US suspecting Iran secretly working on nuclear programme despite limits imposed by Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of July 2015.[1] The US believes Iranian theocratic…