South Korean President Moon Jae-in, publicly criticized the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement reached between South Korea and Japan, and appointed a task force to review the Agreement— which in turn concluded that the Agreement was flawed.[1]This created a diplomatic furore in Japan, and the Japanese Foreign Minister warned of serious repercussions for Japan-South Korea relations.[2] […]
On December 04, 2015, while delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg Summit of the Sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted, “In conducting China’s relations with Africa, we adhere to the principles of sincerity, practical results, affinity and good faith and uphold the values of friendship, […]
As the ‘rise’ of Asia gathers momentum, the geopolitical interplay amongst the regional powers is likely to become more vigorous. India and Indonesia are amongst these powers whose interface is likely to be guided by strong convergent interests due to a variety of reasons. First, with the concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ gaining traction leading to […]
(This is a revised extract of chapter titled “India’s Strategic Landscape, Hybrid Threats and Likely Operational Scenarios” jointly authored by Gurmeet Kanwal, Syed Ata Hasnain, Gurpreet S Khurana and Manmohan Bahadur, in Satish Kumar (ed.) India’s National Security: Annual Review 2016-17 (Routledge India: December 2017) Introduction To address its maritime dimension, it is essential to […]
While the President of Argentina has assured his people that the search for the missing Argentine submarine San Juan (S 42) will continue, there is not much good news for the families of the crew of the submarine and for Argentine Navy. There is evidence that the submarine has perhaps met its watery grave […]
The prospect of a revival of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), involving the US, India, Japan and Australia, has recently set the international media abuzz. The first meeting of the Dialogue was held in Manila on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on 13-14 November. Beijing, on expected lines, has reacted sharply stating that […]
On the third and fourth of October 2017, the 14th President of India, H.E Ram Nath Kovind undertook his first official visit abroad. It was significant that this was to Djibouti, an Indian Ocean littoral country of immense geo-strategic importance.[1] Incidentally, President Kovind is the very first Indian President to officially visit Djibouti. This issue […]
In June 2016 led to a remarkable shift in the foreign policy of the archipelagic state. Unlike the previous administration of Benigno Aquino III, which was somewhat confrontational with China on several fronts, including dragging Beijing to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) over the maritime disputes in the South China Sea (SCS), Duterte downplayed […]
Continued ethnic strife and the State’s overtly discriminatory policies in the Rakhine province of Myanmar have resulted in hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing their homes. As the exodus began in earnest in the late 1970s, the majority of the Rohingyas, escaping prosecution, crossed into Bangladesh through the land route, although a significant number […]
This is part three of a three-part series on China’s naval power (PART 3: TACTICAL LEVEL) As introduced in the Part 1, so far, most analysis of China’s naval power worldwide has focused on the PLA Navy’s existing and projected force-levels, and their associated hardware inductions and technological progression, with little emphasis on the […]
Introduction This issue brief aims at analysing China’s geo-economics and geostrategic intentions as manifested in its generous assistance to Malaysia for development of the Melaka port project. The issue brief also intends to study the impact of this project upon another key player within the area, namely, Singapore, especially since the Melaka port project will, […]