A RUSSIAN delegation has recently visited Islamabad to explore the possibility of the ‘seamless’ flow of energy from Russia to Pakistan. It is not yet clear if energy supplies would be provided at a discounted rate. Nor is it decided how and in which currencies the payments would be settled. Apparently, it is just the […]

EVERY Sept 6, Pakistan marks Defence Day to celebrate the determination of the nation and its armed forces to defend the country against India’s aggression in 1965. The war lasted only 17 days, and peace was restored by the Tashkent Agreement of 1966. As happens in most wars, there were no real winners. India was […]

EARLIER this month, India hosted, with gaudy fanfare, the 18th meeting of the G20. The outcome was an 83-paragraph declaration, which called for green development and inclusive growth, but broke no new ground. The declaration deplored the aggression against Ukraine but did not name Russia. Ukraine was irritated. However, it was not the substance but the […]

BANGABANDHU Sheikh Mujibur Rahman envisioned Bangladesh’s foreign policy to be predicated on the principle of ‘friendship to all, and malice towards none’. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, the present prime minister, echoes this principle at various international forums. However, when it comes to relations with Pakistan, the foreign policy of Bangladesh does not seem to reflect […]

PAKISTAN’S leadership has lately been engaged in a war of words with the Afghan Taliban. Our frustration is understandable. The Taliban regime in Kabul was not doing enough to stop the TTP from using Afghan soil to launch terrorist attacks against the people of Pakistan. The National Security Committee meeting on Jan 2, without naming […]

TRAVELLING abroad often offers an opportunity to interact with influencers of public opinion in India, many of whom tend to believe that India’s attention has generally shifted away from Pakistan and towards its larger concerns viz Indo-Pacific strategy, relations with China, and the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy. Pakistan, they say, is […]

WITH the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new concept of globalisation entered the world’s political consciousness. The Cold War had ended, and a unipolar world emerged with the US at its centre. Analysts predicted that the world would be one global village with […]

PAKISTAN is currently muddling through a storm of political instability, economic downturn and resurgent terrorism. Large sections of Indian media and pundits have seized the opportunity to demonise Pakistan as the epicentre of the problems plaguing South Asia. In doing so, they aim to absolve the Indian government of its own contribution towards an unstable […]

IN September 2016, India announced that it had carried out a surgical strike against Pakistan. The strike had not happened in reality, and, at that point, most analysts concluded that India was essentially testing the waters for a ‘new normal’ in bilateral relations, whereby it could strike Pakistan without provoking a nuclear response. A few years later, […]