India’s Embrace of Strategic Hedging

Recently, Indian PM attended three summit-level meetings with France, United States and Russian President, within a time period of two weeks. Further, in the month of October 2019, China's President Xi Jinping will visit India. The simultaneous engagements with Russia, the US and China point towards the significance of remarkable strategic hedging in India’s foreign policy. Despite the differences…

Crucial meetings await Parikar on sidelines of Shangri-La Dialogue

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is in Singapore to attend the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue. On the sidelines, he will also be holding crucial meetings with his counterparts from France and the U.S. The Shangri-La Dialogue hosted annually by independent think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, is being held from June 3-5. It is attended by defence…

The fee for NSG membership

The Hindu News: China’s announcement that it intends to oppose India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group unless it agrees to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). For the past year, India had made admission to the 48-member NSG a focus of its international outreach, though membership has been a goal since the India-U.S. civil nuclear…

Sensitise States, don’t intimidate them

Article Link The finance ministry is preparing a model Centre-State Investment Agreement (CSIA), for effective implementation of the Bilateral Investment Treaty it is set to sign with other countries. The draft will shortly be presented to the Cabinet for approval. What are BITs? BITs protect investments made by an investor of one country into another…

East Asia Summit (EAS)

East Asia Summit is a unique Leaders-led forum of 18 countries of the Asia-Pacific regionformed to further the objectives of regional peace, security and prosperity. Why is EAS important? 10 East Asia Summits have been held so far. India has been a part of this process since its inception in 2005. Think of it this way –…

Trading charges

Article Link In February, 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The focus of the law is to enhance enforcement of IPR over the U.S.’s trading partners. It introduces important measures relating to intellectual property rights (IPR) issues. This law is expected to impact India’s ability to…

Significance of RCEP for India?

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between – The 10 members of ASEAN Additional members of ASEAN +3 = China, Japan, South Korea Members with which ASEAN countries have FTA = India, Australia, New Zealand RCEP includes more than 3 billion people, has a combined GDP of about $17…

Nuclear Security Summit (2010 – 2016)

The 4 NSS held in this series were –  2010 – Washington 2012 – Seoul 2014 – The Hague 2016 – Washington How did this all begun? The nuclear security summit initiative began with an April 2009 call by U.S. President Barack Obama to hold a global summit on nuclear security in 2010 as part…

Four corners of a good deal

Article Link The U.S.-Japan-India trilateral has gained momentum in recent years, with regular meetings and a variety of collective exercises. This proves that India has begun to exert its leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. But, it is not possible for India to be a world leader or an Asian leader without first being a South…

Why the WTO is right in the solar panel dispute

Article Link A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel has ruled against India in a dispute raised by the US over the country’s solar power programme, requiring the government to offer a level playing field to both foreign and domestic manufacturers of solar panels. The panel found that the domestic content requirement imposed under India’s national…