International Booster

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and India Fifteen countries have formed the world’s largest trading bloc, covering nearly a third of the global economy.  The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is made up of 10 Southeast Asian countries, as well as South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  The pact is seen as an … Read more

QUAD and Malabar 2020 The first phase of the Malabar naval exercises is currently underway off the coast of Vishakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal and there has been much enthusiasm and anticipation around it this year. The excitement is largely because for the first time the Malabar Exercise will see the participation of India, … Read more

Pro-democracy protests in Thailand Introduction Thousands of young people in Thailand are defying the authorities by gathering in the streets and calling for change in some of the biggest pro-democracy protests the country has seen in years.  An emergency decree banning such rallies was issued by the government in an attempt to clamp down on … Read more

Israel–Arab Peace Deal 2020 Within the span of only a month, the United States has brokered peace between Israel and two Arab countries—first the United Arab Emirates, then Bahrain. Both deals are revolutionary in scop.  By normalizing ties and focusing on business, trade, and travel, these “warm peace” agreements go beyond the often tenuous “cold … Read more

India-US 2+2 Dialogue 2020 Introduction India’s Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper to New Delhi for the third annual India-U.S. 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. The Ministers welcomed the elevation of the India-U.S. relationship … Read more

India Nepal Latest border dispute On May 8, India’s defence minister virtually inaugurated a new 80 km-long road in the Himalayas, connecting to the border with China, at the Lipulekh pass. The Nepali government protested immediately, contending that the road crosses territory that it claims and accusing India of changing the status quo without diplomatic … Read more

India China Relations: Ladakh Conflict For more than 100 days, tensions have been high between India and China along their disputed Himalayan border. This tension has been most acute in eastern Ladakh, where, in mid-June, 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the Galwan Valley, the first fatalities along … Read more

France : Extremism vs secularism Issue France is reeling from a spate of terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam. Last month, a boy of Chechen origin killed his school teacher for displaying controversial images of Prophet Mohammad, which had provoked a macabre terrorist attack against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. In … Read more

Azerbaijan Armenia conflict The Caucasus is a strategically important mountainous region in south-east Europe. For centuries, different powers in the region – both Christian and Muslim – have vied for control there.  Modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union when it formed in the 1920s. Nagorno-Karabakh was an ethnic-majority Armenian region, but … Read more

American election 2020 The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held nominally on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump became the first U.S. … Read more