Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Image source- Flickr / MEA India Source- The Diplomat Author- Harsh V. Pant Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this week has once again brought to focus India’s changing role in the Middle East. This will be the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the UAE in 34 years. Then-prime minister Indira Gandhi visited the Emirates in 1981. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to travel to the UAE in March 2013, but the visit was cancelled at the last minute. India’s policy toward the Middle East has often been viewed through the prism of Indian–Iranian relations. The international community, and the West in particular, has been obsessed with New Delhi’s ties to Tehran, while missing India’s much more substantive simultaneous engagement with Arab Gulf states and Israel. India’s engagements with Arab states in the Middle East have gained momentum in the last few years, even as Iran continued to hog the limelight. India

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official Source- The Diplomat Authors- Neelam Deo & Karan Pradhan Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh on June 6-7 completes his arc of reaching out to India’s neighbors in South Asia. But, for now, two exceptions remain—the Maldives, where former president Mohamed Nasheed has been imprisoned, and Pakistan. With both countries, India’s relations are at a low point. Despite these exceptions, the year-old Bharatiya Janata Party government has clearly demonstrated that India’s neighborhood foreign policy is a priority. This new focus has replaced India’s past reticence in engaging with its neighbors—a holding back that was misplaced, as is evident from the warm welcome given to Modi, both by the people and by the parliaments, in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. With their enthusiastic responses, and the signing of numerous agreements and project deals, India’s neighbors too have made it clear that they prefer

Image source / Credits- Narendra Modi official Source- Eurasia Review Author- Dr. Sridhar Krishnaswami There has been a lot of praise and heartburn over the fashion in which Narendra Modi has charted India’s foreign policy in the last one year in office. It is natural for supporters and detractors to look at New Delhi’s track record but to argue there are serious lapses in which the current prime minister has gone about in India’s external relation could be a little disingenuous — a country’s foreign policy cannot be abruptly shifted or turned around in one year. Just ask President Barack Obama what he said on American foreign policy during his presidential campaigning in 2007-08 and what has come about some eight years down the line! It is not as if Indian foreign policy was in tatters when Modi came to office. What happened to Indian foreign policy some ten years before Modi was elected was indeed a different ball game — a then prime minister unable to steer a stead

Image credits- Flickr / PMO, Government of India Source- The Diplomat Author- Kadira Pethiyogoda John Kerry’s visit to Sri Lanka, the first by a U.S. Secretary of State in 11 years, recognizes country’s geopolitical importance. It also highlights the outcome of the recent tussle over the island state by two emerging global powers. This is a contest in which India has now gained the upper hand over China, offering important lessons for rising powers as they begin a “Great Game” in Asia. Sri Lanka sits at the heart of the Indian Ocean, adjacent to major shipping routes, within the world’s most strategically and economically dynamic region – the Indo-Pacific. Long described as the “pearl of the Indian Ocean,” Sri Lanka was, until the January election defeat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, drifting out of India’s orbit and increasingly seen as part of China’s “string of pearls.” But while increasingly solid economic links correlating with China’s rise will change little r

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Official photo gallery, Government of India Source- Eurasia Review Author- Dr . Rajaram Panda North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong made a surprise two-day visit to India on 12-14 April 2015, the first by a foreign minister of that country in 25 years and thus a rare high-level engagement between India and North Korea. India and North Korea established diplomatic relations in December 1973. The timing and significance of the visit cannot be missed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to make a maiden three-nation visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea in May 2015. For India, this gave a good opportunity to reassess its stand on the on-going conflict between the South and North Koreas. As scheduled, Yong met with Sushma Swaraj and Vice-President Hamid Ansari. One cannot also miss the timing of the visit as India’s defence minister Manohar Parikkar left on a four-day visit to South Korea on 14 April even when Yong was still i

Image Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Department of State Source- The Diplomat Author- Alyssa Ayres This post is the first of a series looking at how India and South Asia will feature in the American presidential election of 2016. Hillary Clinton’s April 12, 2015 presidential campaign launch kicked the U.S. presidential race for 2016 into higher gear. It’s also the first American campaign announcement to garner significant media attention in India. Due to her long history with India—as first lady, a senator, and secretary of state—Clinton is a known quantity in the region and has a clearly articulated policy record on South Asia, unlike other presidential candidates. One Indian paper covered her campaign launch with the headline, “Hillary hearts India.” That background makes it easier to assess how a possible Clinton administration might approach ties with India. First and foremost, she sees India as a crucial part of U.S. strategy in a world inc

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Official gallery, Government of India Source- The Diplomat Author- Jack Detsch Though President Obama has pledged to keep 12,000 American troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, it’s no secret that the White House’s focus on the war-torn country is waning. When those troops, largely still in place to train and equip the fledging Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and Afghan National Army (ANA), finally depart the country, Kabul will need a new patron to guarantee its security. Who will step up? A new policy innovation memo authored by Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations reframes that question as a conversation. For Ayres, Washington must work with Delhi to stabilize Afghanistan’s fragile economy, military, and institutions while doing as much as possible to quell Pakistani anxieties. Can that approach succeed? It depends on where you look. On Thursday, a green

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official Gallery, Government of India Source- Eurasia Review Author- Samir Saran There is quite an air of anticipation around the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to France. The government’s foreign policy pace has been enviable, and Narendra Modi has demonstrated a remarkable aptitude in gauging the mood and the space to manoeuvre with various partners. He has revitalised old relationships and lent them his energy. He has also achieved some real strategic gains,such as the one in Seychelles. The visit to France is pregnant with possibilities that are rooted in a historic context and which now need to be leveraged on a broader plane. France has always been a critical partner to India in high technology areas. Its bid to aid India in the diversification of its defence sector began as early as 1953, when the Dassault-Ouragan fighters were supplied to the India Air Force and played a leading role in the 1961 liberation of Goa. Significantly, when

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official gallery Source- The Diplomat Author- Rohan Joshi The framework agreement reached between Iran and the United States, along with other world powers could have far-ranging implications on Middle Eastern and South Asian geopolitics. Under the deal, Iran has agreed to limit uranium enrichment to only one facility (Natanz), while agreeing to compromises on two other facilities; it consented to redesign the plutonium heavy-water reactor in Arak in a manner that would prevent it from producing weapons-grade usable fuel, and agreed to convert the Fordo uranium enrichment site into a facility for advanced nuclear research and the production of medical isotopes. Significantly, the Iranians have also agreed to cut the number of centrifuges enriching uranium from 19,000 to about 6,000 and conceded to limiting enrichment to only 3.67 percent (i.e., not produce weapons-grade uranium). Iran’s breakout timeline – the time that it would take to ac