Recently, one of India’s senior most foreign policy makers, was speculating about whether the leaking of the US National Security Agency’s PRISM metadata surveillance system (and the sister programme Boundless Informant) may not have been made Washington completely unhappy. Read more

Recently I had a chance to chat with a Chinese Foreign Ministry official who was from the department that handled maritime and border disputes. Read more

One would think India and Japan would be a marriage made in geopolitical heaven. Japan has a big problem with China and is today seeking to beef up its defences against Beijing and find an alternate site for the billions of investments Japanese firms made in China. Read more

One of the more curious global developments today is the closing, if you wish, of the British mind to immigration. Anti-immigration is now part of the policy platform of all the major political parties, though arguably strongest with the Conservatives. Britain is experiencing economic difficulties but is probably better off than many Western economies. And it isn’t race: brown and black migration peaked in then 1970s and 1980s. Read more

The Indian strategic community is in a dither, trying to work out why the Chinese have suddenly sent 40 troops 19 kilometres into territory that they have traditionally not even bothered to claim. Read more

The former Indian foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, gave a revealing speech on India’s nuclear deterrent on April 24th. The speech was titled, somewhat vaguely, “Is India’s Nuclear Deterrent Credible?” Read more

India is a credible player in Antarctic science, says David Scott, executive director of the Canadian Polar Commission, on a recent visit to New Delhi. “Which is why Canada and other countries are eager to work with India in the Arctic.” Read more

Among the more poorly thought out foreign policy initiatives of the Indian government, one of the mitigated disasters has been the proposed BRICS bank. The New Delhi foreign policy establishment has taken to blaming the Indian finance ministry for the idea, but the external affairs ministry had to have gone along with the idea. Read more

The newly minted president of China, Xi Jinping, speaking to a group of BRICS newswires, told them the Indian participant that he had a five-point formula for Sino-Indian relations. Read more

The Catholic Church and the Chinese government, within a 24 hour space, both finalized their leaders. The church chose and anointed Pope Francis. The party completed its leadership succession by appointing Xi Jinping as president of China, the third and last position he needed to become the new ruler of the Middle Kingdom. Read more