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

I used to roll my eyes whenever I boarded Air India One and had to fly with the Indian prime minister to some corner of the world. The 747 is about 15 years old and feels it. Whenever I’ve attended a Group of 20 summit or some similar global powwow Air India has always stood out – for its shabbiness. 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

India’s finance minister P Chidambaram has succeeded in controlling the country’s fiscal deficit and averting a sequence of the following events: a credit rating downgrade, a fall in the rupee and an outflow of capital. Read more

There was a time when France mattered a hell of a lot to India. It was the dissident member of the Western world that India could count on to resist the imposition of sanctions (after nuclear tests) and cast the odd veto (when Kashmir would come up). Read more

Officially, the world hasn’t given up on the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round of negotiations, but no one is holding their breath. It’s now entering its twelfth year and success seems even further away now than when it began. Read more