Comments & Briefs

India must deal with the situation in a calm and mature manner since an unstable Maldives can have serious regional security implications as well as impact upon India’s security.

The story of the Asian Security Conference is the attempt by IDSA to capture the complex issues involved in Asia’s emergence as the new locus of international affairs in the 21st century and India’s emergence as a factor in the continent’s evolving economic, political and security dynamics.

By bringing the Syrian question to the UN Security Council on the basis of proposals formulated by the Arab League, led principally by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the western powers ran the risk of not only facing a combined Russia-China veto but of inflaming sectarian opinion.

As opposed to the singular cause of last year’s protests, the anniversary demonstrations have revealed multiple lines of discord, most importantly, between those inclined towards compromising with military rule and those who want a swift end to it.

Having rejected the western demand for oil sanctions, the real test for the Indian government lies in whether it can implement its public pronouncement.

The functional distortion of the arrangement of Pakistan’s major institutions—principally, the executive, the army, and the judiciary—is the cause of the current crisis.

Although the political situation is likely to stabilise in the short-term, multi-party democracy established in Maldives after the 2008 elections has received a definite setback.

India’s overall approach at the UNSC in the past year was focused on projecting and representing the opinion of the developing world, addressing problems through regional solutions and achieving as much progress as possible through diplomacy and dialogue.

In the absence of even an FTA, the main challenge before policy makers from India and the EU will be to continue justifying the relevance of a strategic partnership to their respective constituencies.

The Rafale’s upkeep and maintenance would demand a very high level of training and skills both by the pilots and technical personnel. Above all, stupid mistakes must be avoided by bringing about a fundamental change in our outlook to peacetime operations.