Understanding the Pakistani military establishment’s objections to the Kerry-Lugar conditionalities
If it’s hard to determine the exact cause of the uproar in Pakistan over the Kerry-Lugar Bill, it is because there are many. Simply put, every quarter in Pakistan is using it as a stick to beat its opponents. While all the outrage over being insulted [...]
And they’ll pay for it
“The aid—and particularly its pledge of five years of uninterrupted help—is intended,” the New York Times writes in today’s editorial, “to demonstrate that this time Washington is in for the long haul. Many Pakistanis still accuse the Americans of using and then abandoning them after the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. We [...]
Union Budget 2009 and what it means for foreign affairs and defence
In the July 20th issue of Outlook magazine I point out that the Budget has the good, the bad and the ugly for strategic affairs. An edited version of the following appeared in print.
First the good: the UPA government used the Union Budget to [...]
…is now
Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin. Since the second last thing that the international community wants in Pakistan is an economic meltdown, Friends of Pakistan are coming together to provide emergency foreign aid.
Now how Pakistan’s western and Middle Eastern ‘friends’ want to spend their money is their call. For India’s part, this is [...]
More for Bhutan and Afghanistan, less for ‘other developing countries’
Here is a chart showing outlays for ‘technical and economic cooperation with other countries and advances to foreign governments’, allocated to the foreign ministry.
There are new allocations for Afghanistan, and an increase in allocations for Bhutan. There’s a modest increase for Sri Lanka and Africa. But [...]
Winning friends and influencing people in Pyongyang
North Korea’s official news agency reports that India has delivered the first shipment of an unspecified amount of food aid to that country.
Indian Ambassador to Pyongyang Zile Singh and North Korean officials were present in a presentation ceremony at Nampho Port, it said. [Yahoo/Xinhua]
Who says foreign policy can’t be [...]
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