What happened in Bali?
At the East Asia Summit at Bali ANI’s Smita Prakash was in Bali last week as part of the official Indian media delegation covering the East Asia Summit. We discuss what happened there. Tweet ...
Posts Tagged ‘The Asian Balance’
The Asian Balance: Dealing with a vulnerable China
China’s external, economic and ethnic vulnerabilities are worsening Here’s today’s Asian Balance column in Business Standard. This may come as a surprise to many, but China today is at its most vulnerable since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. That’s not all; it is unlikely that the country will shake off its vulnerabilities – geopolitical, ...
The Asian Balance: Myanmar’s Narasimha Rao moment?
A pleasant surprise from the east This is the unedited draft of today’s column in the Business Standard: In a matter of months, Myanmar’s infamous junta diluted itself out of power, a new ‘elected’ government took office, duly freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, lifted some curbs on the local media, ...
The Asian Balance: US-Iran rapprochement
Can we help Washington and Tehran to get over it? This is the unedited version of yesterday’s column in Business Standard. As the war in Afghanistan enters what might be an endgame, it remains clear that there is broad convergence of geopolitical interests between two sets of players: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China on the ...
The Asian Balance: General Liu can shut his eyelids now
Why does China need an aircraft carrier? This is the unedited draft of my column in the Business Standard today. China’s new aircraft carrier should surprise only those who were not looking—it has been China’s largest open secret for several years now. It has been apparent, literally,—thanks to Google Earth—, that the partially-completed Soviet-era ...
The Asian Balance: The signal from Samoa
The larger significance of Samoa’s plan to advance its clocks An excerpt from today’s Asian Balance column in Business Standard: In 1892, a powerful American corporation convinced the king of Samoa of the advantages of being on the same side of the world map as the United States of America. Robert Louis Stevenson’s mother, then ...
The Asian Balance: The case for military diplomacy
The men in uniform can play a useful role in foreign policy Excerpts from today’s Business Standard column: India does not engage in military diplomacy in any meaningful form. This is part of the reason why India finds itself in a bind with respect to Pakistan, where it needs to engage the real power centre ...
The Asian Balance: What if China becomes a democracy?
Business as usual, with some relative advantage and why we need Reforms 2.0 Excerpts from today’s Business Standard column: It is extremely unlikely, but let’s say the fragrance of Jasmine flowers wafts across the Great Wall and perfumes China’s Han heartlands. A post-revolution China could take many forms, but let’s say that it turns into ...
The Asian Balance: Temples, rivers and other disputes
The list of regional security issues where ASEAN is falling short is growing Excerpts from today’s Business Standard column: Yet, ASEAN, a regional grouping often celebrated for its pragmatism and competence, has been unable to keep two of its members from going to war with each other. It will now try to play peacemaker, but ...
The Asian Balance: The East Asian kabuki
A curtain-raiser to this year’s geopolitical drama in five acts Excerpts from Business Standard column today: The first act began a few days ago when some online military buffs posted images of a new stealth aircraft, tested on the very day Robert Gates, US defence secretary, was in Beijing to discuss, well, military cooperation. The ...