Harsh V Pant

The Delhi-Beijing battle in South Asia

China’s influence has grown, but contrary to conventional narrative, it is not necessarily ‘winning’. India has retained its focus

Moscow must come to terms with India’s security imperatives

As India reconfigures its China policy with the Indo-Pacific at its core, India-Russia ties won’t be able to escape this strategic reality

The ball is in China’s court, writes Harsh V Pant

With its strong response across spheres, India has shown that it has options and a willingness to exercise them

Review: The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World by S Jaishankar

S Jaishankar’s wide ranging new book covers the emerging global order, the rise of China and its attendant consequences, nationalism and its discontents, and the Mahabharata as a prism to evaluate Indian strategy

The real anchor of the Indo-Pacific plan

India’s position made others buy into the idea and incorporate it in their security outlooks

Delhi-Dhaka ties: India is doing well in the region

Don’t view India’s neighbourhood policy in terms of wins or losses. Focus on the structural imperatives

Covid-19 has sharpened great power politics | Opinion

Despite being irresponsible and concealing information, Beijing is reaping the dividends of the global disorder

Covid-19: The crisis will strengthen anti-globalisation voices

The pandemic will lead to a greater backlash against open borders and economies. It is time for a creative rethink

Think creatively to offset funds crunch in defence

The defence budget is shrinking. The CDS can play a key role in ensuring the most efficient use of resources

Decoding motives behind the Kudankulam intrusion

Was the cyber espionage an effort to access nuclear technology? Was it engineered by strategic rivals?

Military reforms have put China’s combat capability way ahead of India’s

Following deep manpower reductions and a commensurate expansion in firepower, the PLA today stands better poised to wage a decisive war against India at low cost.

The China-US trade war is a thinly disguised strategic battle

Under the garb of a trade war, this is a high-stakes strategic conflict between a power which wants to preserve the status quo in its favour and one which wants to usurp that throne.

A Trump-Putin summit is good news for India

A one-on-one Trump-Putin meeting being proposed by sections of the Trump Administration would be a big win for Putin who desperately wants recognition as a global statesman

Delhi-Beijing aligning can work to Kabul’s advantage

This was reportedly decided at the informal summit in Wuhan on April 27-28 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping

India’s ability to deliver in the Indian Ocean region is being scrutinised

The BJP government has been giving the Indian Ocean due attention. Yet as the crisis in the Maldives has indicated, India’s position in the Indian Ocean is being challenged

Hassan Rouhani in India: Will India-Iran ties match the rhetoric?

As New Delhi welcomes Rouhani, the two sides will be hoping to assuage each other’s concerns even as they will try to build partnership, which has often struggled to match the rhetoric surrounding it.

An inconsistent United States, an assertive China and Asia’s Hobbesian order

China is luring the region and the world with its ambitions and the US is offering incoherence. This mismatch is at the heart of the present turmoil in the region

India cannot ignore military reforms in China ushered in by Xi Jinping

Indian polity’s obsession with Pakistan means that it continues to ignore the far-reaching changes happening in China

Pakistan’s isolation is responsible for its recent rants at UNGA

Pakistan continues to live in its own world as was reflected in its PM’s statement that there is no role for India in Afghanistan. Many in Pakistan are now putting all their eggs in China’s basket. The Xiamen BRICS declaration, which listed Pakistan-based terror organisations for the first time, should be a warning to Pakistan than an isolated Pakistan would be of little use to even China.

In West Asia, a new order shaped by Russia emerges

As America’s influence has shrunk, Russia has taken the place the US long occupied in the minds of many people in West Asia: An alien imperialist power seen as waging war on Muslims and Islam. And unlike in the past when the West was the lead player in shaping the strategic environment, it is Russia which seems in the driving seat today

Heart of Asia summit: India, Afghanistan team to isolate Pakistan on terror

Kabul wants to fight an intransigent Islamabad with the backing of Washington and New Delhi. And the Narendra Modi government seems more than willing to lend a hand.

Ready to challenge Beijing on its own turf

Modi in Vietnam: New Delhi ready to challenge Beijing on its own turf

If China can have a strategic partnership with Pakistan ignoring Indian concerns, India can develop robust ties with Vietnam on China’s periphery without giving China a veto on such relationships

Sailing close to the wind in a choppy sea

India must navigate cautiously through the South China Sea

India will have to carefully assess the implications of rapidly evolving maritime order in Asia for its own interests and engage with Beijing accordingly

The importance of the SCO is often overstated

As India makes an effort to become part of the SCO, it will have to be cognizant of the underlying geopolitical realities that have shaped the evolution of the grouping and their impact on its foreign policy priorities

Pakistan’s Afghan gambit faces pressure

Pakistan cannot go on running with the hare and hunting with the hounds

The US is signalling that its patience with Pakistan is wearing thin and is now willing to take the fight to Afghan insurgents in Pakistani sanctuaries

India responds to a changing West Asia

Recent visits by PM Modi and Sushma Swaraj to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran are aimed at isolating Pakistan and enhancing New Delhi’s strategic space in the region

India, US must collaborate on South China Sea

Maritime security cooperation between the two nations is a strategic necessity