The speech given by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the World Economic Forum in Davos (which marked its 50th anniversary) as well as his meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of this summit became one of the most significant events in world politics in the first month of 2020.
India has long been one of Russia’s most important partners in many areas, including the defense and military fields. The annual INDRA tri-services military exercise between Russian and Indian Armed Forces is a strong testament to this cooperation.
The word INDRA itself is a portmanteau of the participating countries’ names, and Indra is also the Indian celestial deity of thunder, lightning and war, so the title is quite symbolic.
There is more to the divide in the Muslim world than the schism between the Sunni and Shiite sects. This was recently proven by the apparent failure of an Islamic Summit, not due to good intentions but spoilers.
On December 18, 2019, US Secretaries of State and Defense convened with their Indian counterparts at their second annual meeting, commonly referred to as ‘2+2 dialogue.’ The first 2+2 meeting between the countries took place on September 6, 2018, in Delhi.
India’s 2019 legislative season is nearly finished. And it has been fruitful on account of lawmakers’ fairly controversial activities. In fact, it is not the entire year but the second half we are referring to here. Various political forces within India itself and in other countries have described the resulting legislature in polar opposite ways.
The inauguration of the visa-free Kartarpur Corridor at one of the India-Pakistan border crossings only took place a month ago on November 9. We have not even had enough time for a cautious celebration, but there already seems to have been some truth in the sneaking suspicion that “something is still not quite right here”.
On 9 November of this year, a momentous event occurred in India. And its long-term consequences may be as influential as those that stemmed from the de facto revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that had granted special status to the now former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
An event took place on November 9 this year in a place of great local significance on the Indo-Pakistani border, which could be viewed as the first glimmer of light (albeit still very weak), in what have otherwise been gloomy relations thus far between India and Pakistan. We must remember that both of these states have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
