Russia’s Far East is resource rich, with oil and gas and timber, but parsely populated and is interested in having Indian skilled labour develop it
Photo: Ministry of External Affairs, India
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a mechanism for multilateral cooperation that plays an important role in maintaining regional peace and stability and in facilitating the prosperity and development of the Member States.
The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.
It is in this backdrop that Modi’s visits to Maldives and Sri Lanka – his first official overseas destinations in his second term as Prime Minister – is expected to herald the second chapter for Modi’s Neighbourhood First policy. Its second edition is expected to mark a shift from India’s immediate to extended neighbourhood and from disputed land borders to maritime expanse making Modi an Indo-Pacific Prime Minister.
The MoU will be signed on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, later this week.
Photo:
Xi Jinping, along with other leaders of the group including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is in the Kyrgyz capital to attend the two-day Summit beginning Thursday.
Photo: Twitter
Even without SAARC, India and Pakistan will have to engage with each other within the very framework of the SCO. So why not that bilateral meeting between South Asia’s midnight’s children to start afresh.
The IS narrative in India appears to have gained a new meaning and importance after the Sri Lanka bombings which revealed complex networks through which the Islamic State tends to radicalize people and facilitates terror plots. Self-financed attacks carried out by a close-knit group of educated and computer savvy individuals without any criminal background are emerging as the newest set of perpetrators.
Photo: Agencies
Indian Muslims in general and especially those in conflict theatres of Kashmir have not made common cause with the alleged sufferings of their fellow Muslims elsewhere in the world;, the prospect of living in a caliphate has also not held out much of an attraction for them.
Photo: Quartz
One fundamental change in India’s policy under Modi has been to avoid directly countering China’s expanding commercial footprint inside India’s neighbouring nations. China has created an added challenge for India in that the southern country’s work with its neighbours appears diminished, even disinterested, in comparison to the high speed delivery of China’s mega projects.