avinash.godbole

Optimism must translate into action Li Keqiang, Premier of People’s Republic of China’s State Council visited India during 19-22 May 2013. This was the first step in Premier Li’s first foreign tour after assuming the office in March this year and the Chinese media and officials, among others, highlighted the fact that he chose India as his first stop. Many are willing to consider this alongside Preside Xi Jinping’s first state visit to Moscow after becoming the President to treat as a decided shift in China’s global priorities or at least as a rise of a new perspective in Chinese foreign policy. In undertaking this visit, the Chinese Premier has also overlooked the protocol as it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s turn to visit China after Wen Jiabao had visited India in December 2010 to commemorate the 60 th Anniversary of the diplomatic contact between the two countries.  However, this kind of attention to India does little to improve the bilateral relationship as littl...

              Today's newspapers have the story of the release of a Pakistani convict from an Indian jail on humanitarian grounds. Indian express reports that the earlier meeting of the two prime ministers was cited by the Supreme Court judgement as one of the reasons for the release.               I would like to argue that there is a reason for India and Pakistan to delink bilateral relations from such individual humanitarian crises. Inadvertent border crossings and such instances should be treated on legal basis and not based on the state of the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. Treating these people as victims instead of criminals would help unite estranged families and avoid the day to day tragedies that their families have to go through.                 better still, the two countries should set down the guidelines in fast tracking such...

MAP from IDR China's Kashmir Calculus: Alternative Explanations China's new approach to Kashmir is not surprising. India has equal right to reciprocate China's behaviour. However any action before explaining the Chinese behaviour  in its entirety would be counterproductive. China's behaviour can be understood from three perspectives. My recently published article on the Blog, The Broad Mind .

A Year since Xinjiang Riots: Regional Consequences 5 th July marked the first anniversary of the ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang province that is home to the minority Muslim ethnicity Uighurs. These riots had highlighted the disharmony in the People’s Republic that has projected the idea of harmony in every imaginable field. Therefore, the ethnic riot in which about two hundred people lost their lives was a big embarrassment for the leadership of China. Besides the domestic policy implications, the 2009 riots have had serious implications for China’s foreign relations in Asia. Part of the Chinese strategy in Xinjiang is rapid economic development, which the leadership feels would become the driver of peace and stability in the region. This was clearly articulated in the White Paper on Xinjiang that came out after the riots of July 2009. At the same time, geographically Xinjiang is at a location that is critical for China’s relations with Central Asia and South As...

अफ़ग़ानिस्तान   शांति   प्रक्रिया :   अपेक्षा   और   विकल्प (my article in HIndi, to be published soon, sorry for the language but this is the best I could do!) अफ़ग़ानिस्तान मे आतंकवाद के खिलाफ चल रहा युद्ध आब अंतिम चरण मे आ गया है और आनेवाले अधिकतम दो वर्षोमे इसका समाधान अपेक्षित है . अमरीकी युध ने एक और बार यह स्पष्ता किया है के कोई भी अफ़ग़ानिस्तान मे आकर लड़ सकता है लेकिन वहाँ जीतना लगभग नामुमकिन है . अमरीकाकी निष्कास कूटनीति इस एक कटु सत्य का विवरण है . इतिहास बताता है कि अफ़ग़ानिस्तान का भौगोलिक स्थान उस देशकी राजनीतिक स्थिरता के लिए एक अभिशाप बन गया है और   आधुनिक आंतरराष्ट्रीय राजनीति के समय मे उसे यहा स्थिरता नहीं मिल पाई है . अब यहा सवाल सबसे बड़ा है के क्या अमरीकी निष्कास के बाद इस युद्धसे बेजार राष्ट्रको स्थिरता प्राप्त होगी या फिरसे अराजकता नियंत्रण लेगी ? शान्ती प्रक्रियामे रूचि रखनेवालो के लिए आज अराजकता की आशंका ...