Diplomacy

New mantra: Don’t just look east, Act East

- by India Writes Network

Looking East is no longer enough. It’s time for India to Act East – this was the overarching message emanating from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s August 24-25 visit to Vietnam.

In her first meeting with 15 Indian Heads of Mission in Southeast and East Asia in Hanoi, Swaraj directed them to ‘Act East,’ and amplified on the BJP-led government’s strategic intent to scale up India’s ties with the region to a new level, a kind of Look East 3.0 version.

Mapping the way ahead, the brainstorming session on August 26 saw the envoys tossing a host of ideas to galvanize India’s Look East policy, which included buttressing India’s growing role and relevance in the security architecture of Southeast Asia and Indo-Pacific region, including the disputed South China Sea and ways to increase India’s integration in the region through trade, tourism and better connectivity.

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India & Vietnam: Old Friends, New Vistas

- by Manish Chand

Look East. Look West. The multifarious relations between India and Vietnam are deepening by the day and are branching out in new directions. In many ways, it’s a perfect match between India’s Look East policy and Vietnam’s Look West policy as the two countries aim high to forge closer strategic, economic and energy ties in days to come. This confluence of interlinked interests will be reflected in the visit of India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Vietnam August 25-26.
Blending IT, education, Buddhism and strategy in its intricate tapestry, the relations between India and Vietnam have effortlessly blended the ancient and the modern to forge a robust contemporary partnership. In the days to come, the only way for the Delhi-Hanoi relationship is to go up, opening new vistas and opportunities for a mutually invigorating and empowering partnership.

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B.K.S Iyengar: World’s yoga guru and India’s global emissary of soft power

- by India Writes Network

If yoga is a global brand today, inspiring millions around the world to pursue wholesome living, much of the credit goes to a man who was born in a small village in Karnataka. With the passing away of Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar at the ripe age of 95 years, the nation has lost a stalwart in the Indian psycho-physical science of Yoga. Aptly, Yoga is referred as ethos of India’s most inspirational soft power to have created a global impact and to a great extent BKS Iyengar had enhanced this to newer heights. This renowned Yoga Guru, often named as the father of modern Yoga, breathed his last at Pune in India’s western state of Maharashtra on August 20.
As for the celebrities around the world who passionately adopted Iyengar Yoga are the famed violinist Yehudi Menuhin, author Aldous Huxley and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar apart from the highly respected philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy. Even the uniformed personnel including the para- military forces have invigorated themselves with yoga. Reportedly, prisons in Israel have adapted Iyengar Yoga as an ideal medium to reform the inmates in the prisons of Israel.

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