India and the World

Oslo Calling: Why Norway matters to India

- by India Writes Network

The three-day state visit by President Pranab Mukherjee to Norway beginning October 12 is indicative of the growing importance New Delhi is now attaching to its ties with Oslo, described by a senior Indian diplomat as “problem-free” in all these many years. There are several reasons why India is seeking to push for even closer ties across a range of areas with Norway, not the least of which would be greater co-operation in the energy sector.
India is also eyeing a larger slice of the pie from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which is the largest sovereign wealth fund in Europe with $ 850 billion in its kitty. Keen to give the infrastructure and other sectors the necessary boost, India wants a substantial increase in the current investment that stands at a piffling $4 billion at present.

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No politics please, India has responded to Pakistan’s aggression with courage: PM

- by Manish Chand

Don’t play politics with issues of national security. Talking straight, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned on his critics who has charged him of soft-pedalling Pakistan’s ceasefire violations as he asserted that India has responded to the aggression with courage.
“Today, when bullets are being fired on the border, it is the enemy that is screaming. Our jawans have responded to the aggression with courage,” Modi said at an election rally at Baramati in Maharashtra, India’s poll-bound western state.
The recent wave of violence along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir has been the worst of its kind in more than a decade. The timing of the relentless firing seeing in the last few days by the Pakistan Rangers on the Indian posts, killing and wounding several civilians, shows the hand of Pakistan’s powerful military, which is desperately trying to keep the Kashmir issue alive internationally amid a renewed global confidence in the India Story.

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India calls Pakistan aggressor, warns adventurism will be costly

- by India Writes Network

Calling Pakistan an aggressor, India has toughened its stance on what it sees as unprovoked ceasefire violations, with the country’s defence minister warning grimly that Indian forces will “make this adventurism costly and unaffordable.”
“Pakistan in these attacks has clearly been the aggressor but it must realise that our deterrence will be credible. If Pakistan persists with this adventurism, our forces will make the cost of this adventurism unaffordable,’’ Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said in a statement on border situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The worst ceasefire violations in more than a decade, which has killed nine people and displaced several hundreds, has stressed India-Pakistan ties, with the two countries indulging in an endless game of mutual recrimination. It’s not clear what’s driving this frenzy of unprovoked aggression from the Pakistani side, but many analysts see this as a desperate assertion by Pakistan’s all-powerful military to re-assert control over Islamabad’s New Delhi policy.

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Why China is wary of India-US statement on South China Sea

- by Manish Chand

The first-ever reference to South China Sea in an India-US joint statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington has riled Beijing, and revived the latter’s fears about the world’s two largest democracies acting in concert on a larger China containment strategy.
Predictably, China, which, according to the IMF, has taken over the US to become the world’s largest economy on purchasing power parity terms, has asserted that the South China Sea sovereignty issue should be resolved directly by parties concerned and without meddling from any third party.
Much to the discomfort of Beijing, India’s Act East policy and the US rebalance to Asia are converging in some respects to promote peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific theatre.

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India-Pakistan border tensions: PM Modi gives ‘full hand’, says everything will be fine

- by India Writes Network

Amid the most intense cross-border firing between India and Pakistan in a decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to have given security forces a “free hand” in dealing with Pakistani troops, and assured that “everything will be fine soon.”
Nine Pakistani and eight Indian civilians have been slaughtered since fighting erupted more than week ago in the worst case of ceasefire violations since 2003. The two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have accused each other of targeting civilians and unprovoked violations of the 11-year-old ceasefire agreement.
The mood has turned sour and belligerent on both sides. India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Border Security Force to return Pakistan’s firing with full force.
Mr Modi, who surprised many by inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other leaders of the South Asian countries at his swearing-in ceremony in May, said in Kashmir cryptically: “Everything will be fine.” His statement seemed to indicate that India will retaliate with full vigour even as Pakistan raised the issue at the UN.

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UN reform process has acquired a critical mass: India’s UN envoy

- by India Writes Network

The United Nations will turn 70 in 2015. But the world body is increasingly looking like a relic of the past and is badly in need of reform to stay relevant amid the ceaseless flux in geopolitics in the 21st century. Amid the defining shift of power from the west to the rest and the emergence of India on the global stage, the case for the reform and expansion of the UN Security Council has become all the more urgent. In his maiden address at the UNGA, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a robust pitch for reform of the UNSC to “make it more democratic and participative.” “Institutions that reflect the imperatives of 20th century won’t be effective in the 21st century. The world in the 21st century has changed and will be changing at a faster pace. It becomes imperative that we formulate according to the changing times and new ideas of 21st century to sustain our relevance,” Mr Modi told delegates at the 69th session of the UNGA.
In this free-wheeling interview with Manish Chand, Editor-in-Chief of India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org) in New York, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Kumar Mukherji speaks about India’s strategy for accelerating the reform of the UNSC, the enthusiastic support for India’s candidature for a permanent seat in the powerful council and the way ahead on Prime Minister Modi’s initiative to get the UN to designate an International Yoga Day.

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