In September 2022, Afghanistan signed its first major international agreement to import Russian fuel and wheat The Afghan Minister of Trade and Industry in the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), Nooruddin Azizi, told Sputnik on 19 May that his country is looking to buy Russian oil products, and is particularly interested in a contract with Moscow’s Tatneft energy firm. […]

The brief arrest of the former PM has again unleashed political turmoil in Pakistan, amid speculation that powerful military opponents may have orchestrated the unrest for their own interests. Following the spectacular arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan over an alleged corruption case on 9 May, Pakistan veered into anarchy and mayhem for a couple of days as enraged […]

The vast majority of the Afghanistan habitants are young people under 25 years of age which account for about 63.7 percent of the overall populace in the country, according to UNFPA. During the military role in the past decade, the youth also made up most of the government force which fought the Taliban face to face. Today, those Afghan youth […]

Pakistan has a protracted history of political unrest. Numerous crises have recently affected the nation, notably the no-confidence vote that resulted in Imran Khan’s resignation as prime minister in April 2022. The ongoing political unrest in Pakistan is damaging the country’s reputation abroad for a range of reasons. First, investor trust in Pakistan has decreased as a result of the […]

SINO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE AND GLOBAL POLITICSWith the Sino-Russian declaration of “ no limits” to their cooperation one wonders if Joe Biden’s call for democracy as the pillar of a free world is going to be attractive to the developing world. Decades back many developing countries were freed from mainly British rule and some from the colonial rule of Portugal and Spain […]

India’s foreign policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi firmly stands on the premise that it can serve the country’s national interest better not by forging military alliances with any great powers but by diversifying strategic partnerships with many countries through a policy of multi-alignment. Besides, the country can also avoid excessive military obligations and commitments arising out […]

A disturbing trend of polarization and the use of incendiary politics by Imran Khan has been the mainstay of the political affairs in Pakistan. Imran Khan’s constant attacks on his rivals can be seen as one of the contributing factors to Pakistan’s deep polarization today. Imran Khan’s political strategy has relied heavily on stoking divisions among various segments of Pakistani […]

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration dramatically increased Japan’s 2023 defence budget by 26.3 per cent in 2022 to 6.82 trillion yen (US$52 billion). During former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership, the defence budget steadily increased to 5.3 trillion yen (US$39 billion) but stayed between 5–5.2 per cent of the whole government budget. Kishida has now increased the defence budget […]

The 42nd ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings in Indonesia remain the most critical crossroads for the immediate and long term relevance and fate of ASEAN’s role in the region and beyond. It exposes the most consequential crossroads with the lingering Myanmar debacle that bears the futility of ASEAN’s approach, unchecked tensions in the South China Sea, futile efforts for conflict […]

There is not a day that goes by without breaking news on escalating tensions in the South China Sea, as regional powers like Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia increasingly contest China’s efforts to exert dominance of the strategic waterway through which moves a fifth of global trade. Yet beneath these rising tensions, the spectre of European colonialism lurks undetected. The […]