Unlike his predecessor Lt Gen Faiz Hameedwho revelled in publicity [remember his tea sipping photo in Kabul just days after Taliban had seized power], the current ISI chief Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum appeared to be a mysterious spymaster belonging to the old-school who preferred to remain in the shadows. At least that’s what everyone thought, because soon after taking charge […]

Alone at the Top (FPRI) — The Party Congress was expected to reaffirm, and perhaps further consolidate, Xi Jinping’s position as the most dominant Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, and to give him an extraordinary third and—physical and political health permitting—term as general secretary. In March of next year, Xi is on track for an unprecedented third term as state […]

The ‘Pivot to Asia’, the strategic rebalance announced by President Barack Obama in 2011 and early 2012, marked a significant shift in US foreign policy priorities from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific. While speaking at the Australian Parliament in November 2011, Obama stated that as a Pacific nation, “the United States will play a larger and long-term role in […]

A shootout with militants in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday killed two soldiers, authorities said as a counterterrorism task force arrested a suspect involved in the recent killing of a former top judge of the country’s restive southwestern Baluchistan province. According to a military statement, the shootout took place in the Darazinda area, in the district of Dera Ismail Khan in […]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban), met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a recent visit to Turkey and assured support to the Palestinian resistance against Israel, according to a Dari-language report by an Afghan news agency.[1] The Afghan Taliban delegation led by Zabihullah Mujahid met with Ismail Haniyeh and other […]

Modi’s silence on Xi’s being elected party chief for a third term is but the latest sign of a deteriorating relationship. India-China relations, never really happy, are at a new low now. There were signs of a rapprochement in the first six years of Modi’s Premiership, but the situation deteriorated sharply after the deadly clashes on the border in 2020. […]

Within the current global geopolitical changes, growing support is fast underway to give enough preparations for Saudi Arabia and possible a few others to join BRICS, an organization made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. China will hand over the chair to South Africa early 2023. China and Russia have been pushing for the expansion of BRICS, […]

More than 10 months after the United Nations launched its largest ever single-country appeal to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, less than half of the appeal has been funded, with Muslim governments conspicuously missing on the list of major donors. “Afghanistan is facing a harsh winter,” Tomas Niklasson, European Union special envoy for Afghanistan, warned in a Twitter thread […]

In October 2022, India abstained from voting in a UN Security Council draft resolution against Russia’s annexation of areas of Ukrainian territory it has seized. This passive support for Vladimir Putin’s imperialism is at odds with India’s membership of the Quad — the other three Quad nations voted to condemn Russian aggression. India’s vote underlines that on defence and security […]

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) says it will distribute 400,000 tons of coal at a discounted rate to Kabul city residents in order to prevent a sharp rise in fuel prices this winter. The decision was made by a special fuel price control commission headed by the deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar. According to Abdul Salam Jawad, […]