The post-Cold War strategic landscape in Eurasia saw the emergence of the Multipolar Trilateral of Russia, India, and China in the late 1990s and early 2000s, brought about by the dedicated diplomatic efforts of Russia’s former Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov. These three Great Powers would later form the basis for BRICS, and the pragmatic relations…
Iran’s influential Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is in the midst of a three day visit to Pakistan where he has been warmly welcomed by officials in Islamabad. One of the sticking points between the two countries, is a myth perpetuated in the Indian media that New Delhi’s investment in Iran’s Chabahar Port on the Gulf of…
Iranian officials are in discussions with their Russian counterparts about finalising agreements regarding Iran’s future membership of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic single market of nations established in 2015, with the aim of harmoniously re-uniting the diverse economies of the wider Eurasian space and beyond. The EAEU’s current…
The North-South Transport Corridor is a joint initiative of nations who have built and continue to expand shipping and road links between South Asia, Northern Eurasia and Europe. The map below shows the basic route which beings with a shipping lane between India and Iran’s Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, before travelling north…
One of the top roller-coaster sagas in what, some years ago, I christened Pipelineistan, has yielded a definitive twist. The US$8 billion,1,814-kilometer Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) was officially inaugurated on Friday, in full pomp, and with proceedings broadcast live on Afghan TV, on the Turkmen-Afghan border close to Herat. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani hosted Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan…
India’s American-backed anti-Chinese “containment” strategy seeks to have New Delhi establish control over crucial nodes along the Sea Lines Of Communication (SLOC) in the Afro-Indian Ocean, but the country’s plans are being thwarted by China’s ingenuity in crafting asymmetrical workarounds to these future chokepoints. Background Dynamics Make no mistake about it, there’s a New Cold…
