India is planning to host an international investors summit in occupied Kashmir later this year that might realistically attract the attention of Russian businessmen given the comprehensive revival of relations between these two Great Powers as of late, but any stakes that Moscow establishes in this disputed region would make it an indirect party to…
“The hasty stroke goes oft astray.” This piece of remembered wisdom from The Lord of the Rings seems to be an apt description of the Indian military siege of Kashmir. On August 5th, at midnight local time, the disputed territory was abruptly cut off from all communication, both with the outside world and within Kashmir,…
On August 23 the New York Timesreported that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs “won’t say why foreign journalists continue to be blocked from setting foot in Kashmir” but managed to obtain a compelling first-hand account of one of the thousands of arrests by the authorities. In this instance “Asifa Mubeen was woken up by…
It appears as if the situation developing in the South Asian region has taken on even darker undertones than those described by this author two weeks earlier, i.e. almost immediately after Article 370 of India’s Constitution had been de facto revoked. The Parliament of India passed the corresponding Act on 5 August of this year,…
Recent diametrically opposed responses to repression of Muslims by China, India and other Asian countries highlight deep differences among Gulf states that ripple across Asia. The different responses were evident in Gulf reactions to India’s unilateral withdrawal of Kashmir’s autonomy and Qatar’s reversal of its support of China’s brutal clampdown on Turkic Muslims in its…
Russia is reluctant to jeopardize its ultra-profitable arms relationship with India by strategically “balancing” South Asia, which is why the US decided to play this irreplaceable role instead by actively seeking to cut deals in both Afghanistan and Kashmir since Moscow lacks the political will to do so. South Asia’s “Deal Of The Century” The…
