Grand summits rarely live up to their billing. Yet the recent G20 gathering in Johannesburg, overshadowed by America’s conspicuous absence, nonetheless produced an unexpected diplomatic ripple: the articulation of a tentative new strategic triangle linking India, Australia and Canada. Framed as a partnership for technology, clean energy and resilient supply chains, the initiative says much about how middle powers are reshaping the world’s geopolitical geometry. For Prime Mini

Britain has unveiled its most far-reaching asylum reforms in decades, reshaping how the country grants refuge amid rising public frustration over immigration. The UK government has announced its most significant asylum reforms in decades, fundamentally reshaping how the country grants refuge amid growing public frustration over rising immigration, which has fuelled protests nationwide this year. Before 2020, Britain’s net migration usually ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 a

Missed diplomatic chances in Southeast Asia suggest that New Delhi’s decade-old policy may be running out of steam just as regional rivalry intensifies. For more than a decade, India’s Act East policy has promised a deeper political, economic and civilisational immersion in Southeast Asia. Yet in recent years, as strategic contests sharpen across the Indo-Pacific, New Delhi’s voice in its eastern neighbourhood has appeared curiously subdued. Missed diplomatic openings and mut

An airport detention in Shanghai revives Beijing’s territorial obsessions and tests a fragile thaw with India. China is back to its old tricks claiming land that never belonged to them. They have long said that the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to them. Last week they detained an Indian from Arunachal Pradesh because her passport mentioned her place of birth. Just when a thaw appeared to set in, China has provoked India once again, this time by targeting an Indian

Trump’s G20 boycott handed Narendra Modi an unlikely spotlight while showing that the world’s biggest economies can still act even when Washington sulks. When the United States absents itself from global diplomacy, the usual assumption is that the world grinds to a halt. The recently concluded twentieth G20 summit in Johannesburg, boycotted by President Donald Trump and the US over allegations that South Africa was persecuting its white Afrikaner minority, offered a rare coun

China’s quiet rise in Oceania is reshaping Pacific geopolitics, and the Solomon Islands now sit at the centre of this strategic contest. While the South China Sea dominates debate over China’s maritime expansion, China’s quieter but significant rise in Oceania is generating growing geopolitical and security concerns. The Solomon Islands exemplify this shift, emerging as a key arena of competition between China and traditional Western allies. Beijing’s push for deeper security

The diplomatic chill between India and Canada has rarely been as stark as it was during the final years of Justin Trudeau’s premiership. Accusations, expulsions and frozen channels of communication left a relationship once built on shared democratic values looking threadbare. Yet, after months of acrimony and one sensational allegation that pushed ties to their lowest ebb in decades, both countries have now begun edging back toward normalcy. A new political configuration in O

The martial law crisis revealed both the strength of South Korea’s institutions and the fragility of its democracy. South Korea is facing one of its gravest political crises since democratisation in 1987. On 12 November, former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was arrested for allegedly inciting insurrection related to last year’s declaration of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol. His arrest is a key moment in a probe that has already led to senior detentions and Yoon’s impea

Gaza’s fragile ceasefire has exposed the hollowness of the world’s peacekeeper-in-chief. The war in Gaza has fallen, for now, into an uneasy silence. The ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump last month has paused large-scale hostilities, allowing hostage exchanges, partial Israeli withdrawals and the first tentative movements of humanitarian aid. Yet the atmosphere is anything but peaceful. Violations continue, and the political order inside Gaza is already shiftin

A ten-year defence pact between India and the United States signals not just military cooperation, but a strategic recalibration in Asia’s balance of power. Late last month, India and the United States signed a ten-year defence cooperation agreement in Kuala Lumpur that could well reshape the strategic map of Asia. The pact, sealed between India’s Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Department of Defence, extends and expands an existing strategic framework established in 2016, w

The 2025 election unfolded with little real competition — a show of dominance rather than a test of choice. Tanzania held its general election on 29 October, re-electing President Samia Suluhu Hassan with a reported 97% of the vote. The landslide was not unexpected, but its scale and the circumstances surrounding it have renewed scrutiny of the country’s political landscape. Tanzania is often overshadowed by larger African economies such as Nigeria and South Africa or more po

Will Japan’s first woman prime minister restore stability to a nation struggling with rising prices, a shrinking population, and shifting global ties?   Japan has entered a new political chapter with Sanae Takaichi’s appointment as its first female prime minister—a historic milestone amid rising domestic and global challenges. At 64, Takaichi represents both continuity and change: a protégé of Shinzo Abe, she upholds his nationalist vision while steering through a more comple

India’s discreet withdrawal from its only overseas airbase in Tajikistan reflects the shifting nature of Central Asian geopolitics and looming challenges to its Chabahar ambitions. In an unusually muted fashion, India recently confirmed the closure of its first overseas airbase located in Ayni, a village in north-western Tajikistan more than two years after the last Indian personnel packed up and left. The revelation came not through a formal statement but during a routine pr

While the abolition of the  Kafala  system marks a seismic shift in the Gulf’s labour landscape, only time will tell whether its legacy of control and inequality will fade soon. Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to abolish the  Kafala  system - a sponsorship framework that for decades tied millions of foreign workers to their local employers - marks the most consequential labour reform in the Arab world in half a century. For a kingdom built on the toil of migrant labour, the mo

When India bends to Taliban diktats, it betrays not just its journalists, but its own Constitution. A press conference addressed by Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi recently saw participation restricted to a handful of reporters while women journalists were conspicuous by their absence. The Taliban foreign minister was in India on his first official visit, from October 9 to 16 where he attended a press meet presided over by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar bef

ASEAN’s strength lies in unity — but its greatest weakness may be its own consensus. Kuala Lumpur is under its tightest security in years, with 16,000 policemen deployed and major roads sealed for the 47th ASEAN Summit. The event brings together global leaders — including the US President, Chinese Premier, and Indian PM — alongside regional counterparts. Timor-Leste will also join as ASEAN’s 11th member, marking the bloc’s first expansion in over two decades. The summit comes

Partisan shouting matches over growth, GST, and reforms drown out the nuanced discussion India’s economy sorely needs. For much of modern history, the economy has been too important to be left to economists—and too complicated to be left to politicians. That uneasy truth is being tested again. From Washington to New Delhi, the state of the economy has become the prime theatre of political combat. Since America’s “Make America Great Again” era ushered in a new age of tariffs a

The ‘No Kings’ rallies mark a reminder that America’s democracy, however young, still abhors autocracy in any form. Born out of rebellion against monarchy in 1776, America has long defined itself as a nation of citizens, not subjects. Its founding promise was that no man would ever rule by divine right or inherited privilege. Yet nearly 250 years later, that conviction is again being tested. Across major American cities, thousands have rallied under the banner ‘No Kings’ in a

Formed by four democracies after the 2004 tsunami, the QUAD has evolved from relief efforts to tackling shared challenges—from dialogue to delivery. In an era of shifting power and competing global visions, few groupings capture the Indo-Pacific’s geopolitical pulse like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). Comprising India, Japan, Australia and the US, it serves as a vital forum for democracies committed to a free, open and rules-based region. Born of a humanitarian c

From halting the violence in Gaza to confronting Putin over Ukraine, Trump’s high-stakes diplomacy has reasserted U.S. influence at a time of global uncertainty. Donald Trump has always believed the world needs a teacher and that the teacher is him. Few politicians so nakedly revel in self-congratulation, yet few can deny that the former property magnate has once again placed himself at the centre of global diplomacy. The guns in Gaza have fallen silent. Hostages have returne