On July 24, India and the UK signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), officially referred to as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), wrapping up over three years of negotiations and fourteen rounds that began at the start of 2022. After several British Prime Ministers and missed deadlines, the agreement, which was concluded in May this year, has finally come to see the light of day.
The G7’s future relevance will depend on its ability to stay united, share space, and shape the agenda with rising powers like India.
Growing temptations to launch pre-emptive strikes against adversary’s nuclear facilities.
For anyone who is piqued by US President Donald Trump’s deceptive diplomacy, where ‘strategic ambiguity’ is a policy choice, his volte face on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) offers key insights. During the recently-held NATO summit in The Hague, perhaps the biggest development was Trump’s metamorphosed views that NATO remains relevant for the US.
The Canadian election may have been somewhat eclipsed by US President Donald Trump's trade war, but within the country, Canada turned a political corner. In many ways, the Canadian election results have depicted how the grounds have shifted considerably since the last election in 2021. First, the Liberal party has made a rather expected comeback with just a few seats shy of the majority needed to form the government. In its fourth successive mandate, the Liberal Party has shown a remarkable resilience in sustaining popularity. However, this time, the external factor in Donald Trump was more consequential in galvanising sentiments inside Canada than the Liberal party's own steps towards political revival.
That Pakistan lives in its own delusionary world was evident once again when its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed the ceasefire understanding with India a “historic victory" in his address to the nation. Describing Pakistan as the victim of an “unjustified war" allegedly waged by India and using the Pahalgam incident as a pretext, he portrayed the ceasefire not as a diplomatic understanding initiated by Islamabad, but as the result of Pakistan’s supposed military prowess.