As we bid adieu to the year 2023, we are witnessing a global order that has been fundamentally reconfigured - politically, economically and diplomatically. Trends that were simmering below the surface for the last few years have burst into the open, revealing in the all their complexities the challenges that are becoming difficult to manage by extant frameworks and institutions.
India recently seconded a senior diplomat to drive BIMSTEC, or ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation’
A process that started in August 2019 finally culminated this week when the Supreme Court placed its seal of approval on the Narendra Modi government's decision to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution.
In early December, India’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval, took part in the sixth NSA meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC). The meeting reviewed the developments and progress made by the CSC in the last year and agreed upon a road map for the year 2024 to promote a safe, secure, and stable Indian Ocean.
While efforts are being made to ensure freedom of navigation, the hotspots in the region, including in Gaza and Yemen and the civilian and humanitarian strife which can spiral out of control, need to be addressed on global priority. The Red Sea, with its strategic maritime routes, is an important artery for trade and sea borne traffic as well as for the choke points in the Bab-El Mandab which needs to be kept open.
Neither of them wants an economic MAD (mutually assured destruction), and this is a tactical pause. This is the third column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
Xi and Biden, neither of them wants an economic MAD (mutually assured destruction), and this is a tactical pause.