Comment & Briefs

SM Krishna’s visit marks the stepping up of India’s newly pronounced ‘connect Central Asia’ policy, although the biggest challenge is convert the proposals into reality.

There is much scope for imaginative thinking on the desirability, compatibility of goals and feasibility of the political, cultural and socio-economic components of the new compact as suggested by the Interlocutors.

It is important that the ULFA talks do not get enmeshed on issues that create divisions, counter-claims and result in lack of consensus leading to a locked positional dialogue with no resolution in sight.

Since the idea of export controls may be new for a large number of countries, and most of the proposed provisions are borrowed from existing systems in developed countries, the treaty should be flexible enough to remove redundant provisions and adopt new provisions suitable for changed circumstances.

Unless the Central Asian states, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Russia jointly contribute towards ensuring stability, Afghanistan is likely to fall to the Taliban again or even break up.

Genuine negotiation efforts, timely discussions, and broader participation of groups asserting rights based on identity are necessary to help break the impasse in Nepali politics on the issue of federalism.

Recent reports from Pakistan seem to suggest the Pakistan Navy (PN) may be on the cusp of developing a naval nuclear missile capability, even as its plans for acquiring a nuclear submarine capability gradually become clearer.

There are fears that the NSCN (Khaplang) and NSCN (Khole and Kitovi) will clash violently in big towns like Dimapur and districts like Mon for turf control since both outfits inhabit the same territorial space.

Ajey Lele argues that, in its present avatar, the International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities is not capable of realizing its stated aim fully because it lacks an accountability mechanism.

India should support the idea of TCBMs (transparency and confidence building measures) as a first step towards a code of conduct or eventual cyber security convention.