Comment & Briefs

The Cheonan incident came at a very inopportune time for North Korea, irrespective of the fact whether Pyongyang had any hand in it or not.

Nagas and Meiteis need to practice reciprocal restraint, generate new inclusive political narratives that focus on common values and ties, and establish a reconciliation forum to promote harmony.

The hard lesson of Chintalnar is that the police are simply not investing enough in their frontline leadership and training to tackle the situation. Even when attempts have been made to bring in competence, the efforts to acquire required counterinsurgency skills have been marginal.

Instead of taking up new areas in its summit declarations, SAARC should focus on trade, connectivity and security and the need to develop a regional identity. Only a regional identity will generate a regional approach.

Even though the respective military exercise held by Pakistan and India are about handling of respective offensive reserves, the message that emerges is that their employment is best avoided.

The first step for China to formalise the deal is to inform the NSG member countries of its plans to export two reactors to Pakistan or seek relaxation for the future supply of reactors.

While India’s latest defence budget has no doubt catered for a sizeable capital component, it may be prudent to reduce costs by switching to more affordable programmes.

Whereas employing Armed Forces may appear to be an attractive idea to control the naxal menace, the adverse effects of their long term commitment, particularly of the Army, need to be understood.

Unless the SCOMET list includes munitions items, and is harmonised with the Wassanaar Agreement list, India will be unable to get the full benefits of international commerce in defence goods.

While the United States charges Iran of being in non-compliance with its NPT obligations, Iran points out that the United States and other NPT nuclear weapon states are in non-compliance of Articles IV and VI, among other provisions.