Comment & Briefs

Though world opinion is still divided on whether the FMCT would include past stocks or not, Pakistan appears to have decided to continue with the production of fissile materials and oppose any talks at the CD.

To the credit of Shaikh Hasina she managed the foreign policy of Bangladesh as well as macro economic situation of the country well.

The IPL decision not to choose Pakistani players proved a windfall for South Block, which had failed to convey India’s displeasure and unhappiness to the Pakistan government through the usual diplomatic channels.

The Indo-Pak peace conference concluded with a pledge to uphold democracy, but failed to demonstrate it by limiting its invitation only to representatives from the Kashmir valley and ignoring other stakeholders.

There is a contradiction between the CCP methodology which is based on loyalty to the authoritarian ideology and the information age which recognizes the importance of the individual as a critical entity.

The military dialogue seems likely to remain suspended over the arms sales issue; discord over Iran’s nuclear issue may increase and more war of words may define the relationships between the two countries.

To gain the trust of Seoul and Beijing, the DPJ government plans to present a bill in the Diet for granting the right of franchise to foreign nationals registered as permanent residents, a majority of whom are South Korean and Chinese.

Unless Baloch nationalists get their act together in pursuit of ‘achievable nationhood’, it will be only a matter of time before this latest upsurge in Balochistan will be brutally crushed.

Bhutan and China have decided on a joint field survey to enable harmonising the reference points and names of the disputed areas.

The landslide victory of Awami League in Bangladesh elections created hope of revival of the 1972 constitution of which secularism was an important element. The government of Shaikh Hasina is trying to deal with this issue in a cautious manner.