Asia

The recently completed visit by senior Israeli politician Benny Gantz to Washington and London, and especially its positive outcome, not only attracted world media attention, but may also provide an indication about who may be Israel’s next Prime Minister. This raises the question of just who Benny Gantz is, and why he was honored with an invitation to the two capitals, given that current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never paid an official visit to Washington, at least…

A joint Saudi-Iranian-Chinese trilateral statement was signed in Beijing on 10 March last year. In the statement, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to resume diplomatic relations and open their official missions. They were suspended in 2016 following attacks on Saudi institutions in Iran during protests against Riyadh’s execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr on terrorism charges. The terms of the agreement also included the unblocking of cooperation in various fields, which was signed 20 years ago. The March agreement came as a surprise, with a number of Middle East experts describing it as “historic”…

The Indian leadership’s foreign policy has traditionally been characterised by a multi-vector and independent foreign policy, intolerance of any external pressure or imposition of foreign recommendations and advice. New Delhi can afford such an independent foreign policy, given India’s status as a major Asian power, its claim to a certain global role and its self-confidence as the world’s third largest economy. And no major power would dare dictate its terms to India, knowing that such an action would inevitably be met with rejection…