ICYMI#TheTribuneOpinion: BRICS, Quad and the new bipolar world
India should avoid ending up as a bargaining chip in the new superpower game
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are expected to visit India in September for BRICS summit, even as the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting is being hosted by New Delhi on May 25. The return of both BRICS and Quad is a good sign because both are centres of stability, writes Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra in her weekly column The Great Game (India returns to its geopolitical centre). The Trump visit to Beijing a few days back told us that China will continue to refuse to confront the Americans because the US remains its largest trading partner. While Putin’s visit to Beijing tells us that Russia will continue to seek the stabilisation of key relationships, such as China and India, she writes.
A landmark geopolitical event, Xi-Trump summit in Beijing marks the acknowledgement of a bipolar equation among proximate powers. However, India should avoid ending up as a bargaining chip in the new superpower game, writes former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in his Edit article Bipolar world order is here to stay. The Chinese perception is that in the changed geopolitical equation, Beijing can press forward its advantage on Taiwan. The structural confrontation between the US and China will continue, but the nature of the equation has changed. Though Trump is unpredictable, he is now locked in a dynamic that would be difficult to reverse, he avers.
Clearly, the Chinese see the scales tilting increasingly in their favour, writes Jabin T Jacob, Fellow, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, in his Edit article Xi has the measure of Trump. China pushed the US more strongly than it has ever done on the Taiwan issue. If there is one constant about Chinese foreign policy, it is that whatever the diplomatic rhetoric, Beijing has always acted only in its own interest. Xi appeared to have the measure of his guest, he writes.
There is little doubt that Xi held the best cards. Unlike the other two who are bogged down on wars they want to exit from, China is able to present itself as a factor for global stability and an economic powerhouse, writes ORF Distinguished Fellow Manoj Joshi in his Op-Ed article China balances Washington and Moscow carefully.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first stopover in the United Arab Emirates in his five-nation tour coincided with the conclusion of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China. His visit to Abu Dhabi was largely aimed at boosting President Sheikh Mohamed’s morale than creating new strategic openings, writes former Ambassador to Iran and UAE KC Singh in his Edit article India, UAE navigate shifting sands.
During PM Modi’s tour of Europe, a Norwegian journalist asked MEA secretary Sibi George questions during his media briefing in Oslo. On the question 'Can India promise to try to stop the human rights violations in the country', the inescapable conclusion is that giving a lengthy answer, George tried to show certain sections in India that he was giving a fitting reply to an impertinent Western journalist, writes former Secretary, Ministry Of External Affairs, Vivek Katju, in his Edit article Diplomats need not play to the gallery. Certainly, there is a place for lectures in which diplomats can be expansive in their explanations, but responses at a press conference have to be worded differently, he explains.
Indian diplomats should not forget their basic objectives. They should resist the temptation of becoming the favourites of the faithful in India, he writes.
Chief Justice Surya Kant, in an open court hearing, declared that "parasites" were attacking the system and referred to the unemployed youth as cockroaches. His 'cockroaches' remark inevitably led to the Cockroach Janta Party. The CJP may never file a nomination paper. It may never contest an election. But it has done something arguably more important: it has given a name, an identity, and a vocabulary to a generation's rage, writes Suhel Seth, founder, Counselage India, in his Op-Ed article The cockroach has spoken. India should listen. Movements do not arrive fully formed; they gather energy from precisely these kinds of cultural flashpoints, he writes.
RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale’s ‘people-to-people contact with Pakistan’ remarks define a new approach to Pakistan, very different from the one that PM Modi has followed since 2019. Political grandstanding at home will never deliver the results India needs from its relations with Pakistan, writes senior journalist Sanjaya Baru in his Edit article Hosabale opens a window. Pakistan has to be acknowledged as a neighbour that India should have a means to deal with. What are the compulsions — diplomatic, economic and political — that have now forced the RSS and BJP to retreat from their earlier stand, he asks.
