Articles By Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.)

Netanyahu's India visit: Promoting mutual strategic interests
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 16 Jan , 2018
The visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India (January 14-19) commemorates the 25th anniversary of the opening of an Indian embassy in Tel Aviv in 1992 and will further...

Will Xi sign up on Modi's SAGAR vision?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 16 Dec , 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined India’s maritime potential and current profile in a commendable manner at the commissioning ceremony of INS Kalvari, a Scorpene-class diesel submarine at...

India-Singapore naval agreement: Significance beyond the bilateral
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 02 Dec , 2017
India and Singapore signed the India-Singapore Bilateral Agreement (Nov 29) for naval cooperation during the second Defence Minister’s Dialogue held in Delhi between the two countries. This...

India raises its profile in ASEAN
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 22 Nov , 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Manila for the 12th East Asia Summit (EAS) November 13-14 also included a hectic schedule of bilateral and multilateral meetings, such as the...

Djibouti on New Delhi's radar: Horn of Africa is new arena of India-China...
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 16 Oct , 2017
The visit of President Ram Nath Kovind to Djibouti (October 3 -4) is the first ever high level political visit by an Indian leader to that small nation in the Horn of Africa. While India has old,...

Pakistan’s ISI thwarts US plans in Afghanistan
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 09 Oct , 2017
Almost 16 years to the day since the US embarked upon its war on terrorism against the Afghan Taliban on October 7, 2001 as reprisal for the enormity of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it appears that...

Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh (1919-2017): Man of Stupendous Achievements
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 18 Sep , 2017
It is appropriate and befitting, given his stature and distinctive profile, that the only Marshal of the Air Force (MAF), Arjan Singh, was accorded a state funeral with the national flag flown at...

A woman defence minister for India: Can she redress the voids?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 04 Sep , 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke a symbolic glass ceiling in Indian politics when it was announced that Nirmala Sitharaman , the erstwhile junior minister for commerce, had been elevated...

Malabar 2017: Was China the Elephant in the Ocean?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 19 Jul , 2017
A spectacular image of three carriers steaming abreast with 12 other naval ships following in formation marked the conclusion of Malabar 2017 on Monday (July 17). The week long, three-nation...

First Modi-Trump meeting: Will the deal-makers make any deal?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 26 Jun , 2017
The global and regional strategic context for the first Modi-Trump meeting on Monday (June 26) is reflected in the veiled cautionary statement from Beijing to “non-regional countries” in...

Astana to Washington: Modi needs to navigate through tricky strategic waters
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Jun , 2017
Participating in the Beijing-led SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit at Astana, Kazakhstan on Friday (June 9) where both India and Pakistan were admitted as full members, after having...

Neglect of national security: PM Modi needs to redress major deficiencies
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 13 May , 2017
The month of May this year has multiple relevance for India’s military and strategic security. It got off to an inauspicious start with the beheading of two Indian security personnel on May 1...

Bloody February in Pakistan: Can the country change course?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 25 Feb , 2017
February has been a particularly bloody month by way of the innocents killed across south Asia by religious zealots wedded to the ideology of terrorism. This pre-meditated cycle of bloodshed,...

India's Military Modernisation: Trapped in a Fiscal Strait Jacket
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 10 Feb , 2017
The nation budget was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, 2017 and the allocation for defence offers some instructive insights about how India plans to nurture its military...

Surgical Strike: India Must Stay the Course
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 30 Sep , 2016
The much awaited post-Uri response has now come into the public domain by way of a counter-terror “Surgical Strike”. While the Modi government has remained committed to a path of restraint, the...

Make in India Defence Programme: Easier Said Than Done
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 11 Jul , 2016
The successful induction of the first two Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) into the Indian Air Force provides the appropriate backdrop to the recent announcement of the Narendra Modi government...

India and the Global Regimes: Bipartisan Consensus can Make Things Move
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 10 Jul , 2016
Even as the politico-strategic impact of UK leaving the European Union (EU) is being assessed, certain new patterns are emerging as regards the global governance of Weapons of Mass Destruction...

China wants a Beijing-led Asian Century: India peripheral to its Strategic...
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 27 Jun , 2016
The plenary meeting of the 48-member NSG (nuclear suppliers group) held in Seoul concluded on June 24 with no specific reference to India’s application as a participating government. China...

China's Cynical Realpolitik: India Needs to Review NSG Stance
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 21 Jun , 2016
China has just tipped its hand in relation to India ahead of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary in Seoul on June 24. An op-ed in the Global Times (June 14) titled ‘India mustn’t let...

Afghanistan and Qatar: Indian Foreign Policy Balancing the Contrast
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Date: 08 Jun , 2016
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi who has just completed two years in office in end -May has demonstrated a high degree of personal involvement in foreign policy matters and has commenced his...