Articles By Kanwal Sibal

Indian Foreign Policy: Future Challenges
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 06 Dec , 2012
I feel honoured at being asked to speak today to such a distinguished audience on a subject that is of great interest to foreign policy practitioners and commentators alike. What are the...

Expanding the Idea of Asia
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 29 Nov , 2012
As economic power shifts increasingly to Asia and affects global political equations, adddressing security issues in the region becomes more pressing. Can the often discussed pan-Asian security...

SOFT POWER counts for very little!
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 30 Oct , 2012
If the US lacked the overwhelming “hard power” it has, if global institutions were not dominated by it, if it did not actively propagate its political,economic and societal values world-wide,...

India has no reason to trust China
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Oct , 2012
We have to deal with China pragmatically, within the framework of our serious political differences and opportunities for economic engagement. China has grown into a formidable economic power,...

American elections: No impact on ties with India
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Oct , 2012
The upcoming presidential election in the United States lacks the excitement of the election four years ago when Barack Obama made history by being the first black person ever to occupy the White...

Why PM should avoid visiting Pakistan now?
By: Kanwal Sibal | Date: 25 Sep , 2012
As the bigger country, India is often exhorted to be generous with Pakistan. Those advocating a sustained dialogue with Pakistan, irrespective of its conduct towards us, have such thinking,...

Granting Pak the Upper Hand
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 12 Sep , 2012
Another round of the India-Pakistan dialogue has been completed with External Affairs Minister Krishna’s visit to Islamabad on September 8. The agreement on relaxing the visa regime and holding...

Emerging Asian Security Environment
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol 24.1 Jan-Mar 2009 | Date: 05 Sep , 2012
To address the security challenges that Asia faces, the question needs to be asked whether any coherent concept of Asian security exists. Is Asia an integrated geographical entity, are its...

Is it time to 'junk' NAM?
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 28 Aug , 2012
The NAM Summit in Teheran (August 26 to 31) provides an occasion for some general reflections on the movement, its salience today and India’s role in it. For those who have always decried the...

India’s Foreign Policy: Right Choice of Friends
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 23 Aug , 2012
A new debate has started on the nature of a redefined Indian foreign policy that takes into account the country’s transformed relations with the United States of America. The latter is openly...

India’s defence ties with Europe
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Aug , 2012
To appreciate better the subject of India’s defence relations with Europe some reflections of a general nature would be pertinent. The point needs to be made right at the start that India does...

A Diplomatic View of the MMRCA Deal
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 14 Jul , 2012
The Americans seemed to have proceeded on the assumption that with India placing orders for advanced US defence equipment such as 6 C-130J aircraft and 8 P-8I long range maritime patrol aircraft,...

India-Pakistan: Yet another round of platitudes
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 06 Jul , 2012
For those cynical about the dialogue process with Pakistan, the lack of substance in the joint statement issued after the latest round of Foreign Secretary level talks (July 4-5) confirms our...

Our real adversary is China not the US!
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 26 Jun , 2012
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to India on June 5-6 and the third round of the India-US Strategic dialogue at Washington on June 13 have provoked much commentary on the direction of...

US offer calls for finesse
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Jun , 2012
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent visit to India brings to the fore again the question of the depth India should impart to India-US defence ties. Panetta has been explicit about...

Pak bigger terrorist threat than Iran
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 24 May , 2012
India-US relations have neither burgeoned as much as the enthusiasts may have wanted nor withered as much as the skeptics may have anticipated. The relationship is neither in an impasse nor is it...

No Ground to Vacate Siachen
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 08 May , 2012
Peace with Pakistan is a desirable goal, but peace should be equally desired by both sides and both should contribute to it in equal measure. The burden of making peace should not fall on India...

India and its neighbours
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol 25.1 Jan-Mar 2010 | Date: 16 Feb , 2012
< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> It is considered almost axiomatic that management of relations with neighbours should be the first priority of any countrys foreign policy. The stakes are always high as conditions in its...

India-US Relations: Future Trajectory
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 16 Dec , 2011
The confidence of the Indian establishment that India–US relations were set on a steep upward trajectory has eroded noticeably with President Obama replacing President Bush. Even though...

The Darkness in Afghanistan
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 18 Nov , 2011
Even as the US is withdrawing, its leaders insist that they are not going to abandon Afghanistan, that they will maintain their long term commitment to it and not allow any single country to...