Even as India, Pakistan have seemed on the edge of war, their intelligence services have often sought to find space to de-escalate tensions and reduce risks for the two countries.
Cutting trade ties with Pakistan is easier said than done: the neighbouring country is Afghanistan’s largest single trading partner, taking in 45 per cent of Afghan exports in 2024.
Fourteen million refugees, and 25 million facing acute hunger, should be reason enough for the world to dismantle the dystopia in Sudan — even if the sadism of its rulers is not.
Pakistan massively enhanced the funding for Islamists in Afghanistan, hoping to bury ethnic nationalism. That strategy has now backfired spectacularly.
The test raises a question. Why have Russian nuclear strategists now invested in the Burevestnik, when the US abandoned nuclear ramjet propulsion in 1964?
Taliban factions nurture the TTP as both an ideological ally and because Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada’s regime views the borderlands as Afghan, not Pakistani.
The lessons of earlier American regime-change efforts should be obvious. The dismantling of Iran’s regime could lead to the breakdown of state authority and the rise of warlords.
Major energy infrastructure is in the crosshairs of the conflict, raising risks of the biggest shock since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Qatar’s largest LNG plant remains shut, fuelling supply fears.
Sinking of the ship has raised eyebrows in the Indian defence and security establishment. Lankan navy has recovered several bodies, believed to be of crew members.
The Pakistani political leadership is weak and devoid of any intellect. Its diplomacy is entirely India-China-US focused and suffers from a presumptive view of Afghanistan as a vassal.
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