South Asian Digests
Indian Govt informs Madurai High Court: No c...
August 3, 2021
Russian tourists make big splash in the Maldi...
August 3, 2021
Growing demands on Afghan Air Force take toll...
August 3, 2021
Supreme Court to hear pleas for probe into Pe...
August 3, 2021
Bangladesh, India start freight train service...
August 2, 2021
Nepal seeks Covid-19 vaccine doses from Bhuta...
August 2, 2021
World’s largest aircraft lands in Karachi
June 25, 2021
Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing thanks R...
June 24, 2021
Top News
The endgame in Afghanistan: Darker clouds gather
August 3, 2021
| By: John McLaughlin
The last time I wrote about Afghanistan, I tried to offer a balanced look at the arguments for both pessimism and modest optimism regarding Afghanistan’s future after the U.S withdrawal. Since then, the omens for the mountainous South Asian country have grown darker, with Afghan forces suffering major losses, significant desertions, and the Taliban expanding its influence and control. There are still a few unknowns, but the ones supporting hope are declining in number and credibility.
Taliban commanders...
SOUTH ASIAN BRIEF
A DIFFICULT MOMENT FOR U.S.-AFGHAN RELATIONS
Welcome to South Asia Brief.
The highlights this week: Afghanistan’s leadership meets U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House at a crucial moment, experts warn of a third coronavirus wave in India, and the Financial Action Task Force reviews Pakistan’s efforts to curb terrorist...
Reports
ASEAN struggles to end Myanmar impasse as week o...
August 3, 2021
|
By: Kentaro Iwamoto
Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers met online on Monday, with the drawn-out crisis in Myanmar high on the agenda.
A meeting that was supposed to last two hours went on for five, according to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said the discussion...
Afghanistan: Ghani blames ‘abrupt’ US exit for w...
August 3, 2021
|
By: SAM Staff
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has blamed the country’s deteriorating security on the United States deciding “abruptly” to withdraw its troops.
Presenting his security plan before Parliament on Monday, Ghani said the situation in the war-torn nation will be “under control within six months”, adding that...
Indian, Chinese armies set up hotline in eastern...
August 3, 2021
|
By: Rahul Singh
The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Sunday established a new hotline in the eastern sector to enable local commanders from both sides to speak directly and resolve differences on the ground, officials familiar with the development said.
The hotline has...
Six months after Myanmar coup, battle for diplom...
In Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, people are scrambling for hospital beds and looking for oxygen for their COVID-hit family members and friends. Bodies are piling up in cemeteries.
With economic desperation and a deadly virus ravaging the population, neither the military, despite its de facto...
SAM Special
Sri Lanka plugs into BJP line to bridge “trust deficit” with India
August 3, 2021
| By: SAM Report
Sri Lanka appears to be anxious to plug into Bharatiya Janata Party’s “Hindutva” line to close the “trust deficit” in its relationship with India.
A set of proposals to bridge the trust gap, which was submitted to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner-designate to India Milinda Moragoda recently, stresses the importance of cultivating Sri Lanka’s Buddhist and Hindu ties with India, while leaving out Islamic ties altogether.
Moragoda’s stress on the efficacy...
Issues
How India and Pakistan can build on the recent c...
August 3, 2021
|
By: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri and Sudheendra Kulkarni
Peace is a fragile plant that needs constant nurturing. This is especially true when two neighbours with a disturbed relationship attempt mutual reconciliation of differences. When their endeavours are weak, lack sincerity or lose momentum due to mutual suspicion, the plant dies. A new seed...
Pak-Saudi bilateral relation is back on track?
August 3, 2021
|
By: Dr Tahir Ashraf
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy a decades-old and warm bilateral relationship that has survived many jolts. Bilateral relations between them strained since April 2015 when Pakistan refused to send its military troops to Yemen and decided to remain neutral in the proxy war between Saudi...
Bangladesh “in crisis” on freedom of expression...
August 3, 2021
|
By: SAM Staff
Freedom of expression in Bangladesh is "in crisis", says Article 19, a British human rights organisation in its latest report.
The Global Expression Report 2021 ranked Bangladesh 133th out of 161 countries in terms of freedom of expression. Bangladesh is at the bottom among the...
Why a post-US Afghanistan poses a litmus test fo...
August 2, 2021
|
By: David Dodwell
Whether because of hubris or naiveties, it seems there are some lessons global hegemons rarely learn. One is that certain corners of the world not for taking – like Afghanistan.
As President Joe Biden ends a forlorn 20-year effort at nation-building, the United States joins a line...
Opinion
Asean, stop wasting time on Myanmar
August 3, 2021
| By: Marzuki Darusman
Defence
Navy to scrap plans to procure guns from US, c...
August 3, 2021
| By: Shehesh Alex Philip
IAF inducts second squadron of Rafale aircraft...
August 2, 2021
| By: SAM Staff
Editor`s Choice
India’s Covid-19 tsunami
By: Shashi Tharoor
It is humbling when a columnist must retract his words soon after penning them. Just two months ago, after India rushed millions of doses of...
Quad lacks moral authority in South China Sea
By: Bhim Bhurtel
At the virtual summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue held on March 12, the Quad leaders reiterated their firm commitment that the rules-based international order...
Indonesia seeks to broker Taliban peace deal...
By: Randy Mulyanto
Former Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said he has traveled to Afghanistan and Qatar several times in recent months to help broker a peace deal...
Focus
Coronavirus child brides: Bangladesh teens forced into marriage during pandemic downturn
August 3, 2021
| By: Masum Billah
Sharolika Parvin, a 16-year-old from Kurigram, a border district in Bangladesh, enjoyed playing football and took part in tournaments at a national level. Three years ago, she was even named the best player in the Bangamata Gold Cup primary school football tournament.
But now, her dreams of graduating from the local college and playing national-level football have all but evaporated.
Sharolika’s parents married her off to a 17-year-old motor mechanic earlier this year. Her new...
If the United States … couldn’t win the war from inside Afghanistan after 20 years, how would America do it from bases in our country?
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that Pakistan will not provide bases to U.S. military personnel to conduct counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
Audio
JAISHANKAR AND BLINKEN DISCUSS MYANMAR SITUATION AND ISSUES... February 10, 2021
Goel’s visit indicates RAW’s bid to revive past links with O... October 26, 2020
Why Abdullah Abdullah visited Pakistan and India? November 4, 2020
Why Badhon’s Jamdani look at an international...
August 3, 2021
History, uploaded: Crowdsourcing a South Asia...
June 11, 2021
Exploring the brands Malala wore in her stunn...
June 3, 2021
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam review – tro...
June 1, 2021
Mystery over origins of Howard Hodgkin’s Indi...
April 12, 2021
From kala bhuna to shatkora curry – let's all...
March 22, 2021
In Nepal and across the world, child marriage...
March 9, 2021
India: BJP’s rise in former communist bastion...
February 27, 2021