Tag "India"
Pakistan and Sri Lanka are two important South Asian nation states, even more so because of their unique geostrategic locations. Pakistan is the Indian Ocean’s transit route to Afghanistan and Central Asia and eventually Europe, whereas Sri Lanka lies near major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Thus, the tiny island state assumed greater importance in the context of maritime trade and combating privacy. Little wonder why China
The Worldfolio, a renowned global content service provider, released a report in October acknowledging the increased political and economic stability in Pakistan. The report specially noted that terrorist incidents had declined by 70% in 2015 as compared to 2014. Pakistan Insider presents a timeline of the most prominent events from the previous year which showcases improvements in domestic and foreign-assisted programs to counter terrorism, violence and extremism. The timeline will
226 personnel including 166 airmen and 5 female commandos of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) completed the basic anti-terrorist training course in Kallar Kahar on December 22. These men and women are part of the PAF’s erstwhile 312th Special Service Wing, now known just as Special Service Wing (SSW) which has somewhere around 1500 commandos for quick deployment as and when required. It is a comparatively new special operations service component
On December 21, Mr Sartaj Aziz, the octogenarian Adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs, issued a detailed statement before the Senate of Pakistan on ‘Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Achievements and Challenges’. Mr Aziz highlighted the difficult challenges Pakistan has faced as a member of the world community while also mentioning what he said were the current government’s ‘achievements’ on this crucial domain. Before I embark
The race for nuclear technology in South Asia began as early as 1944 when Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha (known as the father of India’s nuclear program) founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) devoted to nuclear studies. Efforts by Bhabha and his associates were gaining attention of statesmen such as Jawaharlal Nehru, founder of an otherwise dialogue-centric Nehruvian school of thought which prioritizes talks over military might. On June
I came across this rather distasteful announcement by Mr Marty Beard, Chief Operating Officer at BlackBerry Limited, which was published on November 30. The gist of his post is that BlackBerry is leaving the Pakistani market by the end of this year (allegedly) because of repeated government requests to allow interception into its enterprise servers. For those of you unfamiliar with the history, the product was launched by the erstwhile
Who doesn’t love to have a day off? I personally cherish not having to go to work during public holidays. And if, through some miraculous coincidence, a holiday precedes or succeeds a weekend, the joy is increased manifold. Then I think about the situation our country is in, not security-wise but strictly in economic terms. We aren’t faring well. We rank as an under-developed economy that is severely indebted to
Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on October 29, 2015. Several issues related to the regional developments were discussed. It was a significant meeting in the sense that Iran’s top security representative was here, coincidentally when Saudi troops were in Pakistan for intensive counter-terrorism exercises. PM Sharif made a statement that was noteworthy; he declared the port cities of
The following is a seriously sarcastic or sarcastically serious op-ed in continuation of an earlier piece I wrote on August 30, 2015, “Is Pakistan Threatened By Its Own Inhabitants Too?” The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the term ‘jingoism’ as: “the feelings and beliefs of people who think that their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries” Sound relatable? It should. Many citizens
The English-language version of Chinese military’s mouthpiece reported on October 15, 2015 that a cyber (Internet-based) exercise codenamed “Xiamen-2015” was held in the city of the same name in Fujian province. The decision to hold this exercise was undertaken on April 10, 2015 during the SCO RATS Council’s 26th regular meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. It was jointly organized by member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) of
