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Donald Trump was not in the room at Bharat Mandapam but he was the reason the room was full.  When the American President threatened 100 percent tariffs on BRICS members who try to replace the dollar, when he increased tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent and added an extra 25 percent as punishment for buying Russian oil, when he threatened an additional 10 percent on countries backing what he called BRICS's anti-American policy, he was deliberately doing something that no amount of Indian diplomacy could have managed on its own. He gave the world's largest alternative multilateral forum the urgency it had been struggling to find. Eleven nations representing nearly half the world's population came to New Delhi partly because the alternative, standing alone before a tariff-wielding, sanction-wielding, dollar-wielding Washington, had become considerably more frightening than sitting in the same room as each other. Image Source: @VikramMisri on X Indian Prime Minister Modi un...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi a  day before the 18th BRICS Summit had formally opened.  The readout mentioned something almost nobody noticed, that the two leaders had discussed the conflicts in West Asia and the Black Sea region and their impact on "the safety and security of Indian seafarers." A few hours later, Modi met Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran. The readout said the same thing in different words, that freedom of navigation, freedom of commerce, the safety and well-being of seafarers. The following morning, Modi walked into Bharat Mandapam and proposed a BRICS Seafarers Emergency Support Network. Two consecutive bilaterals. The same Indian workers named in both. Then a specific institutional proposal in the summit speech the next morning. No body connected these three things because everyone was watching Chinese President Xi Jinping's plane land. Image Source: MEA India India has over thre...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman A glacier collapsed on Langtang Lirung on the Nepal-China border and fell five kilometres into the valley below o n the morning of August 26, 2026 . The Bhotekoshi river reached the gauge at Syabrubesi in thirteen minutes. The warning texts went out to residents of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Chitwan thirty-eight minutes after the collapse. At least 1,369 people died in Nepal. Forty-three died in Tibet. The bodies of some victims were carried as many as 240 kilometres into India. We now know that there was no transboundary monitoring arrangement between China and Nepal, or between China and India, covering the slope that failed. There never was. Seventeen days later, the leaders of India and China will meet in New Delhi. File Photo: @China_Amb_India I want to begin there because everything else will make more sense if we start with the glacier. The Third Pole, as scientists call the Hindu Kush-Himalayan system, is w...

The Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi will host the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit on September 12 and 13. This will be the culmination of India's fourth chairship of a grouping that has, in twenty years, gone from an economist's acronym to an eleven-nation bloc representing nearly half the world's population. Vladimir Putin is confirmed. Xi Jinping is expected, though Beijing has not formally said so — his preparations are underway and if he arrives it will be his first visit to India since the informal summit with Modi at Mamallapuram in October 2019. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and several other leaders from member and partner nations are on the list. Central government offices in Delhi are closed tomorrow for logistics. The capital has been building toward this for months. File Photo/Representational; Via: @AmitShah on X The G20 presidency in 2023...

China warned on Sunday that the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States should never have occurred, calling for an immediate halt to military operations as the conflict continued to widen across the Middle East and beyond. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the conflict was dangerous for the region and the wider international order, stressing that the use of force would only deepen instability. “This is a war that should not have happened—it is a war that does no one any good,” Wang said, urging all sides to stop military operations and prevent the crisis from spiralling further. Image Source: Mao Ning on X Warning against attempts to reshape Iran’s political system through force, Wang said efforts to pursue regime change would find little support internationally. He argued that the world cannot return to “the law of the jungle,” adding that armed conflict in the Middle East historically produces new cycles of instability rather than lasting solutions. China’s intervention...

China has issued a strong condemnation of the United States following its large-scale military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture and removal of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.  Representational Image: MFA China Press deck In an official response released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing on January 3, a spokesperson called the U.S. action a blatant use of force against a sovereign nation and a serious breach of international law. The statement came in response to a direct question posed at a press briefing, referencing public claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump on the social platform Truth Social, where he described the operation as a “successful” mission involving a military strike and the extraction of Venezuela’s head of state. Beijing expressed “deep shock” over the development and described the actions of the U.S. as hegemonic, saying they not only violated Venezuela’s sovereignty but also posed a significant threat to pea...

A series of coordinated signals from global leaders offer a telling glimpse into the shifting diplomatic, ideological, and geopolitical tectonics shaping our world at the dawn of the new year. At the center of it all are themes that intersect national destiny with global anxieties—sovereignty, unity, history, and the contested promise of peace. Represntational: Old Persian carpet from Iran depicting the geopolitics of Europe; Via: VintageMapStore In China, President Xi Jinping’s New Year address struck a note of national confidence . Framing 2025 as the closing chapter of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, Xi emphasized milestones in economic modernization , scientific breakthroughs, and technological innovation. From asteroid missions and AI advancements to the commissioning of a new aircraft carrier, his tone mirrored an assertive vision of self-reliance.  But this technological momentum was not detached from cultural revitalization. Xi wove in references to the popularity of Chin...

In a nationally broadcast New Year’s Eve address, Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the commencement of the next phase of national development with a sweeping review of China’s recent trajectory and an assertive projection of its ambitions for 2026 and beyond.  Xi’s message, delivered via China Media Group and online platforms, reiterated the central pillars of Communist Party leadership while spotlighting China’s economic expansion, innovation in science and technology, cultural revitalization, and a continued push for reunification and sovereignty. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 2026 New Year Message. Via: Mao Ning According to official estimates, China’s economic output in 2025 is expected to surpass RMB 140 trillion , marking a significant milestone in national income. While global growth has remained uneven, Beijing's focus on endogenous development has underscored its shift from scale to quality.  Xi credited this perf...

China on Monday launched a sharp diplomatic broadside against Japan, accusing Tokyo of dangerous military harassment and political manipulation following an airspace incident involving fighter jets over disputed waters. At the same time, Beijing adopted a markedly measured tone on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to India. The comments showed China’s complex efforts to manage rising strategic frictions with Tokyo while avoiding open divergence with Moscow and New Delhi. Image Source: Lin Jian on X The escalating airspace tension stems from Japan’s accusation that Chinese naval fighter jets had “intermittently illuminated” Japanese Self-Defense Force aircraft with targeting radar during exercises over the East China Sea on December 6.  The Japan Defense Ministry claimed its aircraft did not obstruct China’s flight paths and denied any provocation. China, in contrast, described Japan’s account as a deliberate distortion, asserting that the Japanese aircraft had intrude...