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India and South Korea on Monday agreed to significantly expand their bilateral partnership across trade, technology, defence-adjacent sectors and the Indo-Pacific, setting an ambitious target to more than double trade to $50 billion by 2030 while launching new institutional mechanisms to deepen economic and strategic cooperation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung; Via: MEA India The agreements were announced following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung during the latter’s state visit to India — the first such visit in eight years — where both sides outlined a transition from an existing strategic partnership to what was described as a more “futuristic” and comprehensive framework. At the core of the outcomes is a broad-based push spanning semiconductors, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, energy security and supply chains, alongside the launch of an India–Korea Digital Bridge to drive collaboration...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Wars often appear at first as regional confrontations defined by the geography of the battlefield but the Iran war that is now unfolding across West Asia is revealing something far more consequential that has served a systemic shock to the global order. What began as a military escalation between Iran, the United States and Israel has rapidly expanded into a crisis that touches the most critical systems underpinning modern globalization, namely energy supply, maritime trade, aviation networks, financial markets and the millions of workers who sustain them. The war is not only being fought in the skies over the Middle East or the waters of the Persian Gulf but it is also unfolding across the infrastructure that powers the global economy itself. Representational Image Via: @RedPrecariat on X At the center of this crisis lies the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime corridor through which roughly one-fifth of the world...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Within a span of just over two weeks, the United States has issued three separate sanctions waivers, first for Indian-bound Russian crude, then for Russian oil globally, and now for Iranian crude itself. This has revealed a pattern that suggests Washington’s sanctions regime is no longer a static enforcement mechanism but a dynamic tool being repositioned in real time to balance war objectives with global energy stability. Representational Image Via:  U.S. Central Command As IndianRepublic.in had earlier reported on March 6 , the U.S. Treasury issued General License 133 permitting Indian refiners to receive Russian crude already at sea, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stating the aim was to “ensure oil continues flowing into global markets,” even while maintaining pressure on Russia. That India-specific measure was expanded on March 13 through General License 134 , which allowed the delivery of Russian crude glo...

The United States Treasury has authorized a limited, time-bound waiver allowing the delivery and sale of Iranian-origin crude oil already loaded on vessels before March 20, 2026, granting a one-month window until April 19, even as broader sanctions on Iran remain firmly in place. File Photo of Kharg Island; Via: Adam Cochran In an official General License  U  issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) , the U.S. said that “all transactions… ordinarily incident and necessary to the sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Iranian origin loaded on any vessel… on or before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, March 20, 2026 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 19, 2026,” effectively creating a narrowly defined compliance window for cargoes already in transit. The license explicitly covers operational and logistical activities required to complete such deliveries, stating that permitted transactions include those nece...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ,  President of the UAE, and  condemned attacks on the UAE while also stressing the urgent need to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as India has simultaneously ramped up nationwide fuel supply safeguards, intensified anti-hoarding enforcement, expanded evacuation operations and stepped up its diplomatic outreach through EAM S Jaishankar in response to the escalating Iran war and widening risks to global energy flows and Indian nationals across the Gulf. File Photo of PM NaMo welcoming President of the UAE at the airport.  Modi said he conveyed advance Eid greetings to the UAE leader and reiterated “India’s strong condemnation of all attacks on the UAE that have resulted in loss of innocent lives and damage to civilian infrastructure,” according to a statement . He added that both sides “...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman More than two weeks into the Iran war and the clearest record of what this conflict has become is found in Donald Trump’s own words . Read chronologically, his public statements and social media posts do not reveal a coherent war aim so much as they point to a pattern of escalation without restraint, triumphalism without closure, and threats so sweeping that they dissolve the distinction between military coercion and open-ended devastation. What emerges is a head of state normalising the language of civilisational punishment while the global economy convulses, shipping slows in Hormuz, migrants and seafarers die in the Gulf, and ordinary households from South Asia to Europe brace for the price of a conflict they did not choose. File Photo of POTUS Trump; Via: White House The argument for this war was never stable. Even as the administration invoked Iran’s nuclear programme, Trump’s own rhetoric kept widening the battlefi...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Wars are often measured in missile strikes, territorial advances and diplomatic confrontations but beneath those visible markers lies a quieter human story. The Iran war has begun to expose the vulnerability of the millions of migrant workers, seafarers and civilian employees who sustain the infrastructure of the global economy. Photo of Thai crew from cargo ship Mayuree Naree; Via: Ounka Across the Gulf and wider West Asia, these workers form the backbone of ports, shipping fleets, construction sites, energy facilities and service industries. They power the logistics networks that keep energy flowing and goods moving across continents. When conflict erupts, they are often the first to feel the consequences even though they have no role in the political decisions that lead to war. In recent days, the widening conflict has produced a growing list of casualties and disruptions affecting this largely invisible workforce. As...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Wars often reshape borders but it is very likely that the Iran war may reshape the global energy map. The escalating conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel, and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil transit route, has triggered a rapid reconfiguration of energy supply chains that could outlast the war itself. Governments are scrambling to secure alternative crude sources, shipping routes are being recalculated and energy diplomacy is accelerating across continents. Representational Image/File Photo: Current Report on X What is emerging is the early stages of a structural shift in how the world moves energy. As IndianRepublic.in reported earlier in its extensive coverage of the Hormuz crisis , roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally flows through the Strait of Hormuz, making the waterway one of the most important arteries of the global economy.  Even partial disr...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman For decades, globalization promised efficiency, speed and seamless connectivity but the Iran war is finally revealing its hidden vulnerability. What began as a military confrontation in West Asia has quickly evolved into a system-wide stress test for global supply chains, and exposed how deeply the modern economy depends on a handful of fragile logistical corridors, energy routes and transport networks. File Photo/Representational Image: MEA India From oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz to air routes over the Gulf and cargo shipping across the Indian Ocean, the conflict has already rippled through the arteries of global trade. The disruption is not limited to energy markets. Airlines are rerouting flights, shipping companies are recalculating risk premiums, ports are adjusting cargo operations and governments are activating emergency coordination mechanisms to prevent shortages of essential commodities. As Ind...