Murali's Writeups...

 Us-China Relations: India at Crossroads Part 3 Both for India and China, US market access is very important for their full development. For the United States, trade with China is very important even as the US imports more from China than it exports to Chinese markets. In fact, Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs against Chinese goods essentially to see that the existing trade surplus with China is minimized. The arrival of Joe Biden indeed brought China some relief on this count. COVID and (the aggressive economic measures that China took against Australia when Australia wanted more transparent investigation and) the steadfast refusal of China to share full information about the origin and spread of COVID-19 made members of the Western Alliance to do some serious introspection about their trade relations with China. Japan had already announced all the Japanese Companies would pull out of China. Apple is relocating its manufacturing facility to India. Hence, China will be under pres

For about 100 years, the USA was undoubtedly the leading economic and military power of the world. Its dominance in global affairs will continue for at least another 50 years. The next serious competitor, if they are lucky, can hope to replace the USA as the number one economy by 2070. The present global monetary regime is based on the 1945 Bretton Woods agreements that originally established the gold standard, meaning, the central bank of the countries must back up their currency-issue with adequate gold. By 1970, the USA abandoned this Gold Standard Rule and ensured the beginning of the Petro-Dollar Regime. As per this regime, a substantial part of the trade in oil can only be bought by paying for it in dollars. Thus, Dollar became the global currency. It is reported that 38.7% of the current global transactions are carried out in USD. Next to USD, Euro is the commonly accepted International Currency having 36.7 % of the global market share. Somewhere down the line, many nations star

As I am writing this, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) is having its annual summit in Goa. The Indian Foreign Minister who is arguably one of the best foreign ministers in the world (opinion courtesy: Imran Khan!) is having an important multilateral meeting. This meeting is taking place along with the parallel proposal that BRICS nations planning to float an international currency that would supplement (surely, it cannot replace) the US Dollar as the dominant currency for global trade. China has a serious ambition to become the biggest economy in the world, pushing US to the second place. India has plans to become the third-biggest economy in the world within this decade. It is in this context we have to look at the role of India in global trade and in the better maintenance of peace, security and good order in the world. 2.   China is our neighbour. Right from the time of independence, India has been having territorial and border disputes with China. The 1962 war between

Prof. Alexander Stubb, who was formerly the Prime Minister of Finland and is presently a professor of International Relations in Italy has virtually ruled out any possibility of an Internationally Mediated Settlement for the present Ukraine Crisis. According to him, the war in Ukraine will come to an end only when: 1. Russia is militarily defeated in the conflict 2. Mr Vladmir Putin is removed from the political leadership of Russia. Prof. Stubbs's views are worthy of respect as he earlier acted as a Mediator in the Russian aggression of Georgia 2008. According to him, Russia has now become an Imperialist Power. If the international community had acted in 2008 with as much vigour as it has in the 2022 Ukrainian Conflict, the military annexation of Crimea could have been avoided. From the point of view of a Mediator, the present Ukrainian crisis come under the category of a ‘ Realistic conflict ’ between two Sovereign nations. Both Russia and Ukraine will relentlessly purs

1. The armed conflict on the Ukraine border had been going on for about 8 months. As of date, there is no possibility of cessation of hostilities. What began as a ‘ Russian Special Military Operation’ has evolved into a full-fledged war. Together Russia and Ukraine had lost about 150,000 lives of soldiers, besides grave loss of civilian human lives and property damage.  With the Ukrainian forces making substantial military gains, Ukraine might retake most (if not all) the positions occupied by Russia after Feb 2022. The world has now begun to worry about what Mr Putin will do if a militarily defeat becomes imminent. In fact, Russia has joined the list of countries (after North Korea and Pakistan) that threatened to use Nuclear Weapons in an armed conflict even though there is no first nuclear strike against them. Hence, the return of normalcy at the Russian-Ukraine border is very important for the world to avert the Third World War.   2. In the beginning, it was Ukraine that wan

1. Can Foreign Offices be more transparent when they address the problems of their local population groups? 1. Recently, the British Appellate Courts had reversed the finding of the Magistrate Courts order refusing the Extradition of Louis Assange to the United States for facing a Criminal Trial for Espionage and violation of the Official Secrets Act. Edward Snowden, who is now somewhere in Russia must be quite happy that he does not face such prospects. I must record that even after the British Appellate Court ordered the extradition of Louis Assange to the USA, I am fairly sure that this is less likely to happen. We also read reports that one of the famous detenus in Tihar Jail had written to Boris Johnson, the British PM, asking him to impose economic and political sanctions against India. The point is, increased Globalisation had maximised opportunities for non-citizens’ interaction with Foreign Governments. Recently, we saw that 2 Canadian nationals were held in Chinese prison

1. This will be my third blog on Mr Kulbhushan Jadhav . Two years ago, within a span of seven days, I wrote two blogs on Kulbhushan Jadhav . The first was relating to the trivia that surrounded the ICJ Judgement, permanently staying the Pakistani military court’s order that sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. The other was more specifically focused on some of the evidentiary law aspects of the sordid saga of Kulbhushan Jadhav investigation by Pakistani authorities. Every blogger desires that even their old blogs should be read and reread! I am no exception; hence, I am providing you with the links to my earlier blogs ( International and Evidentiary Laws implication of ICJ Judgment of Mr Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case ) ( Some reflections on the International Court of Justice Judgment on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case ).  2. An executive summary of ICJ judgement in Kulbhushan Jadhav ’s case . a. Mr Harish Salve, the superstar international lawyer, made many Indian lawyers proud. He char