StratNews Global

The Indian space industry, which had for long been an exclusive domain of the government, has got a fillip in the form of the Indian Space Association (ISpA). Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, the industry association of space and satellite companies, both private and public, will be the unified voice of all relevant stakeholders. In this podcast with StratNews Global, Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd), Director General of ISpA, outlines what’s high on the association’s to-do list and challenges. Listen in for more.

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Tension with China is at its worst in four decades, says Taiwan’s defence minister, pushing for more military spending. In the past week, there’s been a spurt in the number of Chinese military planes penetrating Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. A host of factors may have contributed to China’s coercion, says J. Michael Cole, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, DC. China is using military assertiveness as a demonstration that it will not be deterred, not be dictated to and that it also has the ability to set the tone within the region, Cole told StratNews Global. So what level of deterrence needs to be put in place? Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer: Manas R. Tarai

The German elections have thrown up a fractured mandate, with the Social Democrats emerging as the single largest party. Close behind are the Christian Democrats (outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party). Negotiations to form a ruling coalition could take time; it took over five months the last time around in 2017. In this podcast, Velina Tchakarova, director of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy, explains what options are possible. She also talks about its implications for Europe and on Sino-German ties. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

AUKUS, the trilateral security pact involving Australia, the U.S. and the UK, has not just angered China and France but some drawn criticism from some ASEAN member states as well. There’s no unanimity in the 10-member bloc on the issue though. Indonesia and Malaysia have warned that the deal, which will help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines, could trigger an arms race in the region. But the Philippines says the pact will maintain the balance of power in the region. Despite the lack of coherence across Southeast Asian countries, we haven’t really seen negative implications for the respective bilateral relationships of those countries with Australia, the UK or the U.S., says Evan Laksmana, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. But if China chooses to respond to AUKUS by increasing its military presence in the South China Sea, the immediate recipient of the tension will be the Southeast Asian countries, Laksmana told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

During his visit to New Delhi earlier this week, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said he expects India to announce more goals in the run-up to the UN climate conference in Glasgow later this year. The issue of climate funding also came up during his talks with the Indian leadership. Kerry said six big American banks had committed to investing over $4 trillion to help countries make the transition to clean energy. A $100 billion annual climate fund by developed nations to help developing nations cope with the effects of climate change, which was talked about at the climate conference in Copenhagen more than a decade ago, has made tardy progress. We should look at finance that’s not only through loans but grants, says Alice Hill, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. Some of the emerging economies have a growing problem of debt crisis and it will be very difficult for them to tackle the challenge of climate change if we don’t give some debt relief, she told StratNews Global. And yes, the developed world could learn from developing countries such as India, when it comes to dealing with climate change, Hill added. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

Not many countries have made their intent clear about if and how they intend to deal with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did spell out the U.S. stance earlier this week. If the Taliban upholds basic rights, it's a government we can work with; if it doesn’t, we won’t, Blinken told Tolo News in an exclusive interview. Serious questions are going to arise if the Americans are actually going to start according to recognition or enter into some degree of accommodation with a regime like the Taliban, Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan has left India worried about the possible fallout of militant groups such as the Al Qaeda and the ISIS-Khorasan launching attacks on the country. However, Dr AJAY SAHNI, a terrorism expert and executive director for the Institute for Conflict Management believes that such fears are groundless.  Speaking to ASHWIN AHMAD, Sahni believes that these global militant groups have been trying to carry out jihad in India (Al Qaeda since 1996 and Islamic State since 2014) with little success. Coming to India itself, Sahni states radicalization of Indian Muslims and the activation of Indian sleeper cells in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country is unlikely as Islamabad has tried this tactic in the past and failed. Having said this, he does concede that reports that Pakistan-based terror groups such as the LeT and the JeM are shifting base to Afghanistan is a cause for concern as Islamabad gets further grounds for plausible deniability. On the Taliban, Sahni states India, the West, and other countries should be clear – the group has no interest in distancing itself from other militant groups such as the Al Qaeda. He however believes the West will continue to ignore this fact - as they have done since 9/11 - that the problem of the Taliban and the problem of Afghanistan is because of Pakistan.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

The two-decade-long U.S. military operation in Afghanistan can be encapsulated thus: get cracking after terror attacks on American soil, co-opt allies in the name of a global war on terror, invest heavily monetary and otherwise without a clear-cut end objective, make several errors along the way and talk to the same terrorists you are fighting. without consulting allies and partners. No doubt, the hasty and messy U.S. retreat from Afghanistan has left America staring at tough questions, both at home and abroad. The moment America decided to open talks with the Taliban and deal with them, there was a feeling among those allies that they were not taken on board, says StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale. In this podcast, he also talks about regional security dynamics in the aftermath of the American pullout and where India stands amidst all this. Tune in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

The recent visit by US Vice President Kamala Harris should have been lauded in normal times. Despite her diplomatic faux pas in Guatemala, Harris was entrusted by the Biden administration to visit two key allies, Singapore and Vietnam, and emphasise to them and the region that the US remained committed to its Indo-Pacific vision. Former ambassador to Japan and Southeast Asia expert Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa however believes that despite Harris having done all this admirably, the attention of the ASEAN nations would be focused on the bungling of the  US president Joe Biden on Afghanistan. Speaking with Ashwin Ahmad,  Wadhwa says the credibility of not just the president but the US is at  stake. This is something Biden urgently needs to address if he is to make any headway at upcoming multilateral summits such as the in-person  head-of-state Quad summit in late September. This is important not just for himself but for Harris too if she is to emerge as a credible  Democratic presidential candidate for the 2024 US presidential polls.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai

If the Taliban pride themselves in ‘winning the war against the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, there’s one nation that’s equally euphoric if not more. “Pakistan saw the contest that was taking place in Afghanistan as a contest between a regime that was friendly towards India and not so friendly towards Pakistan. So the Taliban victory is seen in that sense as a Pakistani victory,” says Jayant Prasad, former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan. Pakistan will try and do its utmost to see that the Indian presence in Afghanistan is cut to size and that India is not able to operate its development programmes freely as it did earlier, he told StratNews Global. In this podcast, Ambassador Prasad also spoke about the August 31 troop withdrawal deadline set by the U.S. and what India should do going forward with respect to Afghanistan. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai