The IPEF does not offer a free trade agreement. It does not dangle the prospect of lower customs tariffs, either. In contrast, the China-dominated Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and even older agreements like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) FTAs, do offer tariff incentives
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The US is likely to soft pedal India’s stand on sourcing crude and other raw materials from Russia, in view of geopolitical and geo-economic considerations
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The IMF in its latest country report on Pakistan, brought out in April this year, has quietly hinted that the country’s industry simply lacks the technology and sophistication necessary to compete in the modern world
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VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI Pakistan is tottering. Its collapse could spark a conflagration that spills well beyond its immediate neighbors...As Pakistan spirals into a deep economic crisis, its government has collapsed, replaced by a motley and improbable coalition of parties that have nothing in common and are highly unlikely to cooperate for the country’s benefit. The army continues to call the shots, but religious radicals openly call for jihad against the centrist political establishment. If Pakistan were isolated and unarmed, the world could safely ignore this. But it isn’t. Pakistan is not only armed but nuclear-armed—and as Americans learned to their sorrow in Afghanistan, what happens in Pakistan doesn’t stay in Pakistan...China has been fondly envisioning a trade zone spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan Iran, and Central Asia, right down to the Caspian Sea. China needs Pakistan to achieve regional hegemony, isolate India, and exclude the US from Asia. The CPEC is crucial to the web that China is spinning across Asia.
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VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI The last thing the world needs is a fierce new multinational battlefront on the borderlands of South and Central Asia. But it’s getting one anyway.
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Oil companies are no longer allowed to ignore public sentiment: the risks of carbon emissions are real. Whether corporations are state-owned or market-listed, the transition away from fossil fuels means massive social and political upheaval.
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VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI Russian troops and tanks are unnerving the US and Europe on the borders of Ukraine while China looms over the South China Sea and Pacific. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping appear to have their interests aligned and their alliance secure.
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VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI It’s not so simple to ban Russia from the SWIFT system that serves as the backbone for global financial transactions, and the unintended consequences could be calamitous.
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VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI Something’s cooking in Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Central to any new geopolitical calculus in the region is India, whose strengths and weaknesses have never been in sharper focus.
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