Is the India...

becomes public, will be more than interesting. Needless to say, the China and Russia alliance may have been working in this regard secretly and hopefully this alliance shall include all the countries deliberately left out by the US, India and the Gulf countries for example, Pakistan. On Pakistan approaching elections:

Pakistan is pretty weak at the moment and let’s hope that this country gains a drive after the conduct of the approaching January 2024, elections.

Clarely speaking, the block of the Muslim countries housed in the Organization of the Islamic Countries have so far only awarded Lolly-pop to Pakistan be it in the issue of India-occupied Kashmir or some other issue of international importance wherein Indian highhandedness is distinctly visible.

The OIC and the Gulf Council thus are a farce for Pakistan.

Recep Tayyip Erdo an true friend of Pakistan: Save Türkiye, and President Recep Tayyip Erdo an in the entire Muslim world, he and his country are the ones who unequivocally support Pakistan on its Kashmir issue.

This time as well President Erdogan took to task the Indian regime for its atrocities against the caged/suppressed/ repressed Kashmiri Muslims.

The rest of the

Muslim countries, for commercial ties, are glued to Indian PM Modi. Some even award him the country’s highest awards. This is puzzling. One factor could be Pakistan being politically unstable in recent years, these countries ignore Pakistan and its nationals.

Pakistani nationals are treated in Saudi and the UAE, I am told, inferior to the Indians. This needs to be corrected. The fact is that Pakistan is still a splintered State yet is a potential and formidable challenge to the Indian machinations. Pakistan’s persisting instability perhaps is the reason to be treated like what has been stated earlier.

In Nepal informed citizenry say that Pakistan in some way or another will have to be a key component in the China-Russia alliance in that both the powerful partners of the alliance need Pakistan to play a key role in neutralizing the increasing India’s and the Quad’s influence in South Asia and now of the IMEC.

All that Pakistan needs to settle first is its internal political squabbles and stabilize the country politically.

The Pakistan Army perhaps knows how to keep the country politically constant against all the odds that there are in the immediate neighborhood. US President Joe Biden too on his way back from Delhi to the US, had a brief stopover in Vietnam wherein he officially proclaimed in front of the Vietnam

press that “we don’t need to contain China and instead want to see her succeed”.

However, intelligent brains in Kathmandu see Biden’s soothing expressions on China made in Vietnam as just to send signals to China that the US is not at all an enemy of China as perceived.

This diplomatic narrative too could be a part of the astute diplomacy of the US.

This means the US prefers to avoid direct confrontation with China. A positive gesture indeed. Joe Biden must avert direct tussle between the US and China.

However, how China may have taken Biden’s message from Vietnam is anybody's guess and that too when India, the competing rival of China for ages.

In international politics, equations keep on changing. Countries align and realign as per their political/ security interests and attune them to changing political contexts.

Now with the IsraelPalestine high-voltage conflict, countries appear to have begun siding with either Israel or Palestine.

While the allies of the US have sided clearly with Israel some from the ‘block’ of some Muslim countries engaged in the IMEC have sided with their Muslim brethren, the Palestinians.

Clearly, this IsraelPalestine conflict may delay or even damage the idea of the Corridor that links India with Israel via Arab Countries with whom India has excellent

commercial relations. Story of China and Russia’s entrance into the Gulf:

First China and then Russia entered the Arab world obviously with the objective of expanding and enhancing their respective influence in the entire area/Middle East.

Understandably, the ongoing Saudi-US friction at that time facilitated both China and Russia to build their visible presence in the entire region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made several trips to Gulf countries and later experienced Sergei Lavrov following the Chinese footsteps which hinted that the RussiaChina alliance was active in the Gulf to push the US out of the region. To some extent this alliance worked, however, equations as said, altered speedily and hence the idea of the Economic Corridor cropped up at a meeting wherein President Xi Jinping had voluntarily skipped.

Rashid Mahmood writing for the Daily Times in one of his recent articles says in no uncertain terms that “the IMEC is a transnational rail and shipping route spread across the two continents which is a product of the US and India and will play the role of mediator.” He writes further that the new trade route is a good omen for the USA and Saudi Arabia because they want to expand their trade with the European Union. Some see the initiation of the IMEC project as

the recreation of the historical ‘Spice Route’ that existed right from India to the Arab world and from there onwards to Vienna in Europe in the good old days. Concluding remarks: From a Nepali perspective, the IMEC is nothing but an instrument that shall in all likelihood escalate China-US tension and further polarization of the countries across the world.

Nepal, the official servant equivalent to a monkey’s tail shall obey the dictates of the Indian regime and of the master PM Modi.

Thanks to the Archipelago Maldives has come out from the clutches of India’s direct machinations/ interventions and a new President, a sharp critique of the Indian regime who favors the “Indian military out campaign” has been elected as the new Maldivian President.

The Maldivian elections: In a surprising election result, the Opposition candidate engineer Mohamed Muizzu has won the Maldives presidential election, beating incumbent President Ibrahim Solih, the declared Indian stooge.

With this new development in Maldives, hope that China will find its space once again during the tenure of Muizzu who appears very close to Abdullah Yamin, the declared India hater. Solih, who championed a highly regressive “India First" policy during his time in power, will remain as president until

Muizzu's inauguration on November 17, 2023.

The election results in Pakistan in early January 2024 shall in many more ways than one freshly shape the South Asian politics that at the moment is excessively dominated by the regional police deputed by the USA.

What else can a Nepali observer say of Pakistan more than expecting a grand revival of its original regional strength that was much taken note of by the rival-Indian regime?

Pakistan’s serious concerns:

Pakistan is annoyed with a UAE Minister sharing a video clip on the IndiaMiddle East-Europe Economic Corridor which depicted a map showing the entire UT of J&K as part of India. The map includes GilgitBaltistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir over which Islamabad has administrative control. To add insult to injury, one UAE minister in September published a map which included the entire J&K as part of India which brought instant rebuttal from Islamabad Foreign Office Spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.

The UAE minister reportedly belongs to the ruling clan of the Emirates.

Pakistan has urged its international partners to pay due attention to the lapses observed in the map issued by the UAE minister.

That’s all. See you all next week.