Author

M. K. Bhadrakumar

M.K. Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India’s ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). He writes the “Indian Punchline” blog and has written regularly for the Asia Times since 2001.

Will India And Turkey Jointly Broker An Easing Of US-Iran Tensions?

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 25, 2019

How amazing that the defeat of the Turkish ruling party AKP in the election for Istanbul mayor on Sunday turns out to be world class headline in...

Israel Is Leading Trump Up The Garden Path

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 24, 2019

When Michael Rubin at the American Enterprise Institute argued in an article in the National Interest last week that the ‘maximum pressure’ policy of the Trump administration...

US Credibility Dented In Iran Standoff

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 21, 2019

The US President Donald Trump’s reported decision abruptly to call off military strike against Iran which he’d previously ordered, highlights the growing complexity of the US-Iranian entanglement. ...

Iran Can Be Trump’s Nemesis

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 17, 2019

What a coincidence that a leaked document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) just exposed that the chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Mediatory Mission To Tehran Hangs In The Balance

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 10, 2019

With two days to go for the arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tehran on a peace mission to promote US-Iran talks, a...

Japan Moves Up Mediation On Iran Nuclear Issue

by M. K. BhadrakumarJune 4, 2019

The reports from Tokyo indicate that the dates for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state visit to Iran have been firmed up — June 12-14. Abe will have...

Russia Has More In Common With Israel Than Meets The Eye

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 31, 2019

The rocky partnership between Russia and Iran in the Syrian conflict is entering a turbulent period. The unprecedented US-Russia-Israel security summit due to take place in Jerusalem...

Trump Makes Big-Time Overture To Iran

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 29, 2019

The extraordinary remarks on Iran made by the US President Donald Trump at his joint press conference with his host Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in...

Iran Resets Its Foreign Policy Calculus

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 26, 2019

The unannounced overnight visit by Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to Pakistan on Thursday can be seen at the very minimum as forming part of...

India’s Betrayal Of Iran Is Only The Beginning

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 15, 2019

The sudden visit to New Delhi by the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif for a meeting on May 14 with the outgoing External Affairs...

Iran Circles Wagons As Trump’s B Team Beats War Drum

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 9, 2019

If there can be a lethal game of Russian roulette in international politics, this is it — what just began on May 8, the first...

Iran To Even The Nuclear Score With US

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 7, 2019

It is going to be 30 years in another six months since the USS Abraham Lincoln, named in honour of the 16th US President, was...

US Ends Waiver On India’s Iran Oil Imports. What Next?

by M. K. BhadrakumarMay 4, 2019

China’s stance vis-a-vis the US sanctions against Iran’s oil exports is evolving. These are early days. Quite obviously, the Chinese assessment that Iran is not going to...

US, Iran Tiptoeing Toward Engagement

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 26, 2019

Winston Churchill has been often quoted as saying that Russian politics is comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. “An outsider only hears the...

India’s Modi Caves Into US Diktat On Iran Oil

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 24, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels around the country every day claiming to be the defender of national interests in Pulwama, Balakot, ASAT and so on....

Iraq Hopes To Ease Saudi-Iranian Tensions

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 22, 2019

To be sure, the conference of speakers of parliament in Baghdad on April 20 was an extraordinary event invested with heavy symbolism both in terms of Iraq’s...

Pakistan-Iran Ties Set For Makeover

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 21, 2019

The visit by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to Iran on April 21-22 will be a major event in regional politics. Whether it will be remembered as...

Don’t Expect A US-Iran War Before 2021

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 10, 2019

There is no reason to disbelieve the boast by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming credit personally for US President Donald Trump’s decision to designate Iran’s elite...

China’s PLA Troops In Venezuela: A Watershed Moment In World Politics

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 2, 2019

The reported arrival of Chinese military personnel in Venezuela last weekend is undoubtedly a major event in world politics. Unlike Russia, which has a history...

Erdogan Wins Election, Continues To Be A Thorn In The Flesh For The US And Israel

by M. K. BhadrakumarApril 1, 2019

“Turkey is a global “swing state.” It has a large and growing economy, a strategic location, a democratic government, and mixed views about prevailing international...

Escalation? Russia Throws Down The Gauntlet To US On Venezuela

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 27, 2019

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova acknowledged in Moscow on Tuesday that Russian “specialists” are indeed in Venezuela within the ambit of a 2001 military-technical cooperation agreement...

Trump’s Golan Is A Megalomaniac’s Own Goal

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 26, 2019

The US President Donald Trump’s decree on March 26 granting official US recognition to Israel’s illegal annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights does not create any new fact...

Trump Unleashed. This Is How It Matters.

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 25, 2019

The big news from Washington is that special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into President Donald Trump’s ‘Russia collusion’ is unfounded. Attorney General William Barr’s communication...

Trump’s Golan Move Shows US Contempt For International Law And Rules-Based Order

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 22, 2019

The US President Donald Trump’s tweet on Thursday that the United States should back Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, didn’t quite...

With Eye On US, Iran Revs Up ‘Resistance Front’

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 19, 2019

A new phase is beginning in Iran’s approach to the situation since last May when the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran had...

The West Broke Syria And Should Own It

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 16, 2019

As Syria’s war enters its ninth year on March 15, many questions arise as to how it began and what it morphed into, but the...

Iran Trusts Imran Khan But Will Verify The Promise

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 10, 2019

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani received a phone call from Pakistan PM Imran Khan late in the evening on March 9, which was their first contact...

India Should Resist Saudi And UAE Efforts To Manipulate National Security Interests

by M. K. BhadrakumarMarch 1, 2019

There has been an avalanche of reports in the international media quoting western diplomats and security officials to the effect that India’s “intelligence-led… non-military preemptive strike”...

Saudi Arabia Inserting Itself Into Pakistan’s Discord With Both Iran And India

by M. K. BhadrakumarFebruary 24, 2019

By deputing the Sindhi-speaking Hindu MP belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani to India, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan signalled a desire for de-escalation of tension...

Iran Accuses Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency Of Cross-Border Terrorism

by M. K. BhadrakumarFebruary 17, 2019

In a devastating condemnation of Islamabad that has no precedent, the Military Aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi has squarely blamed...

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