Modi's Foreign Policy Masterclass: Navigating the Chakravyuh with Russia & Europe Chakravyuh
UPDATED: Aug 14, 2025 18:35 IST
On the 'Chakravyuh' Podcast, we dive deep into India's central role in the swirling vortex of global geopolitics. Ambassador Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Russia and France joins Gaurav Sawant. With over 41 years in diplomacy, Ambassador Sibal breaks down India's strategic positioning amid US tariffs under Trump, warming ties with Pakistan, challenges from China post-Galwan, enduring partnership with Russia, and opportunities in Europe and the Gulf.
Produced by Garvit Srivastava
Sound Mix by Aman Pal
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
7 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Putin Returns to Moscow With Air of Triumph After Summit
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn't have scripted his first visit to the U.S. since 2015 much better. The Russian leader strutted along a red carpet at a U.S. air base and posed smiling with President Trump, who had weeks earlier been expressing mounting frustration with him and threatening to hit Russia and its trading partners with sanctions. He met with Trump under a sign that read 'pursuing peace.' When they emerged 3½ hours later, the leaders said they hadn't reached a deal. Instead, Putin used the stage to press his demands on Ukraine. Neither Trump nor Putin, who is facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes, took questions from the U.S. press. Putin, by clinching a long-awaited summit with Trump, scored a win. The Kremlin leader, has staked his legacy on dismantling the post-Cold War world order and resurrecting Russia's great-power status to put it on par with the U.S. 'Putin achieved exactly what he wanted: He simultaneously preserved his relationship with Trump, avoided additional sanctions, and received the blessing to continue his war,' said Andrey Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst and a columnist at New Times, an independent Russian-language magazine. The summit gave Putin a platform to turn longstanding narratives about the Ukraine war on their head, emphasizing that the U.S. and Russia are neighbors separated at their closest point by just over 2 miles of water. Meanwhile, he has tried to paint Europe and Ukraine as the two biggest obstacles to peace, while stepping up recent attacks on Ukrainian cities. Putin and Trump emerged from talks Friday without having a deal. Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in the days before the summit to understand better their red lines in negotiations with Russia. But the images of the two leaders in Alaska were certainly unsettling on the continent. Trump rolled out a red carpet for Putin on the taxiway of the U.S. air base, applauding as the Kremlin leader approached. After a firm handshake, Trump invited him to ride in his armored limousine to the meeting. 'Putin loves trolling and rubbing Europeans' noses in the fact that there is a strong relationship with Trump,' said Andrew Weiss, who worked on Russian affairs in George H.W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's administrations. Hours after arriving back in Moscow, Putin gathered his top officials inside the Kremlin to tell them the summit had been a resounding success. 'We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time,' he said to an array of officials, including the defense minister, the chief of staff and intelligence chiefs. 'I repeat once again: We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail once again explain our position.' To be sure, Trump said in the days before the summit that he didn't expect any major breakthroughs and said he hoped he could clinch a cease-fire and lay the foundation for a lasting peace process. But in the hours after the summit, previous calls for an immediate cease-fire evaporated. Meanwhile, Trump's own language mirrored that of the Russian side, calling in a post on Truth Social for an overarching peace agreement as opposed to a halt to fighting first. That effectively gives Putin the green light to continue the fighting to capture more land in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are making gains. 'Tonight, the president of our great country showed Trump, the president of another great country, that Russia is a party to be reckoned with,' said Alexander Dugin, a far-right politician and a pro-Putin ideologue. 'Therefore, we cannot be forced to do things that anyone wants, be it the West or Trump.' Putin, who has called the fall of the Soviet Union a geopolitical catastrophe, has been working to resurrect slowly Moscow's sphere of influence in parts of the territory that once encompassed the Soviet Union. Ukraine occupies a special place in Russian history. It is where the founding dynasty of the Russian Empire was formed. He is unlikely to sacrifice his ambition to reclaim Ukraine as a part of Russia to improve relations with Washington. But it would be a coup for the Russian leader if he could accomplish both after years of Western isolation sparked by his invasion. 'Both sides want normalization, which has a very strong business aspect that could unlock some money flows for both countries,' said Elina Ribakova, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Putin seemed to signal as much on Friday when he signed a decree that could offer Exxon Mobil re-entry into the Russian market through a stake in the potentially lucrative Sakhalin-1 oil field, which it pulled out of after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Whether the takeaways from the summit can translate into a sustainable peace process is hard to determine. In a call from Air Force One on his way home from the summit, Trump relayed to the Europeans the outcome of the meeting and that Putin wanted to keep fighting, according to European officials. Trump plans to meet Monday with Zelensky, who wasn't invited to Friday's summit. Analysts said expectations are low that a road to peace can be found in a war that Russia is slowly winning. 'The bubble of inflated expectations has burst, and the process itself has turned into 'Waiting for Godot,'' said Kolesnikov, referring to a play about endless waiting. Write to Thomas Grove at
Economic Times
12 hours ago
- Economic Times
We toppled Vasantdada govt in 1978, but he proposed my name for CM 10 yrs later: Sharad Pawar
Synopsis Sharad Pawar revealed he orchestrated the 1978 toppling of Vasantdada Patil's Maharashtra government, highlighting the Congress party's internal divisions post-Emergency. A decade later, Patil surprisingly proposed Pawar for the chief minister's role, showcasing the Congress's "large-hearted leadership" at the time, prioritizing party unity despite past conflicts. Pawar emphasized this act as an example of ideological commitment over personal grievances. ANI NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar has said he led the move the topple the Maharashtra government headed by Vasantdada Patil in 1978, but the same leader proposed his name for the chief minister's post a decade was the kind of "large-hearted leadership" the Congress had at the time, Pawar, who had a long stint in the opposition party, said at an event here on Saturday. Pawar snapped ties with the Congress in 1999 and co-founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In July 2023, the NCP split after Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar joined the then Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government. The 84-year-old Rajya Sabha member, who served as Maharashtra's CM multiple times, recalled that after Emergency, the grand old party split into the Congress (Indira) and Swarn Singh Congress. Pawar said he remained in the Swarn Singh Congress with his mentor Yashwantrao Chavan at the time, but neither side had a clear majority in the elections that subsequently took place. "Eventually, we came together and made Vasantdada the chief minister. However, many of us young workers had a resentment against Congress (I), since we were aligned with Chavan saheb. So there was a gap. Dada tried to bridge it, but we opposed it," the former Union minister said."I was among the key opponents. As a result, we decided to bring down the government and we did. I became the chief minister," he recalled."Why am I saying this? Because ten years later, we were all united again," Pawar pointed a meeting was called to decide the next CM, many names were discussed - Ramrao Adik, Shivajirao Nilangekar, he added."But dada said 'no more have to rebuild the party. Sharad will lead it'," Pawar said. "Imagine the same leader whose government I brought down, he put all that aside and chose unity for ideology. That was the kind of large-hearted leadership we had in the Congress," the former CM said.
India.com
14 hours ago
- India.com
Noida to Delhi IGI airport in just 20 minutes! PM Modi to inaugurate these expressways; it costs..., will connect...
The government is set to provide a big gift to residents of Noida. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) on Sunday. Once operational, the journey from Noida to Indira Gandhi International Airport will take only 20 minutes. The residents of Noida faced serious problems getting to the airport and sometimes faced hours of travel home from Delhi after landing. This new road is likely to eliminate all of that hassle. As reported by India Today, this route will offer great convenience to travellers to and from West Delhi and the NCR, and relieve the congested Ring Road in the city. Once these projects are complete, they would relieve congestion on the internal roads, relieving the pressure on NH-48, NH-44, the Ring Road, and finally the Barapulla Elevated Corridor. The estimated construction cost of UER-II is Rs 3,300 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate two major National Highway projects worth a combined cost of nearly Rs 11,000 crore on 17th August, 2025, at around 12:30 PM in Rohini, Delhi. The projects, the Delhi section of the Dwarka Expressway and the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), have been developed under the Government's comprehensive plan to decongest the capital, with the objective of greatly improving connectivity, cutting travel time, and reducing traffic in Delhi and its surrounding initiatives reflect Prime Minister Modi's vision of creating world-class infrastructure that enhances ease of living and ensures seamless mobility. As per the statement, the 10.1 km long Delhi section of Dwarka Expressway has been developed at a cost of around Rs. 5,360 crore. The section will also provide Multi-modal connectivity to Yashobhoomi, DMRC Blue line and Orange line, the upcoming Bijwasan railway station and the Dwarka cluster Bus Depot. 'This section comprises: Package I covers a 5.9 km stretch from the Shiv Murti intersection to the Road Under Bridge (RUB) at Dwarka Sector-21, while Package II spans 4.2 km from the Dwarka Sector-21 RUB to the Delhi-Haryana border, offering direct connectivity to Urban Extension Road-II,' the statement from PMO added. The 19 km-long Haryana section of the Dwarka Expressway was earlier inaugurated by the Prime Minister in March Minister will also inaugurate the Alipur to Dichaon Kalan stretch of Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) along with new links to Bahadurgarh and Sonipat, built at a cost of around Rs. 5,580 Crores. It will ease traffic on Delhi's Inner and Outer Ring Roads and busy points like Mukarba Chowk, Dhaula Kuan, and new spurs will provide direct access to Bahadurgarh and Sonipat, enhance industrial connectivity, reduce city traffic, and expedite goods movement in the NCR.
