The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently hosted the world’s biggest military exercises “North Thunder” in terms of participating countries and equipment. North Thunder was held at King Khalid Military City in Hafar Al Batin near the Iraqi and Kuwaiti border from February 14 until March 10, 2016. According to Saudi Arabian officials more than 35,000…
Most recently, the Chinese government prioritized its national policies of economy, politics, investment, industrialization and taxes in the 12th National People’s Congress. It highlighted achievements in its economic sphere during 2015. Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang gave his annual state-of-the-nation report to the legislature, the National People’s Congress. The congress also approved a new five-year plan during…
U.S. – Saudi relations are under intense scrutiny. Officials in Riyadh chafe at U.S. reluctance to engineer the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. More importantly, they fear that President Barack Obama’s diplomatic opening to Iran might prove to be a portent of normalized relations between Washington and Tehran. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers accuse the Saudis of…
IntroductionIn the sphere of ever-changing international relations, there are neither permanent friends nor enemies; it is only the national interests of a country which determine the nature and direction of its relations with the comity of nations. The accord on Iran’s nuclear programme announced in Vienna on July 14 proved this notion.i Despite decades of…
Corruption has been alive and well in Pakistan for over 6 decades. Soon after the Quaid died and with Liaquat Ali Khan subsequently assassinated in 1951, a small coterie of bureaucrats and their businessmen friends gave it momentum. Even then it remained within what one optimistically calls “limits”. Over the last decade or so, starting…
Trying to justify his many self-granted “extensions”, Musharraf did Raheel Shareef (and the Army) no favour putting him on the spot by campaigning in the media recently for his “extension”. Surprising that the architect of the infamous NRO that legitimized corruption, and gifted Asif Zardari to Pakistan as President and Supreme Commander, did not realize…
Most recently, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Qatar. During the visit, both countries signed a “game changing deal” of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Now Pakistan can import up to 3.75 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year from Qatar. Main Focus of the Visit The main focus of the PM Sharif’s visit included…
Headquartered in Geneva, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. For progress to happen, people from all walks of life with drive and influence must come together to make positive change. Committed to improving the state of the world, this rather extraordinary international organization for public-private cooperation…
Economics is a complicated discipline and happiness too. Both have their own parameters, dimensions, dynamics and directions. Both also have their limitations, litmus tests and the last but not the least, long term plans, policies, projects and programs. Now it has become a hot topic among the policy makers, think-tanks, researchers and academia because of…
The US Defence Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Vincent R Stewart said in his recent testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan’s military operation Zarb-e-Azb and the Karachi operation have been successful in reducing violence in Pakistan: “Counter-insurgency operations along Pakistan’s Western border and paramilitary operations in Karachi have had successes in…
