Diplomacy

The Russian invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. Since then, several thousand combatants from both sides and more than 500 Ukrainian civilians have died, bombs have ruined many cities, and more than two million Ukrainians—half of them children—left the country to become refugees.

Belligerence must halt and give way to a peaceful resolution to the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

Does India Negotiate? by Karthik Nachiappan, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019; pp 238, `1,295 (hardcover).

India’s overzealousness to launch its vaccine diplomacy programme was preposterous. The crisis manager in the ministry of external affairs may run from pillar to post to procure vaccines but that cannot repair the damage their policies have had on the country. India despite being called the pharmacy of the world has failed to deliver the much-needed doses to its own population. It is time that we paused and introspected as the excessive securitisation of our foreign policy and its obsession with China will only lead to spending more on defence when we actually need to focus on economic and health sectors.