Groupings, treaties, chokepoints and doctrines behind India's foreign policy news. 561 concepts, each with its definition, key details and a timeline of every news story that touched it.
The One-China idea is about one simple question: is Taiwan a part of China or not? The People's Republic of China (PRC), which rules mainland China from...
The Taiwan Strait is the stretch of sea between the island of Taiwan and the Fujian province of mainland China. A strait is a narrow sea passage that...
India-Africa relations are the political, economic, security and people-to-people ties between India and the 54 countries of Africa. They rest on a shared...
The African Union (AU) is the organisation of all the countries of Africa, working together for peace, development and unity. It has 55 member states and...
UN Security Council Resolution 1540 is a binding decision of the UN Security Council that orders every country in the world to stop terrorists and other...
The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement, or AITIGA, is a trade deal between India and the countries of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)....
Critical minerals are minerals that a country needs badly for its economy and security, but whose supply is at risk. They are used in things like mobile...
Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) are large emergency stores of crude oil kept by the government. They are used only when normal oil supply is disrupted...
Global governance of AI means the rules, agreements and institutions that countries are building together to manage the risks and benefits of artificial...
Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) is money that foreign investors put into Indian financial assets like shares, government bonds and corporate bonds. These...
The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, or CCTS, is India's own domestic carbon market. In simple words, it is a system where big polluting factories are told how...
Manufacturing overcapacity (also called excess capacity) means that factories in a country or sector can produce much more than the market actually needs...
The Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM, was a carbon market created under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol (1997). It let rich countries that had legal...
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, is an international body of 38 mostly high-income countries, with its headquarters in...
Economic sanctions are penalties that one country, or a group of countries, puts on another country to force it to change its behaviour. Instead of using...
The Group of Twenty, or G20, is a club of the world's biggest economies. Its leaders meet once a year to discuss the world economy, money, trade, climate...
The Agreement on Agriculture, or AoA, is the World Trade Organization's rulebook for farm trade. It limits how much countries can protect their farmers...
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow sea passage between Iran in the north and Oman in the south. It connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, which then...
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, or IMEC, is a planned trade route that will connect India to Europe through the Arabian Peninsula. Goods...
An Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) is a pool of money collected privately from rich individuals and big institutions and invested in things outside the...
A Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement, or MMPA, is a deal between two countries about the movement of people. It makes it easier for students...
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, or PGII, is a plan by the G7 group of rich democracies to help poorer and middle-income countries...
A Bilateral Investment Treaty, or BIT, is an agreement between two countries to protect each other's investors. If a company from Country A builds a...
The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement, or TEPA, is a trade deal between India and four rich European countries: Switzerland, Norway...
Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG, is simply natural gas (mostly a gas called methane) that has been cooled down until it turns into a liquid. You can think of...
Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, is a system that lets a foreign company sue the government of the country where it has invested. The case is not...
India and Switzerland are friendly partners whose ties rest on democracy, the rule of law and a shared habit of staying away from military blocs: India...
'Loss and damage' means the harm caused by climate change that cannot be avoided by cutting emissions (mitigation) or by adjusting to the changes...
India is one of the two largest buyers of gold in the world, along with China. But India mines very little gold of its own. So almost all the gold Indians...
The world's oceans do not belong to any one country. A single set of rules called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, tells...
India's energy security remains a critical strategic concern given its high dependence on imported crude oil and growing demand driven by industrialisation...
The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme is a government plan that gives companies a cash reward for producing more in India. The reward is a small...
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, governs navigation through international straits. Part III of UNCLOS...
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, is the 2015 agreement under which Iran accepted strict limits on its nuclear programme in return for the...
The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA, is a trade deal between India and the United Arab Emirates. It removes or cuts the...
The India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (also referred to as the India-EU BTIA — Broad-Based Trade and Investment Agreement in earlier negotiations)...
Chabahar Port is a seaport on Iran's Makran coast, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, right next to the Arabian Sea. It is the only Iranian port that has...
The Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 is the Government of India's main rulebook for exports and imports. It decides which goods can be freely traded, which...
The Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) principle is the basic rule of world trade that says: do not discriminate between your trading partners. If a WTO member...
The United Nations Security Council, or UNSC, is the most powerful body of the United Nations. Its main job is to keep international peace and security....
Energy diversification refers to India's long-standing policy of reducing overdependence on any single country or route for hydrocarbon imports. India now...
The International North-South Transport Corridor, or INSTC, is a large transport network of sea, rail and road routes that connects India to Russia and...
The IRGC was established in April 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini as a parallel military force loyal to the revolutionary ideals of the Islamic Republic...
The NPT, which entered into force in 1970, is the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. It has three pillars: non-proliferation...
India's approach to West Asia has evolved from Nehruvian non-alignment to what analysts describe as calibrated multi-alignment. India maintains parallel...
The SCO is an intergovernmental political, economic, and security alliance founded on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai. It has grown from a six-member body into the...
The Durand Line is the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is about 2,600 km long and runs from the Iran border in the south-west to the China...
The Indian diaspora in GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman) is one of the largest migrant worker concentrations globally. These...
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in July 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany), aimed to restrict Iran's...
The SR mechanism is the highest-level political channel between India and China dedicated to resolving the boundary dispute. It was formally constituted in...
Launched under the Modi government, the Neighbourhood First Policy prioritises India's immediate neighbours in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region...
Rules of Origin (RoO) are the criteria under an FTA that determine whether a good qualifies as 'originating' in a partner country and is therefore eligible...
India-Israel diplomatic relations, established in 1992, have grown substantially across four pillars: defence, agriculture, water technology, and...
Press Note 3 of 2020, issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on 17 April 2020, requires any investment from an entity...
The India-US relationship has evolved from decades of Cold War-era distance to a comprehensive global strategic partnership. The formal elevation occurred...
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by five founding members: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi...
The International Maritime Organization, or IMO, is the United Nations body that makes the global rules for ships. It sets standards on how ships must be...
The Teesta River Water Dispute is a long-running disagreement between India and Bangladesh over how to share the water of the Teesta river, especially in...
The US-China trade war is a long fight between the world's two biggest economies, fought with tariffs, export bans and other trade weapons. It began in...
BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia under a 1998 agreement between India's Defence Research and Development...