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.
India and the EU formalised their Strategic Partnership in 2004. The two sides hold an annual EU-India Summit at the highest level. In January 2026, India...
India's relationship with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman — is one of its most strategically...
India was Iran's second-largest crude oil customer before US sanctions on Iran (imposed under the Trump administration's 'maximum pressure' campaign from...
The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue format involves the Foreign Ministers and Defence Ministers of both countries meeting together. It is a mechanism to coordinate...
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and Japan was signed on 16 February 2011 and entered into force on 1 August 2011. It...
India and South Korea (Republic of Korea) established diplomatic relations in 1973. The relationship was elevated to a 'Special Strategic Partnership' in...
India and the UAE established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2017, upgraded from a Strategic Partnership. The bilateral relationship spans trade...
India-US relations, described in successive diplomatic statements as the 'defining partnership of the 21st century,' have experienced periodic strain under...
India and Vietnam have progressively upgraded their bilateral relationship: from a general partnership in 2003 to a Strategic Partnership in 2007, and to a...
The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) is a voluntary initiative that seeks to enhance maritime cooperation among navies of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)....
IORA is an intergovernmental organisation established in 1997 to promote regional cooperation among the 23 countries bordering the Indian Ocean. India is a...
The term 'Indo-Pacific' refers to the combined maritime expanse of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, treated as a single strategic theatre. While the...
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an intergovernmental organisation established in 2015, jointly launched by India and France at the Paris Climate...
US-Iran relations have been in a state of adversarial freeze since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981). Key inflection...
The Kurds are an ethno-linguistic group of 30–45 million people spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria — often described as the world's largest...
MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) is India's updated maritime vision doctrine, announced in March 2025. It...
'MANAV' (meaning human in Sanskrit) is India's framework for artificial intelligence — human-centric, inclusive, and oriented toward solving development...
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 removed six minerals — lithium, titanium, beryllium, niobium, tantalum, and...
Maritime choke points are narrow passages through which large volumes of global trade must pass — making them strategic leverage points. The world's major...
The MTCR is a voluntary, informal political arrangement among 35 countries aimed at restricting the proliferation of missiles and unmanned air vehicles...
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT, 1968) is the cornerstone multilateral treaty restricting the spread of nuclear weapons while...
Operation Urja Suraksha is an Indian Navy mission launched on March 25, 2026, aimed at protecting Indian-flagged merchant vessels stranded in or attempting...
The OIC is the principal multilateral platform for cooperation among Muslim-majority states, distinct from ad hoc trilateral or bilateral defence pacts such...
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in 2016, provided free LPG connections to BPL households, particularly women, to transition from polluting biomass...
Pakistan and Iran share a 909-km border and a complex relationship shaped by geography, sectarian dynamics, and competing regional alignments.
The Permanent Indus Commission is the joint bilateral body established under Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty. It consists of one commissioner from...
India is consistently the world's largest recipient of remittances. Remittance inflows contribute approximately 3–3.5% of India's GDP and are a major...
The RBI was established on April 1, 1935, under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. It functions as India's central bank, monetary authority, regulator of...
The South China Sea is a semi-enclosed sea with overlapping territorial and maritime claims between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and...
TRUST — Transforming the Relationship Utilising Strategic Technology — is the successor framework to iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology)....
Taiwan (formally the Republic of China, ROC) has been self-governing since 1949, when the ROC government retreated to the island following the Chinese...
The Thucydides Trap, a concept popularised by American political scientist Graham Allison (book: 'Destined for War: Can America and China Escape...
A tariff is a tax imposed by a government on imported goods, making them more expensive relative to domestically produced alternatives. Reciprocity in trade...
The foundation of contemporary international law governing inter-state conflict is Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits 'the threat...
India has been a leading voice for reform of the United Nations Security Council, which India and many nations argue does not reflect contemporary global...
The United States and China are the world's two largest economies and the defining bilateral relationship of the 21st century. Key structural tensions...
India was designated a 'Major Defense Partner' of the United States in June 2016 — a unique status created specifically for India that enables defence...
US-Iran relations have been adversarial since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which led to the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran (444-day hostage crisis...
A Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) is the second-largest category of oil tanker, capable of carrying 200,000–320,000 DWT (deadweight tonnes) of crude oil —...
The Trade Policy Review Mechanism is a WTO surveillance instrument that periodically examines member countries' trade policies and practices for...
The War Powers Resolution is a US federal law enacted to check the President's ability to commit US armed forces to hostilities without congressional...
The West Asia region (comprising the Levant, Gulf, and broader Middle East) is a zone of overlapping strategic interests for India: it is the source of the...
In March 1963, Pakistan signed a boundary agreement with China under which it ceded roughly 5,180 sq km of the Shaksgam Valley (part of the princely state...
The 2026 US-Iran conflict escalated from a series of strikes initiated by Israel and the United States in late February 2026, targeting Iran's nuclear and...
The Agricola Medal is the FAO's highest and most prestigious individual honour. 'Agricola' is the Latin word for 'farmer,' directly linking the award to its...
The Airbus H125 is a single-engine light utility helicopter belonging to the Écureuil ('Squirrel') family, manufactured by Airbus Helicopters. It is the...
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes frameworks for voluntary international cooperation in achieving NDC targets through carbon markets and...
Article 9 of Japan's 1947 Constitution — drafted under American occupation — formally renounces war as a sovereign right and prohibits Japan from...
The AIIB is a China-led multilateral development bank headquartered in Beijing, established in 2016 to finance infrastructure in Asia and beyond, seen as a...
The Astra is India's first indigenously designed Beyond-Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM), developed by DRDO's Defence Research and Development...
BRICS expanded significantly in the 2020s, moving from a five-member grouping to eleven full members, reflecting the bloc's stated goal of representing the...
BRICS' concrete financial institution-building predates and is distinct from currency proposals — it consists of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the...
The Bab al-Mandab ('Gate of Tears') is a narrow strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and, through it, the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. It lies...
The BNP is Bangladesh's centre-right party and one of the country's two dominant political forces, with a distinct ideology rooted in Bangladeshi...
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — announced in 2013 by President Xi Jinping — is a global infrastructure and connectivity strategy consisting of two...
The Bharatiya Antariksh Station is India's planned indigenous space station, envisioned as a modular orbital facility to be built and operated after the...
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and came into effect on July 1, 2024. It retains and renumbers core offences...
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, formed after an Inter-Governmental Agreement signed in Moscow...
Bollgard Bt cotton, developed by Monsanto (in collaboration with Mahyco — Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company), was approved by GEAC for commercial cultivation...
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is the earlier framework through which the US has used secondary sanctions to influence...