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In this look at China's One Belt One Road Inititative, DW.com analyst Siegfried Wolf is critical of the way it was put together. It has no institutional structure, and is mostly based on bilateral not multilateral arrangement, and lacks transparency. He says its will complicate geopolitics in the region. This is already evident with Japanese foreign minister Kono calling for Japan, Australia, India and the U.S. to come up with an alternative to OBOR. Wolf says the EU has concerns about corruption, exclusion of regions inside countries such as Pakistan in economic arrangements, and seeks free trade guarantees. His biggest criticism of the Silk Road Initiative is that being based on Chinese loans it will pose a severe challenge in terms of debt buildup for weaker economies. This was already evident with the effort to convert part of about $6 billion in loans to Sri Lanka, through a $1.12 billion lease to China of the port of Hambantota. Wolf says many of the projects inside OBOR were already planned before it was setup, and now put under OBOR as part of president Jinping's initiative.  ...

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The new prime minister of Pakistan Abbasi consults with former prime minister Sharif in Murree, Pakistan, after the Supreme Court disqualifies Sharif from the position. Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, the chief minister of Punjab province will contest a by-election for parliament to replace Abbasi.

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President Obama uses the solemn occasion in memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to lay flowers. 60 relatives of victims attended the ceremony days after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. In an effort to bring closure to the event the President used the occasion to show respect to the victims with silence and no speeches or remarks were made except for a short private address at the "pride of Midtown" firehouse. It was a time to reflect. It was in sharp contrast to the days after the attacks. Not much moved, the cranes on the construction site were silent, only the leaves on the limbs of the pear tree known as the Survivor tree rustled in the wind.

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New winds in South Asia. Democratic change and peaceful economic development comes to Nepal as elctions are held for a new Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution. One leader says Nepal cannot ignore the winds of liberalization privatization and globalization. What are the effects of change in China, in India and recent changes in Pakistan on Nepal? And the changes and two transitions in Russia to Yeltsin and then to Putin. And again in Eastern Europe. All showing divergent paths to peaceful economic development They have to be significant.

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The decision to replace Gen. McKiernan with Gen. McChrystal and to have Lt. Gen David Rodriguez as his deputy, was made by Defense Secretary Gates and Jt Chiefs chairman Mullen, after thinking about this during the transition to the new Obama administration. The failing war effort in Afghanistan with the Karzai government controlling only pockets of Afghanistan and Kabul and leaving the countryside to the Taliban has alot to do with this. Gates feeling is "we can and must do better." That it took so long, with the Taliban only 50 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, and the question of Paksitan's nuclear weapons falling into thier hands vexing the adminstration, shows that things slowed down with the transition and the economic crisis. The decision was not adifficult one considering that McKiernan had little to show for his efforts, and the rapidly deteriorating situation by all accounts. McKiernan was a senior officer who spent his entire military career commanding conventional forces, serving in the Balkans and the Iraq war in 2003, and has the wrong midset and background for counterinsurgency warfare. McChrystal has experiences suited to counterinsurgency warfare, having commanded commando teams that took out leading insurgents. He is also director of the Joint chiefs of staff, so known to Mullen for his abilities. Rodriguez commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in eastern Afghanistan, is seen as aleading expert in counterinsurgency warfare. He is also Gates's senior military advisor so known to Gates for his abilities. The new strategy is to go with counterinsurgency warfare to turn this thing around. This puts 2 commanders with this kind of experience in Kabul, and close communication with Gates and Mullen because they worked together before. With additional troops, and shift in resource acquisition at the Pentagon that Gates is trying to secure for this kind of warfare, this creates the kind of combination that could help the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and achieve more modest goals. See the links to Gates's and Petraeus's more modest goals....

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When you consider Anderson and Broad as a duo they have pushed England to the top of Test cricket earlier with the West Indies and now with Pakistan. Broad did better in some games and Anderson in others. It is the same with Woakes. As soon as some doubts appeared about Broad he was good with both the ball and the bat. The same with Woakes against Pakistan in the first Test. Anderson has to just shrug off the media reports, which swing one way then the other, and concentrate on playing and enjoying the game.

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The last thing we want to do is to bring back the images of the 1953 American sponsored coup, which ousted Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh and returned Shah Pahlavi to power, says Senator John Kerry in an op-ed article in the NYT. He cautions America getting involved in Iran, letting Iranians decide on their own, as the CIA supported coup that overthrew Mossadegh's elected government and put a king in his place because he would be more friendly to American oil and other interests in the region, may arouse bitter memories of America's influence in avery negative way in an earlier period. Most Americans may not remember the American sponsored coup. Mossadegh was a socialist during the Cold War and wnated to nationalize the oil industry run by foreign companies in the country. During those days the interests of American oil companies, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and British-French colonial era interests in the Middle and Africa and Asia, were all intertwined. The Korean war had just ended, Suez crisis of 1956 with the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt, was a few years away, the French were fighting to keep their colonial empire in Vietnam, and America was supporting Pakistan with Sabre fighter jets bringing a version of the cold war to the Indian subcontinent even though India was the largest democracy in Asia. Partly because its leader Jawaharlal Nehru, was an independent minded socialist, who avoided joining the cold war with his non-alignment policies. Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate for President against Eisenhower was very enthusiastic about Nehru in his speeches, but Republican Secretary of State Dulles saw things differently, just as today there are huge differences between the way a Rumsfeld and an Obama see the world. Many of the problems today in places like Pakistan Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq had their beginning during this period....

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Jaguar Land Rover has strong sales in 2013 of 425,006 vehicles. JLR is investing 1 billion pounds to build a factory in China, in a joint venture with Cherry Automobile Company. The factory will make 130,000 automobiles a year when it starts in late 2014. In Brazil JLR is investing 240 million pounds for a factory that will make 95,000 vehicles a year. JLR currently has assembly facilities in India for the Freelander 2 sport-utility vehicle and Jaguar XF sedan, and assembly facilities in Pakistan, Kenya, Malaysia, Turkey. JLR plans to spend 3.5-3.75 billion pounds in the fiscal year beginning April 1, an increase from the 2.75 billion pounds capital spending budget for 2013. 2013 capital spending was 17% of total revenue of 15.78 billion pounds. Dealers are expected to spend an additional 1 billion pounds on improving the sales network.

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Bhutan is a small mountain kingdom in north eastern India, bordering Tibet. Historically close ties with Tibet continued after China's takeover of Tibet following the coming to power of China's Communist Party in 1949. This led to a friendship treaty with India in 1949. A narrow piece of terrritory with 34 square kilometres is part of the dispute between China and India. India opposed the move to build Chinese roads in the area leading to a standoff that is now over 50 days. This territory is significant because it connects India's central plains to the northeastern states. Bhutan opposes the Chinese road work but tries to maintain friendly relations with China. The close relationship between India and Bhutan is part of the situation that emerged after China's takeover of Tibet. The Royal Bhutan Army's salaries are paid by India, road construction is done by India, and subsidies for food and kerosene were provided by India. A parliamentary democracy with a monarch was established in Bhutan under king Jigme Wangchuk, and elections were held in 2008, 2013. This has led to more openness towards China, leading to concern in India.  Bhutan is a popular destination for Chinese tourists who pay $250 for a visa. Indians do not need a visa. ...

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The fact that Osama bin Laden was in Abbotabad, near the Pakistan military academy and military facilities, and was probably sheltered by the ISI, raises the issue of Pakistan sheltering the terrorists who planned the Mumbai attacks. This increases pressure on the Indian government to take up this issue and affects efforts to improve relations.

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One needs to look at India -US relations over the long span 1900-2025  looking only at the long haul. In taking a look at the relationship in this way Gandhi's letter to FDR during the Quit India Movement from Wardha July 1 1941, and FDR's reply (with Churchill and FDR fighting Japan in 1941) ranks as memorable and long lasting, far likely to prevail as an idea that holds the imagination of it's peoples than the pulls and shifts of different administrations. Even in the  depth of the war against the Nazis in Europe, and the Imperial Japanese Army rampaging through China, Gandhi felt comfortable looking to America as a friend. Churchill was the antagonist at the time unwilling to let the British Empire fade, and FDR was a friend through the Second World War. Gandhi opens his letter to FDR saying "Dear Friend. I twice missed coming to your great country... I have profited greatly from the writings of Thoreau and Emerson..." And FDR writing back "I shall hope that our common interest in democracy and righteousness will enable your countrymen and mine to make common cause..." For India the powerful words of Cordell Hull his Secretary of State, were offered by FDR with unmistakable goals of freedom and democratic process for India. Eisenhower and Dulles support for Pakistan in the 1950's into 1970's, a period of China and India in the 1970's and 1990's shifting away from old economic arrangements, till India US under Biden 2020 where India as with FDR  was "the closest in the world" to the US, following China's shift to Communist rule and now competition with the US. Taking this long perspective India and the relationship with America will be determined by the 1.8 billion people of the two countries (with Indonesia 2.1 billion people), and the potential for this is vast and only growing by the year. There is a natural affinity and feeling that is only now coming into its own because of a shared responsibility, and a shared understanding, as parts of the former British Empire, separated in 1783 and 1947. And the mutual desire to build the modern world on the terms left by advances of science and technology combined with the ancient civilization of the Bible, Buddhism and the Upanishads. In this sense modern India is made with America and does not exist separate from America, and modern America forward is made with India and does not exist separate from India. ...

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This WSJ editorial says the free Indonesian elections and win by Widodo are worth celebrating. In the win by the Jakarta governor over Subianto, a military figure from the Suharto period, by 8.5 million votes in a country of 190 million, there is one big piece of good news in the midst of the failures elsewhere including neighboring Thailand. The Constitutional Court dismissed a challenge from Subianto, and the Yudhoyono government has shown a balanced approach to carefully respect the election results. This sets the stage for Indonesia to join the other democracies in the region, especially neighboring India, Australia and Japan, and also Pakistan, Bangladesh. The Indian region and Indonesia together represent the largest population in the world. The effort to tackle the common huge problems of inadequate infrastructure, using a elected democratic government process, will require all the energy, wise policy and ingenuity of the people themselves.

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Some frank and honest assesments of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan from a career foreign service officer, the British ambassador in Kabul, Afghanistan about the lack of trust, corruption and lack of viability of the Karzai government, as it faces insurgents who he says could make life difficult even in the capital. Both candidates plan an expansion of the Afghanistan war with Obama equally aggressive or more so with targeting of Pakistan from comments in the last debate of McCain and Obama. The ambassador may be warning of the danger of expansion of the war without carefully assessing the situation on the ground like the failure of the Karzai governmet to build trust, corruption, and as reported by the BBC News tv coverage the shipping of arms to insurgents under the tacit permission of corrupt Afghan governmet officials through highways controlled by the Kabul government.

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Ali Sethi, a novelist, questions the simple minded theory that all that matters in South Asia is the Hindu-Muslim divide and with it the idea of a separate Muslim state. He points to this as far from the daily reality of caste, landholding classes, education and the lack of it, sectarianism within the religion, and other differences. And in many ways these outweigh the overly simplified idea of two religions and different states.

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Here the NYT answers questions about the Panama Papers- what they are, who is shown to have used the tax havens to avoid taxes, and what this all means. Politburo members in China, relatives of president Xi Jinping, close associates of Mr. Putin of Russia, prime minister Cameron's father, the new head of FIFA, the head of Transparency Chile, president Mauricio Macri of Argentina, prime minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, are some of the figures mentioned by the NYT. An unnamed source tapped into the files of offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama to collect 2.6 terabytes of data or 11.5 million documents that contain this information, and gave it to a German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung about a year ago. These papers were then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and 100 news agencies including The Guardian.

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Eri Machii, founded AfriMedico, a nonprofit organization designed to deliver medicine to remote regions in countries in Africa. She worked in Niger under a Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program after two years working as a pharmacist. There she learned about the dangers in Africa in remote villages where travel and delivery expenses were high and infrastructure lacking. She devised a method of Okigusuri for Africa where as in traditional Japan medicines were left in a kit in villages and people paid only for what they used. Payment is done by cell phone using the M-Pesa money transfer system. Maichii learned about okigusiri as a system used in Japan throughout its history in places where infrastructure was lacking, lack of universal health insurance, and large families living together. She found that this was true for distant villages in countries like Tanzania where she implemented the system under AfriMedico. 20 volunteers helped found the organization and Tanzania pharmacist network helped guide them in setting it up. Large amounts of medicine taken at one time reduce the cost of transport. Use of the system of medikits in urban areas helped subsidize the village use. This is a system that has great potential for medicine delivery in many parts of Africa and Asia that have the same problem of access to basic medicine kits- so that treatment can be done earlier in the process for quicker less costly recovery, improving general health conditions. One can think of Indonesia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West and East African countries as having potential for wider use of this system. As people pay for only the medicines used using cell phones the system has wide applicability from cost and access point if supported by private and governmental agencies in these countries.   ...

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Gen. Matttis, the U.S. Defense Secretary has completed a strategy review on U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The U.S. policy is now set to put in more troops to support the additional 3900 American troops to advise the Afghan Army authorized in June 2017, as it fights both the Taliban and the Islamic State affiliate in Khorasan, Afghanistan. Two differences from the policy of the Obama administration are the increased focus on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, and other related matters which are coming under increased review so that sanctuaries are shut down. Lt. Gen. McMaster, the national security advisor, headed the governance, anti corruption review in Afghanistan during the Obama administration. This is now the focus of the Trump administration- to ask the Afghan government for improvement in these areas in return for aid. Other changes are to secure the support levels of NATO countries in the effort, so that the U.S. is not shouldering the burden alone. Gordon, Schmitt and Haberman cite the report of Gen. Nicholson, head of the American forces in Afghanistan to the U.S. Congress. This report shows deterioration in the fight against the Taliban and Islamic State. As of Nov. 2016 the areas under Afghan government control dropped 15% to 57% since 2015. About 8,400 American troops are part of the 13,000 troop international force in Aghanistan, supporting the Afghan military. An addition 2,000 troops are in counterterrorism missions.   ...