Jaswant Singh is the only person to have served as India’s finance minister (1996, 2002-2004), foreign minister (1998-2004), and defense minister (2000-2001). While in office, he launched the first free-trade agreement (with Sri Lanka) in South Asia’s history, initiated India’s most daring diplomatic opening to Pakistan, revitalized relations with the US, and reoriented the Indian military, abandoning its Soviet-inspired doctrines and weaponry for close ties with the West. His most recent book is Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence.
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Jaswant Singh
Commentaries by Jaswant Singh
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The Invisible-Border War
NEW DELHI – A half-century after the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the border between China and India remains undefined and a constant source of …
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A Chinese Pivot?
NEW DELHI – Is China, under its new president, Xi Jinping, undertaking its own diplomatic pivot, parallel to the United States’ “pivot to As…
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Crumbling BRICS
NEW DELHI – In 2001, when Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the acronym BRIC to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the world had h…
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The Road to Asian Unity
NEW DELHI – Asia’s lack of institutions to ameliorate regional tensions is often lamented. But greater Asian unity may be arising by the bac…
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India’s Outrage
NEW DELHI – Last year ended for India on a note of public outrage that has burdened the country with anger, frustration, and pessimism. The …
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Asia Adrift
NEW DELHI – The year 2012 began with festering Chinese sovereignty claims in the South and East China Seas, but also with hope that a code o…
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Exit Afghanistan?
NEW DELHI – In his victory speech to a rapturous crowd in Chicago following his reelection, President Barack Obama affirmed that America’s “…
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Burma to Myanmar and Back?
NEW DELHI – In ways big and small, Asia is still living with the tainted legacy of imperialism. Consider the debate now underway in Myanmar …
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NAM in Tehran
NEW DELHI – Nowadays, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is no longer much of a movement. Since the Cold War’s end, it has fractured into a far …
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What Syria Means
NEW DELHI – Syria’s agony has generated a variety of unproductive responses: verbal condemnation of the excesses of President Bashar al-Assa…
The Road to Asian Unity
James Daniel Paul: Given the state of the security.. is it desirable to have Asian Union? We already have Asian Development Bank on Infrastructure financing, we have the Free trade talks in SAARC and ASEAN.. Do we need …
The Invisible-Border War
S.Mahmud Ali: Mr Singh, a former soldier himself, and India's former Defence Minister (as well as the holder of several other Union Cabinet portfolios) is eminently qualified to explain what happened along the LAC.…