by Ausaf Sayeed | Sep 13, 2026 | BRICS, Geopolitics, India-BRICS, West Asia
When the leaders of an eleven-nation bloc representing roughly half of humanity gathered at Bharat Mandapam on 12–13 September, the question was whether BRICS could still agree. In May, its foreign ministers had failed to issue a joint statement over differences on...
by Ausaf Sayeed | Aug 25, 2026 | UAE, West Asia
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement (MJDA), signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan on 7 August, matters less for having already taken a step towards creating a “Muslim NATO” than for capturing a profound shift in West Asia’s strategic psychology. Its central...
by Ausaf Sayeed | Jun 13, 2026 | Geopolitics, India, Iran, Middle East, USA, West Asia
In a single Thursday, the war over Iran shifted from the brink of catastrophe to the cusp of a deal. On June 11, President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran “very hard” and seize Kharg Island, through which nine-tenths of Iranian oil flows; by nightfall, he had...
by Ausaf Sayeed | Jun 4, 2026 | Abraham Accords, Geopolitics, India, Israel, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, West Asia
Normalisation of the Arab world’s relationship with Israel, to be meaningful and lasting, cannot bypass Palestine and be bundled into geopolitical horse-trading Donald Trump’s late-May 2026 demand that virtually every Arab and Islamic state “mandatorily” join the...
by Ausaf Sayeed | May 15, 2026 | GCC, Geopolitics, India-UAE, Middle East, West Asia
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Abu Dhabi on the morning of May 15, he was received by a formation of UAE military jets — a ceremonial gesture that carried more analytical weight than protocol alone could explain. The escort was not simply a welcome. It...
by Ausaf Sayeed | Apr 10, 2026 | Geopolitics, India, Iran, Middle East, West Asia
When President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran on April 7, 2026 — barely ninety minutes before his own military strike deadline expired — the world heaved a sigh of relief. Oil prices plunged 14–16 per cent. Equity markets from Tokyo to Frankfurt...
