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Author: Vijeta Uniyal

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Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is an Indian journalist based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 27, 2015 1 Comment
According to a press release issued by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israeli Navy has successfully tested Barak 8 Air and Missile Defense system developed jointly by Israel and India. The 4.5 meter-long surface-to-air missile can carry a payload of up to 60 kg. The missile is built to counter comprehensive airborne threats including fighter jets, combat helicopters, incoming missiles, and weaponised drones. Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel Aerospace Industries carried out on Thursday the first successful interception test of the next generation Barak 8 missile system, which is designed to protect naval ships and offshore gas rigs from hostile aircraft, missiles and rockets. In the test, the INS Lahav, a Sa’ar 5-class corvette, positioned just south of Haifa, fired a Barak 8 missile and destroyed a fast-moving, jet-powered drone at 7 a.m. It was the first time the missile was launched from a ship, Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit, navy chief-of-staff, told reporters. (...) The project has been in joint Israeli and Indian development in recent years, and is officially due to become operational in both navies within one to two years, he said.
According to London-based newspaper The Guardian, Barak 8 is set to play a key role in securing the Israeli offshore gas fields.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 26, 2015 13 Comments
In a show of defiance against the European Union, Poland's newly-elected conservative Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has broken with the practice of her liberal predecessors and decided to remove the EU flag from her weekly news conference. Last month, Prime Minister Szydlo's conservative Law and Justice Party won a landslide victory on an anti-immigration and Eurosceptic platform. The new Polish government is opposed to the EU-backed German proposal to distribute migrants across EU member states. Poland is only willing to accept displaced Christians from the Middle East.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 19, 2015 11 Comments
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel doubles down on her open-border policy just days after the deadly Paris terror attacks by reiterating her government’s willingness to absorb more migrants, the political landscape in changing rapidly before her eyes. The anti-immigration party AfD that was just above 3 percent in opinion polls as recently as August, is now polling above 10 percent. Established in 2013 as a grassroots reaction to the EU’s monetary policy, the party has skyrocketed to the country's third largest political force. AfD (Alternative for Germany) has aligned itself with the anti-Islamisation movement ‘Pegida’, drawing impressive crowds to its rallies, especially in the eastern part of the country.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 11, 2015 5 Comments
British Prime Minister David Cameron has laid out new conditions for his country to remain in the European Union. Ahead of the historic EU referendum scheduled to take place in 2017, Prime Minister is trying to renegotiate UK's relationship with EU. If the bid fails, it may eventually lead to British exit from the European Union or Brexit. European Commission reacted promptly to British Prime Minister's new demands calling some of them "highly problematic." The New York Times reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 09, 2015 9 Comments
While European leaders and the mainstream media continue to defend open border policies, millions of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have embarked on an unstoppable march towards Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the leading proponent of Europe’s policy of unrestricted migrant intake, and she is firmly backed by the EU’s powerful bureaucracy. Before the year ends, Germany alone is expected to take in as many as 1.5 million migrants. Despite repeated calls by the Islamic State to target European countries on their own home soil, EU leaders continue to brush aside the growing fear of terrorism and Islamic radicalisation in Europe. Faced with opposition from a few Eastern European member states, the EU has decided to double down on its open border policy. Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has joined the chorus, assuring Italians that there is no need to worry about Islamic terrorists posing as migrants; but the latest high-profile arrest in Italy of a known ISIS operative once again shows how out of touch European politicians really are with the grim realities of mass migration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 05, 2015 18 Comments
President Obama may have abandoned trusted allies and diminished US influence across the globe, leaving behind an inviting vacuum for tyrants and terrorists alike, but he is picking the right fights, and winning them too---at least the ones progressive liberals care about. That’s what Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants us to believe. Michael Bloomberg, who now carries the pompous title of United Nation's Special Envoy for ‘Climate Change’ wrote a triumphant editorial for CNN titled “We’re winning the war against coal.” He praised President Obama’s glorious record in the ‘War on Coal’, in which he forced 130 coal power plants out of business in the last 5 years and made it so an additional 70 plants will have to follow suit. According to Michael Bloomberg, the U.S. is well on its way to “phasing-out coal” as a source of energy. Former New York Mayor writes:
Here's some good news that many Americans may not realize: Domestically, we are winning the fight against the carbon pollution that drives climate change. And by doing so, we are giving President Obama a strong hand to play when world leaders gather at the U.N.'s climate summit in Paris in five weeks to negotiate a global agreement to limit carbon emissions.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 03, 2015 20 Comments
China has been a global hub for manufacturing counterfeit electronics and consumer goods, but as the Asian giant asserts its dominance in the Asian Pacific and beyond, its defense establishment is using the same approach to modernise its vast armed forces.  Despite its large standing and reserve army, Chinese Armed Forces technologically lags behind US, Russian and NATO forces. China has decided to manufacture ‘counterfeit’ high-end defense technology on a large scale to overcome its existing strategic weakness. According to a recent report published by the US Naval Institute, China is using military espionage and reverse engineering to build a modern army with “cloned weapons.” Using cyber espionage and by making secret deals with US arms buyers, China has managed to obtain advance US weapons technology. China is reportedly also targeting Russia in its quest for high-end military technology. The Chinese often buy single units of Russian advanced military systems on a “trial” basis and reverse-engineer the weaponry to produce a large-scale Chinese version:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 29, 2015 1 Comment
India’s largest corporate house Reliance Industries has announced its plans to make big and long-term investments in Israel. Reliance Industries, a Fortune 500 Company owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is the largest private sector company in India with a market capitalisation of well over $40 billion. Founded in 1966, Reliance Industries made its initial fortune in oil and natural gas sector. Recently, the company has invested billions of dollars in building a telecommunications network across India. The state-of-the-art nationwide cellular network build at the cost of estimated $15 billion opens new possibilities in retail, finance and healthcare. The company is looking for Israeli know-how and talent to fully exploit these possibilities, creating services for 100-200 million potential customers across the Indian sub-continent. Talking to Israeli media, managing partner of the company’s venture capital arm GenNext, Vivek Rai Gupta said that his company was working to build a nationwide customer base and there would be “no limit” on company’s investment in Israel. Israeli financial news website Globes Einglish quoted Gupta saying:
"We want to hook up to the Israeli ecosystem, and to discover more innovative companies that can enhance the value of the cellular network whose deployment we're completing right now," GenNext managing partner Vivek Rai Gupta, currently visiting Israel, said in "Globes" interview. "The network [mobile network reaching 800 cities] we're setting up is only a pipeline, and we're looking for interesting things through which we can provide value for our users in India."
Mobile-based technology carries the promise of improving everyday life for millions of Indians living in rural and remotely accessible regions -- from proving healthcare, vocational education, banking to even coordinating disaster relief.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 27, 2015 12 Comments
The landslide victory of the conservative party in Poland has delivered a big blow to the open border policy pursued by German Chancellor Merkel and unelected Eurocrats in Brussels. Poland’s ruling liberal Civic Platform has now become the first political victim of EU’s mass migration policy. The conservative Law and Justice Party won most of the seats in the Polish parliament, securing about 38 percent of the votes. If the initial figures are confirmed, it will be the first time in democratic Poland’s history that a single party has secured a majority in the country’s parliament. 52-year-old miner’s daughter, Beata Szydło (Law and Justice Party) is expected to replace the incumbent Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, who belongs to the Civic Platform party. With Prime Minister Kopacz’s devastating defeat, Chancellor Merkel has lost her most important ally in Eastern Europe. Hungary's President Victor Orban is already leading an open charge in Eastern Europe against Markel’s pro-immigration policy.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 22, 2015 4 Comments
Rapid industrialisation and population growth of recent years has increasingly put pressure in India’s limited water resources. Earlier this week, China’s announcement to construct a mega-dam on Brahmaputra river, that also runs through the eastern part of India, has revived regional tensions between the two Asian giants -- once again reminding that water could well be the source of future conflicts, just as oil and energy resources today. Securing water demand for a billion-strong population is one of the biggest challenges facing India today. In recent years, Israel has become India’s leading partner in water management and clean technologies. During Indian President Pranab Mukherjee's historic visit to Israel earlier this month, both countries signed series of agreements aimed at expanding this bilateral technological cooperation. Indian news website Boom Live described the extent of water scarcity faced by the country and need for further strengthening the cooperation with Israel in water technology:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 20, 2015 10 Comments
British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced new measures to tackle the rise of Islamic extremism in the UK. With this new set of measures, the government wants to counter the influence of Islamic thinking on government-funded institutions, private charities and businesses. Britain is home to about 3 million Muslims, and many Brits have become concerned about the radicalisation of young Muslims taking place in schools and mosques. Today, some 500 to 1000 British Muslims are fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. Additionally, Britain faces the threat of home-grown Islamic terrorism, as highlighted by the London bombings of 2005 that killed more than 50 people in the London public transport system during the rush hour. According to the domestic security service MI5, the home-grown terror plots are now at an all-time high. British broadcaster Channel 4 News quoted Prime Minister Cameron as describing Islamic extremism as "one of the great struggles of our generation."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 15, 2015 5 Comments
As Indian President Pranab Mukherjee's 3-day historic visit to Israel comes to an end, Israel’s foreign policy is being redefined. During the first ever visit by an Indian head of state, both countries signed a series of agreements aimed at improving cooperation in commerce, technology and education. India, traditionally seen as a strong backer of the “Palestinian cause” at the world stage, has sharply changed its diplomatic position since Prime Minister Modi took office 17 months ago. Since his election, India has consistently voted against or abstained from anti-Israel resolutions tabled by Arab countries at UN and other international fora.  India’s recent pro-Israel stance has angered many Palestinians. During Indian President’s brief visit to the Al Quds University in Ramallah angry Palestinian demonstrators occupied the campus to register their protest. India, under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, wants to further intensify cooperation with Israel, despite continued objections by the Palestinian Authority as well as Muslim and left-wing groups in India. Prime Minister Modi is also expected to visit Israel next year. Indian Prime Minister sees Israel as a key global partner in his drive towards a modern and prosperous India. Addressing the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, October 14, the Indian President emphasised the need for closer cooperation between both the countries in the field of technology, research and higher education [Jerusalem Post, October 15, 2015]:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 13, 2015 11 Comments
India-Israel diplomatic relations will turn a new chapter with the Indian President's historic state visit to Israel. Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian Head of the State to visit the Jewish State. The state visit is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 17-month old government that seeks to strengthen commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel. However, right at the onset the Indian President’s visit was marred by a controversy, when media reports surfaced early this week that Mukherjee reportedly quoted Mahatma Gandhi during his stay to Jordan, saying, “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French.” Jerusalem Post reports:
Speaking in Amman at the University of Jordan, [President Mukherjee said],“India’s traditional support to the Palestinian cause remains steadfast and unwavering while we pursue strong relations with Israel. Our bilateral relations [with Israel] are independent of our relations with Palestine.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 08, 2015 30 Comments
Remember President Obama’s open mic moment in Seoul, South Korea back in 2012, when he was overheard by reporters, promising Russian President Dmitry Medvedev more “flexibility” to Russians in Eastern Europe after his re-election? The NATO generals in Europe are now finding out the hard way what happens when you offer ‘harmless’ concessions to tyrants and imperialists. President Obama offered a bit of leg space to Comrade Putin in a fit of mindlessness and now you have Russian jackboots dangling all over Eastern Europe. Putin and his ex-KGB clique in control of Kremlin, have not forgotten humiliating Soviet retreat from the countries of Eastern Europe and are back from the cold to correct the 'historic injustice'. Today, Putin’s Russia is running a well-coordinated and highly effective campaign of propaganda and subversion in Eastern Europe that even communist-tyrant Stalin would be proud of. This “hybrid warfare” involves covert cyber operations, misinformation campaigns and psychological warfare to disrupt political and military decision making in Europe. Recently a leading NATO commander acknowledged the damage Russians are inflicting on U.S. allies in Eastern Europe:
Speaking at the Atlantic Council on Tuesday, US Admiral Mark Ferguson, who is in charge of the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, said that Russia is developing military capabilities and hybrid method of war are designed to "cripple" the functional abilities of the NATO alliance, according to a transcript from US Naval Institute news. Russia's focus on hybrid and asymmetrical warfare, including its development of cyber and information warfare capabilities, is “designed to cripple the decision-making cycle of the alliance," Ferguson. "Their capabilities have focused on the creation of ambiguity.” Admiral Mark Ferguson explained the objectives of Russian tactics against the NATO member states, saying, "Russia exploits ethnic and religious divisions, makes use of an aggressive information campaign, and extensively uses misinformation and deception to delegitimize the forces under attack while confusing the attribution of their actions."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 06, 2015 11 Comments
With news reports in Germany putting the number of migrants expected at 1.5 million, the opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open boarder policy is rising. On Monday, about nine thousand people took to streets in Dresden at a rally called by the anti-Islamization group PEGIDA, or the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West. The Federal and local governments are clueless on how to handle the uncontrolled influx of migrants into Germany. Some municipalities, like the City of Hamburg, want to confiscate private property to house new migrants.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 01, 2015 29 Comments
As President Obama told the UN General Assembly that the principle of "might is right" was not the answer to the world's problems and then went on raising a toast to President Putin at a luncheon on Wednesday, September 28, Russian Armed forces where busy installing long-range air-defenses, claiming air superiority over area well beyond Syrian air space, denying access to US and NATO already conducting airstrikes against ISIS positions. Jerusalem Post quoted NATO's top commander, General Philip Breedlove saying Russia’s move to deny access to US and NATO forces in the Eastern Mediterranean was a "a growing problem." Russia’s first airstrike targeted non-ISIS Syria rebels rather than the dreaded Islamic State. BBC reports:
[Russia] launched air strikes in Syria for a second day. [Russian air-]strikes reportedly targeted positions in the north-west held by the Army of Conquest rebel alliance. Russia said it had struck four Islamic State (IS) facilities overnight, and destroyed a "terrorist HQ" outside Idlib and a command post near Hama. (…) Russia carried out about 20 missions on Wednesday. The US fears they targeted non-IS opponents of Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Obama administration's response was prompt and swift, issuing a 'strong statement' reminding Russia that by resorting to violence, it was 'throwing gasoline on fire.' Only thing those generals on Kremlin fear more, is a sternly worded letter from John Kerry.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 29, 2015 31 Comments
Governments across Europe are complying with European Union directives to accommodate tens of thousands of migrants arriving each day. Germany, which became the driving force behind the recent influx of migrants after it suspended Dublin convention, refuses to put any cap to the number of migrants it can absorb. The rules of law and property rights are the first casualties of the EU push for a more 'generous' migration policy. Countries like Germany and Sweden are considering revising existing property laws to confiscate homes to house arriving migrants. Austria has changed its constitution to force provinces to accept higher quotas of migrants. The existing law restricted the intake of refugees more than 1.5 percent of the population. The country is expecting to receive about 80,000 asylum claims by the end of 2015. The Austrian news website The Local reports:
The move, mirroring EU efforts to oblige member states to accept more migrants, is aimed at relieving Austria's overcrowded main refugee centre at Traiskirchen, and comes into effect on October 1. It was put forward by Chancellor Werner Faymann's Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party, which form Austria's governing coalition, and votes from the Greens gave it the necessary two-thirds majority.  (...) In recent months Austria has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of migrants entering from Hungary -- having travelled up the western Balkans -- bound for northern Europe, in particular Germany.
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