Anders Fogh-NATO & Russia a new beginning

Former Danish PM and new Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen in his first major speech at Carnegie Endowment-a think tank on Russia has said that after taking over, NATO-Russia relations holds greater potential than its relationship with partner nations. He believes that the relationship should reinforce practical cooperation,build confidence and trust and should review security challenges that the world faces. 20 years after the cold war the divide between East and West still remains. Anders is of the opinion that the enlargement of NATO and EU has infact strengthened the security of Russia and not created a threat. But there are many who think otherwise. Russia is still a major player in the world when it comes to security and weapons. They might have lost the old Soviet glory, by losing control over many of its erstwhile terrorities that have declared independence, but Russia is a might by itself that cannot be ignored. Otherwise why would the US back out of a missile plan that Bush wanted to go ahead with be shelved by the new administration? That missle plan would have simply heightened the tensions in Europe. Anders's view is that there should more cooperation between NATO and Russia on missle defence, fighting Al Qaeda, WMD, Afghanistan, maritime security. There are lots of misunderstandings which are fundamental in nature that will not just go away overnight You would invariably find Russia on the other side of the problem when there is a global problem. Probably thats the phenomenon called 'who is mightier'.Cooperation is the only way to build that trust and by involving Russia as a partner in resolving European and International security issues. There is certainly a long way to go but Anders has surely started out on the right note. Way to go Anders.

Austerity measures in India

The 'austerity drive' in India has gained momentum ever since the Finance Minister asked his colleagues belonging to his Congress Party to go easy on flamboyance, extravagence or any other term that befits. Since then, the media has been ga-ga over what the Congress Minister's and leaders have been upto. They found that the Foreign Minister and his Deputy had been staying in 5 star hotels for 3 months as their official residences were being renovated. A big issue was made out of it even though both the Ministers paid for the bills out of their pockets, but the next question was how can they afford it. We must not forget that there are many in the Congress who have taken Shashi's candidature to Parliament with a pinch of salt. The average politician who is busy schemeing or dilly dallying on petty issues has no clue about what Shashi is made of. Comon we are talking about a man who spent money out of his pocket and won the election. There are far more pressing issues that the Government needs to look into rather than this. Look at the amount of money that is spent on each leader in the name of security? The train that Rahul Gandhi took was stoned. He is not only putting his life on the line but also others on that train. Now that the train is damaged, money has to be spent get it back into shape. All of this on the tax payers account. At the end of the day, more money will be spent on austerity than you will save. A small portion of the money that is wasted is sufficient to feed the needy, improve infrastructure etc. Long way to go for India if it wishes to be called a Super power.

Starting to blog...

I always wanted to know how this worked, and now I finally found how it works, so I have also started to blog, maybe the zillioneth person to do so