20 SEPTEMBER 2015:

Ø  External Affairs MinisterSwaraj’s declaration cheered up Israel, but that has not been followed up with the declaration of a travel date from the Indian Prime Minister. We are glad about the coming visit of President Pranab Mukherjee, but the non-declaration of the date of a prime ministerial visit intrigues us.

Ø  Brushing aside dispute over the South China Sea, China on Friday called for the fuller economic integration with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), steered by the Nanning-Singapore Economic Corridor under the framework of the Maritime Silk Road (MSR). Soon after the 12th edition of the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit began, delegates from China and ASEAN arrived at the “Nanning Consensus” to build the Nanning-Singapore Economic Corridor, more formally dubbed as the China-Indo-China Peninsula International Corridor. The core initiative aimed at economic integration, would connect eight major cities — Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vientiane, Hanoi and Nanning.