Obama’s diplomacy may be interesting to watch since it is being inclusive towards all the countries US had once excluded from its agenda. But, Cuba seems to be in no mood of getting included yet. US is facing pressure over its Cuba policy at the annual meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS), being held in Honduras. Most Latin American countries want the Caribbean island to return to the group, from which is was expelled in 1962, without preconditions.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Cuba should only return if it passed democratic reforms. Mrs Clinton said no consensus had been reached on the first day of the summit.

However, Cuba, which was expelled from OAS after the 1962 communist revolution, has said it would not accept membership if offered. Cuban Foreign Ministry official Carlos Fernadez said reversing the expulsion would be “a good sign for the Organisation of American States” but that his country had no intention of rejoining the group. Now, where does that leave the US? and Obama? That is not very clear.

The Pakistan army has officially claimed full control of the Swat valley, which was under the control of the Taleban terrorist outfit since the beginning of April 2009. The Taleban started forcing Sharia law in the region, and also started advancing into nearby towns, much to the dismay of the Pakistan army.
There was also pressure from US to dismantle the Taleban terrorist network inside Pakistan, and hence the Pakistan army started the offensive few weeks back. The Pakistan army is said to be in total control of the entire Swat Valley region now, as per official reports.

The North Korean government is going at full speed against the entire world, with too many events happening in the last few weeks. It all started with the North Korean withdrawal from the peace talks group a month back. Then it was followed up with the withdrawal of UN inspectors for Nuclear facilities.
Then it was followed up with two nuclear explosions under ground which has drawn flak from the entire globe. In the last few days, it went ahead and tested out many long range and short range missiles which are nuclear capable.
Unconfirmed sources say that North Korea is all set for testing of its long range nuclear capable missile in the coming days. This is expected to become the flash point between North Korea and Japan/US/South Korea combine.
North Korea is upset with the action taken by South Korea last week to join to global group for tracking illegal nuclear movement.

The US is having sleepless nights since last week, after North Korea conducted two underground nuclear tests. North Korea also went ahead and started the weapon grade uranium production at one of it’s factories.
All these have come as a big shocker for the new Barack Obama US administration, which is not able to take any concrete action against North Korea, except some rhetoric.
Now, US is pressurizing China to bring North Korea to the negotiation table. There could be a Chinese hand in the North Korean moves, say political experts, because China wants to enhance its role in the global context. It could do it indirectly for its own safety, because most of its currency reserves are invested in US and it cannot risk confronting US directly.
Also given the tough economic condition China itself is facing, it will make sense to sell nuclear technology to rogue countries like North Korea, and also make money.

The Sri Lankan government has formally announced the victory over the once strong Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE. The 26 year old fighting between the government and the rebels had cost the Sri Lankan government billions of dollars, and loss of peace for its dominant community, Sinhalese.
With the killing of the LTTE Chief Prabhakaran and his close aides in the last few weeks, the Sri Lankan government has started the victory celebrations. The President has also announced that peaceful settlement of the Tamil population is the first priority.

The General Elections in the world’s largest democracy was completed last week, and various opinion polls indicated that no party will get a majority and therefore everybody was expecting a hung parliament.
But the results announced yesterday was totally surprising to many, including the ruling Congress coalition government. The Congress party , along with the retained coalition partners, has ended up getting 260 seats, which is just 13 seats short of the majority mark. There are adequate independents and other friendly small parties which have indicated their help to the Congress group.
So , Indians can expect to have a stable government for the next five years.

The dreaded terrorist group , Taleban, is on the run in the last few days, due to the massive offensive launched by the Pakistani army. Under pressure from US, which has threatened direct military intervention inside Pakistan, if the Pakistani government does not take decisive action in few days, the Pakistani government has gone on the offensive.
In the last few days over 300 Taleban militants have been killed, and over 500 injured. But the reality could be elsewhere because as per Pakistan government estimates, there are over 45000 Taleban militants inside Pakistan. Then it seems to be a case of a drama by the Pakistan government in connivance with Taleban. It will be good for the US to watch out , and avoid getting fooled once more.

Ever since the new US government came to power three months back, there has been a sea change in Pakistan.

Pakistan has now officially acceded control of a major part of its territory to the terrorist organization Taleban. This has totally irked the US administration, which is currently helpless. Now US understands that the key reason for the loss over 4000 of their soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the Taleban terrorists nurtured by the Pakistani Army elements.

It is only a question of another few months before Taleban takes full control of Pakistani administration. That could be a real disaster because Pakistan is a nuclear weapon state and Taleban might be forced to use it against the US and their allies.

Unless US acts fast and swift in the coming weeks, it might have to brace for a very tough time in 2009 and 2010. Taleban has been openly accusing US of strong arm tactics against the Muslim world, and has vowed to take the fight right into the heartland of US cities , through meticulously planned terrorist attacks.

Also on the other hand, there are long term foes of US like Iran and North Korea who have already developed nuclear capabilities which are also posing big trouble for US and Europe.  So in the coming months, we can see lot of serious problems for US in handling these rouge nations.

The speech of the Iranian President Ahmedinajed, wherein he said that Jewish elements were sent from US and Europe to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine, has resulted in the entire Western diplomats walking out of the UN Racism conference.

But, the Iranian President has been given a rousing welcome back at home, after his sensational speech at the UN racism conference. The Iranian public seems to have loved the racial comments by their leader, which is expected to widen the gap between Iran and the western world. This may be a set back to the initiatives of the new US President, Barack Obama, to restore good relations with all countries of the world.

Sri Lanka has been ravaged in the last ten years due to the massive uprising of the rebellion forces like Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE. Just few years back, over 50% of the Sri Lankan area was under the control of LTTE because they were able to procure latest arms and ammunitions from the illegal channels.
But in the last few years US and Europe have tightened the rules on arms sales, which has made it difficult for LTTE in procuring more arms.

Also the developed world was able to cripple the illegal fund channels which resulted in curtailment of fund flow for LTTE. Also the Sri Lanka army was able to get a key member of LTTE along with good number of followers to get out of LTTE and join the Sri Lankan Army side.
And in the meanwhile, Sri Lanka started amassing large quantity of latest arms and ammunitions that gave them the confidence to go for a direct confrontation with LTTE. And in the last six months , the Sri Lankan Army has already killed several thousand cadres of LTTE and captured back over 40% of the Sri Lankan Territory, so far under the control of LTTE.
Now LTTE is restricted to just 5% of the area and might be eliminated anytime in the next few months. But whether this might result in peace returning back to Sri Lanka or not, is still not guaranteed. Because the Sri Lankan government might be encouraged to go for a massive suppression of the Tamil population to vent out their anger accumulated over the last ten years.
But that might lead to creation of another rebellion group like LTTE or even might encourage LTTE to regroup into a stronger force to take on the Sri Lankan army once again.
There could be tacit support from India for the peace discussions between LTTE and other major Tamil groups in Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lankan government. This is needed to find a long term amicable and peaceful solution to the Tamil issue.