The United States will host a team from India at the State Department over two days beginning on Monday to discuss strategy for a way forward toward UNSC expansion.
Four-star General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is expected to succeed chairman Admiral Mike Mullen as the top military man in Pentagon next year, has admitted that the terrorist safe havens that exist in Pakistan are a major strategic vulnerability in achieving success in Afghanistan against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The president of the South Asian Studies Association -- a non-profit professional association comprising professors and students at universities and colleges dedicated to 'understanding South Asia's cultures, histories, issues and opportunities' -- has slammed the recent humiliating pat-down of India's ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar and also taken Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to task for not expressing outrage over this incident.
Richard Holbrooke, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who died on Monday at age 69, throughout his tenure in the Obama administration, scrupulously eschewed using the 'K' word despite constantly being baited by South Asian journalists and even US lawmakers after it was first rumoured that he would be President Obama's trouble-shooter for the subcontinent.
Hillary Clinton said. "It was not raised with me or raised directly with the state department," but she reiterated, "Certainly, we will be looking into it and not only responding to the Indian foreign minister, but also reviewing the policies."
Taking part in an interaction following his speech to a conference of US-India Relations, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert Blake announced that US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will make her first trip to New Delhi in the spring for meetings with her counterpart Home Minister P Chidambaram and other senior officials in the Ministry and intelligence agencies.
In an interaction that followed his keynote speech at a conference on US-India Relations, Barack Obama administration's point man for South Asia, Robert Blake was asked how he saw the Indo-US partnership playing out in the UN Security Council in the wake of the US endorsement.
The US Department of Treasury on Thursday designating two of Pakistan's most wanted terrorists, Lashkar-e Jhangvi senior leader Amanullah Afridi for acting for or on behalf of the LeJ and LeJ chief operational commander Mati ur-Rehman for acting for or on behalf of the Al Qaeda. The Treasury also designated a third individual, Abdul Rauf Azhar, a senior leader of Jaish-e Mohammed.
US Senator Mark Warner, the new Democratic co-chair of the US Senate India Caucus, has pledged to grow the US-India partnership even further in his new role and promote joint innovation so that both countries could mutually benefit.
Three weeks after Election Day the see-saw battle between Democrat Kamala Devi Harris and Republican Steve Cooley for the post of Attorney General of California came to an end on November 24 when Cooley conceded the race in perhaps one of the closest statewide elections in the history of this state.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has taken strong exception to the contention that President Barack Obama's recent visit to India clearly indicates that while the United States seeks a long-term strategic partnership with Delhi, Pakistan to is nothing but a short-term strategic convenience to Washington.
On the eve of the second anniversary of the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has said the alleged perpetrators and conspirators of this attack on trial in Pakistan can only be convicted if India provides evidence to the Pakistani authorities.
In the wake of mounting reports about Pakistan's commitment to fighting terrorism despite American military and economic largesse and credible intelligence of Islamabad's perfidy in maintaining links with militant groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani argued that the number of Pakistani soldiers killed in fighting militants should silence these critics.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in concert with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday amended the foreign terrorist organisation designation of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba in order to include one of the terror group's front organisation and a charitable arm of it as part of the FTO designation too.
Confirming rediff.com's scoop of October 15 on how United States officials wanted US President Barack Obama to endorse India's bid for permanent membership in the United States Security Council, advising him it could make his India visit truly historic, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert Blake said Monday, that even though the President's announcement of support for India's candidacy during his address to Parliament came as a surprise to many people,
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the highest ranking Indian American in the Obama administration, who accompanied US President Barack Obama to India said that today his agency's developmental relationship with India has evolved into a peer to peer partnership unlike in the past when India was simply an aid recipient.
When Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs was challenged as to what action against terror groups, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the US had been able to elicit from Pakistan and that President Obama's statements that Pakistan providing safe havens to these groups being unacceptable was said in India to pacify Indians, he defended the actions taken by Islamabad thus far.
Blake said, "What this visit will be remembered for is that it will mark really the first time that we have really embarked on serious, specific, global strategic cooperation in areas like open government, in areas like agriculture, or in women's empowerment, or in working together in Africa, working together in Afghanistan."
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf believes that he os the panacea for Pakistan if it were to be saved from being a failed state, thanks to the 'inept and pathetic performance' by President Asif Ali Zardari led civilian government in Islamabad.Musharraf said that at the time he left office, the poverty rate in Pakistan, according to World Bank figures, had been halved, from 34 percent to 17 percent. "Which government has done this?" he asked.
Karl F Inderfurth, who was Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs in the Clinton administration, and Nicholas Burns, who was Under Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, told rediff.com that Obama's endorsement during his address to a joint session of Parliament thus made his visit to India transformational too in a sense as had the trip by Clinton in March of 2000 and Bush in March 2006.
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