Putting the onus of resumption of dialogue on India, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday said he was ready to meet his Indian counterpart S M Krishna anywhere at anytime and was even willing to fly back to New York on Thursday if he has time.
A leading expert predicts that the incoming Trump administration will likely continue its pro-India policies, including the Indo-Pacific strategy and Quad, but highlights potential challenges such as trade disagreements, immigration issues, and a possible quid pro quo for technology sharing. The expert also notes that the Trump 2.0 administration may prioritize great power politics over strategic altruism, potentially impacting human rights and religious freedom concerns.
The Shiv Sena on Monday refused to call off the protest against the book launch of former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai.
'We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and do more to improve their bilateral relations'
Our focus is not on substance, but communicating how we did not shake hands and how we made angry faces. This is what India's foreign policy has become, notes Aakar Patel.
'With continued focus on votes, upcoming by-polls and purchasing politicians, the political hierarchy has little time for national defence.' 'They would do well to heed a veteran scholar, who says, "There will be war with China in the next few years. The next full scale war will have the involvement of Pakistan and terror elements, insurgents and intelligence assets operating inside India",' warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
Imran Khan knows Pakistan is holding a strong hand and doesn't have to flaunt it while claiming victory. But Pakistan has learned from the experience of the 1990s -- high risk of going out on a limb, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In a statement, the MEA said, "The latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the recent release of a series of 20 postage stamps by Pakistan glorifying a terrorist and terrorism confirm that Pakistan will not mend its ways."
Pak FM Qureshi informed Parliament that he requested the OIC to either rescind the invitation or postpone the session in view of the prevailing situation, neither of which was done.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Monday that his government will allow India to send a humanitarian shipment of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to neighbouring Afghanistan through its territory after finalisation of the transit modalities.
"India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate and win victories on own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies, which are utterly baseless and irresponsible," Pakistan's foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Twitter.
As a leader, he was ambitious, not for himself but for India and its people. His was not the short-term election cycle calculation of individual political gain. His was a practical vision of how to better the lives of his fellow citizens, asserts Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, who served as foreign secretary and national security advisor when Dr Singh was prime minister.
'The Indian version is that the two top diplomats merely exchanged pleasantries, while the Pakistani side characterised the encounter as an 'informal dialogue'.' 'The truth, as always in such piquant situations, is somewhere in between.' 'It stands to reason that ice has been broken,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
At least five Chinese nationals were among the six persons killed on Tuesday when an explosive-packed vehicle rammed into their bus in Pakistan's troubled northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.
'We will have to convince the world that Pakistan has nothing to do with the terrorism,' Asif said.
While Canada denies harbouring extremists or terrorists, Kugelman pointed out that India remains firm in its disagreement.
'An in-principle decision has been taken to take the issue of Kashmir to the International Court of Justice'
"We hit India by entering inside. Our achievement in Pulwama is the achievement of the entire community under the leadership of Imran Khan. You all also have credit (for it), Chaudhry told the National Assembly on Thursday.
'Nine missiles from India had been pointed towards Pakistan, to be launched any time that day'
Meanwhile, Afghanistan authorities defends sitting during Pakistan's national anthem 'due to music'.
It's a strategic approach in which the country's military and defence mechanisms evolve continuously in tandem with emerging threats. The new strategy anticipates events and prepares to counter those proactively.
But it is less adventurous. It seems, at last, that in its eighth decade, Pakistan has settled into being a parliamentary democracy just like Bangladesh has and like we have always been, observes Aakar Patel.
Khan said that India, which is a part of Quad, has imported oil from Russia despite American sanctions.
"The 'red bag' belonged to one of the hijackers, it contained explosives, and possibly, real passports, too.
China does not have to give up what it took in 2020, it will never give up its claim to Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and other areas, and it has all the time now to plan its next surprise, points out Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
"International law doesn't recognise India's unilateral and illegal actions of 5 August 2019. The judicial endorsement by the Indian Supreme Court has no legal value. Kashmiris have an inalienable right to self determination in accordance with the relevant UN SC resolutions," Pakistan's caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said in a post on X.
Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
India should encourage the second coming of SAARC with climate change as an urgent agenda and keeping Indian security concerns in mind as the subtext, suggest Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
It was only a matter of hours before I would be declared persona non grata; all my work would turn to ashes, and I would be revealed as a typical untrustworthy Indian. I steeled myself for the axe to fall.
Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were on Tuesday sentenced to 10 years each in prison for leaking State secrets.
Afghanistan witnessed a series of terror attacks in the last few weeks as the US aimed to complete the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by August-end, ending a nearly two-decade of its military presence in the war-ravaged country.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said the 'era of uninterrupted dialogue' with Pakistan is over even as he noted that India is 'not passive' and whether events take a positive or negative direction, either way New Delhi will react.
The Taliban is showing its strong discontent as the high hopes given to it by the Pakistani military have been dashed, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'I condemn in strongest possible words hurtful comments of India's BJP leader about our beloved Prophet (PBUH),' Shehbaz tweeted.
Pakistan's Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday nominated himself for the post of prime minister, while Imran Khan's party threatened to withdraw its lawmakers from Parliament if the former Punjab chief minister was allowed to contest the election for the top post on Monday.
Rajnath came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch during her briefing on Friday was asked to comment on the successful soft-landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon.
Amidst fracas over the launch of his book in Mumbai, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said that he is optimistic about peace between India and Pakistan and called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take forward Atal Bihari Vajpayee's work towards that end.
India on Thursday hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for inviting the chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to attend its foreign ministerial meeting in Islamabad next week.
Khan, 71, has been lodged at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on account of multiple cases against him.
