Gujarati popular dish kela methi nu shaak, mouth-watering chicken chettinad from Tamil Nadu, Punjab's dal makhani and Bengali dish Potol Dorma will be served at a private dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee for visiting foreign dignitaries on Monday.
"You can change friends but not neighbours," Atal Bihari Vajpayee famously said this 15 years ago.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held bilateral talks with all Heads of Government and State attending the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the only conspicuous exemption.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Maldives government on Tuesday defended the arrest of former president Mohamed Nasheed.
Gen Rawat said the world looks at India as a country that can balance the rise of China in the region as it was showing its 'assertiveness'.
COVID-19 has emerged as an important form of diplomatic currency around the world as nations try to showcase their soft power gains. In this race, India has an edge as India is already a pharmaceutical giant having produced some 60 per cent of global vaccines and now justly seeking to strengthen ties and expand its influence in its neighbourhood and beyond, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
He said India wanted growth, development and peace in the region and was keen to utilise technology to pursue this goal for the shared prosperity.
"The Prime Minister thanked the Prime Minister of Pakistan for his telephone call and greetings," MEA said.
New Delhi has reached out to neighbours like seldom before while singling Islamabad for criticism at international forums.
'Without doubt, General Bajwa has deliberately snubbed India.' 'But why did he do that?' 'The Male leadership is simply fed up with Indian interference,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Maldives on Friday affirmed that the controversy-ridden presidential polls set for Saturday will go ahead in order to avert a constitutional crisis.
Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was today sworn in as the 6th President of the Maldives, ending nearly two years of political turmoil that threatened to isolate the country internationally.
'An authoritative source in the government tells me that India has emerged as the net security provider of the Maldives,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Voting was held in Maldives on Saturday for the second multi-party presidential elections with long queues of people outside polling stations in this Indian Ocean archipelago, which has seen a series of unsettling political events in the last eighteen months.
'Now is the time for India, our biggest neighbour and oldest friend, to bring the full array of international policy instruments to bear.'
Nasheed, whose Maldivian Democratic Party functions from Colombo, appealed for India's help.
Maldivian Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was on Thursday impeached by the Parliament overwhelmingly over an alleged attempt to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen and faces terrorism charges as lawmakers approved state of emergency in the island that has sparked concerns globally.
Over 2 million Muslims, including 136,000 Indians, will begin Haj when they assemble in the valley of Mina as Saudi authorities said preparations have been completed for the world's largest annual gathering after the city underwent a multi-billion overhaul.
India's silence on this week's troubles in the Maldives is puzzling, says Rajeev Sharma.
George Joseph
Democracy in Maldives is at the crossroads. There is need for the international community to put pressure on the incumbent regime in the country, so that it is not able to disrupt elections once again, and the democracy in Maldives could be saved from sinking, says Anand Kumar.
In this exclusive conversation with Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma, exiled opposition leader Ahmed Naseem explains why the world should care about democracy in Maldives.
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