In an exclusive interview to Rediff.com, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake speaks about President Obama's trip to India, the recent US-India Strategic Dialogue and the fate of the nuclear liability bill.
Sri Lanka's new Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, who visited Washington, DC last month, feels the tensions that existed in the United States and Sri Lanka during the height of the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, when Colombo refused to acquiesce to a ceasefire, have been repaired.
'In today's economically integrated world, economic relationships constitute the bedrock on which social, cultural and political relationships are built,' the minister tells the US-India Business Council in Washington, DC.
However, one younger Indian-American activist pointed out that 'this is the first time, a sitting president is actually going to be there at the Diwali observance.'
'The teachings of Gandhi, the philosophy of passive resistance and nonviolence, and also taught by Martin Luther King Jr, inspired hundreds and thousands and millions of citizens in America, and helped to free and liberate not just a people, but a nation,' says US Congressman John Lewis, a close friend of Dr King.
'We are very grateful that the US takes the trouble to keep us informed and to consult with us as this situation is being managed by them,' Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor tells rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa.
It's been full circle for Gautam Adhikari, erstwhile Washington bureau chief of the Times of India, who returns to the US capital and the think tank circuit as a visiting fellow at the East-West Center for a year-long residency co-sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, reports Aziz Haniffa.
'In the struggle India is going through, the US must be seen very clearly as being in India's corner. Pakistani-based terrorism is not a problem that India faces alone. It's part of a common problem that the US faces as well,' says India expert Ashley Tellis.
Law enforcement sources rubbished allegations that Headley was a double agent for US intelligence and that this was why he was not being made available for interrogation by Indian intelligence.
"India would have loved to get more involved in Sri Lanka positively -- helping us to fight terrorism. Now, remember, India suffered a lot in the sense, it lost its leader -- Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. That is something, which India can never forgive nor forget," says Razik Zarook, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's Counsel.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor recently made his first foray to the United Nations -- where he had served for more than two decades as Under Secretary General of Communications -- over two-and-a-half years after his unsuccessful bid for the position of UN Secretary General.
The least Pakistan can do, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna tells Aziz Haniffa, is to bring the culprits who orchestrated the terror attack on Mumbai to justice.
"Nations need to recognise higher education as the engine of economic growth and prosperity," says Dr Susan Aldridge, president, University of Maryland University College, US, Aziz Haniffa reports
Veteran diplomat Howard B Schaffer says if Delhi continues to be in denial, and Islamabad is tempted to stoke the fires as it always has, the Kashmir situation could unravel fast.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, who was instrumental in his party's volte-face on supporting the United Progressive Alliance government and the India-United States nuclear deal, recently visited the United States to meet with the presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who he says is a good friend. In this interview, he speaks about the nuclear deal and the post-poll scenario
Aziz Haniffa spoke to Dr Pat Basu soon after he was chosen as a White House Fellow. The interview.
The chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Congressman Howard Berman, has said that he is closely reviewing all American assistance being provided to Pakistan and that "to the extent we are going to provide security assistance, it should be focused on counter-terrorism, not rekindling an arms race in South Asia."
'There has been an almost palpable change in the black community. There is a energy in the air that wasn't there before; there's a spark and a light now that was previously missing. I look around and I see a change in the way we carry ourselves, the way we speak to each other and treat each other,' says Jann Marie Hodge, one of the thousands of African Americans who have arrived to witness the Barack Obama's historical swearing-in as America's first black president.
Former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, visiting Washington, DC, did what he does best and likes the most in recent years -- talking to and engaging with students. But, Kalam was also not averse to conveying the message to the powers that be in the US that their reluctance to utilize the core competence of India in science and technology was to their detriment and cited the example of the joint ventures between Indian and Russian scientists.
At a seminar in Washington, DC, a group of former diplomats, military leaders, politicians, businessmen and others said the minimum requirement from Pakistan is 'an irrevocable disbandment of the infrastructure of terrorism.'
'He has a vision of India like his dad. You can see in Rahul's eyes -- at least I see -- his father's unfinished agenda,' says Sam Pitroda who has known the Congress leader since he was a child.
There's a strong sense inside the Democratic leadership that if you care about India, now is the time to stand up for it, says Graham Wisner, counsel at the top international lobbying firm Patton Boggs.
'He views a partnership with India as one of the building blocks of our relationships in the 21st century,' says Randy Scheunemann, director of foreign policy for the John McCain campaign.
Terry McAuliffe, chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, speaks exclusively to Aziz Haniffa.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Arms Control Association believes India's expectation of a 'clean exemption' at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting scheduled for August 21 is "a fantasy".
India is one of the most important partnerships the US has, says the man tipped to be the Democrat presidential candidate.
An interview by Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen to rediff.com Managing Editor Aziz Haniffa in Washington on the Indo-US nuclear deal created an uproar in Parliament.
August 7 marks a month since the Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked. Aziz Haniffa mourns the death of Venkat Rao, a star of the Indian Foreign Service, in that attack.
'I've been a member of the family really. But I certainly am critical of a number of the ways that, in particular the President, has run his country.'
'The support Pakistan has given to terrorist actions in Kashmir -- official or unofficial -- must cease.' John \n\nKerry, in an exclusive interview to rediff.com
'I will make sure criticism of business practices which harm American workers doesn't generate a backlash against Indian Americans, the same way trade disputes with Japan in the 1980s led to incidents of anti-Asian bigotry,' says John Kerry.
'I will work closely with New Delhi to strengthen a relationship built on shared values and interests.' John Kerry, in an exclusive interview with rediff.com
'Our relationship with India exists on its own merits, and is independent of our relationship with Pakistan,' President Bush tells rediff.com in his first interview to any South Asian media outlet.
'Pakistan is only interested in Afghanistan insofar as it can give it more strategic weight vis-a-vis India,' says Afghan expert Sarah Chayes.
'Global trade is vital to the success of our economy and job creation. We need to continue to expand trade and work to open markets for American goods and services,' President Bush tells Aziz Haniffa in the final part of an exclusive interview.
'That they don't have a say in the UN, like China, is hard for me to understand,' says US Congressman Joseph Crowley.
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