India shares a good relationship with the US and was not under any pressure to send troops to Iraq, the foreign secretary said.
Earlier in the day, India's Ambassador to Russia Kanwal Sibal had said that Moscow had denied visa to a group of young entrepreneurs led by Anil Ambani and Anand Mahindra for a meeting in St. Petersburg.
The US deputy secretary of state has a series of high-level meetings scheduled with Indian leaders tomorrow.
Pakistan, as Security Council president, cannot impose any issue on the world body, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri V Fedotov said.
Kanwal Sibal, in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, said Pakistan has reneged on its pledged to end terror.
Political stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar and former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, cricketer Virat Kohli and Carnatic musician K J Yesudas were among the 89 people who were selected for this year's Padma awards.
To mark Prime Minister Modi's seventh meeting with Obama and his historic joint address to US Congress -- the sixth Indian PM to do so -- India Abroad, the newspaper published from New York and owned by rediff.com, reached out to diplomats and strategic thinkers in New Delhi and Washington, DC, to assess the current state of the US-India relationship and suggest a road map for the future.
With Donald Trump the appeal has to be to his business instincts in which his personal interests seem to play a significant role, says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
The Chinese envoy recommends an early harvest on the border issue while maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas, reports Ajai Shukla.
Foreign policy experts in New Delhi do not expect any major policy shift towards India under Donald Trump with a few feeling New Delhi could hope to derive "some benefit" from his stand on radical Islam.
Did Xi deliver a message to Modi at Mamallapuram, which though couched in a velvet glove was time-bound? What was that message? It is clear Indian/Israeli/US spy satellites would not have missed detecting Chinese troop movements towards the Ladakh-Tibet frontier. Then why did some important functionaries in the Government of India choose to only ask the Russians about this in April 2020? Was Russian reassurance of Chinese troop movements being part of a routine exercise the reason that the Leh-based XIV Corps did not mobilise itself for its annual summer exercises near the LAC? A fascinating excerpt from Iqbal Chand Malhotra's new book Red Fear: The China Threat.
Just like China wants Trump to lose the US presidential poll, it may want Modi to lose the Lok Sabha polls. So months before the 2024 elections, China may take possession of an important area, say one of the Char Dhams, warns Sanjeev Nayyar.
Samdong Rimpoche's visit to China materialised against the backdrop of strained India-China relations consequent to the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam, says former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
'This is the first time that the Americans have agreed to refer to "cross-border terrorist attacks" in a joint statement.' 'No wonder Pakistan has called the joint statement "singularly unhelpful" and has blasted it, and its all-weather friend China has applauded Pakistan's frontline role in combating terrorism,' points out former foreign secretary Ambassador Kanwal Sibal.
Ties with Pakistan and China which were on the centre stage of Indian diplomacy saw a "deterioration" in the year gone by, according to foreign policy experts who feel that the relationships are unlikely to see any forward movement in the new year.
'It's the first-ever US presidential visit which is specially planned for India.' 'The standalone visit itself has achieved something already. Don't underestimate it.' Sheela Bhatt gives us an exclusive glimpse of what the Modi government hopes to achieve from Trump's visit.
'Evacuating' Devyani's maid's family from India on T visas -- associated with severe sex or labour trafficking... The maximum number of persons thus evacuated by the US from foreign countries last year was from India... A thorough investigation of this is required at India's end,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, 'with the US warned that such interference in India's judicial system will not be tolerated.'
'How can Kashmir be demilitarised if the terrorist threat remains and Pakistan continues to incite elements in Kashmir to keep the internal situation unstable?' asks former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
'We need to be in a perpetual state of aggression, and able to swiftly change the goal posts to keep Pakistan in a state of imbalance,' argues Sanjeev Nayyar.
One thing Beijing must understand is that India is not obsessed with being a threat to China but only wants a rightful place for itself in the world, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'Much can be done by India under the provisions of the treaty to make full use of its rights it has.' 'The impact of that will be felt downstream.'
Aziz Haniffa, who has covered every Indian Prime Minister's visit to the US since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, gives us a peek into what's happening in Washington, DC on the eve of the Modi-Trump summit.
'It is in the interest of both sides that the visit of the US President is seen as being successful. Both sides have invested considerable political capital in it. This rapid exchange of visits and the decisions taken have to be justified, beyond the symbolism, which is no doubt important in itself. This opportunity to impart a fresh momentum to ties should not be missed,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
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