Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "India's rhetoric was as strident as we ever heard China's, so we need to build a climate partnership with India, too; working from the same principles, but respecting the massive differences."
As the negotiations in Copenhagen appeared to have entered a deadlock, the Obama Administration has insisted on "transparency" of any operational agreement on climate change at the ongoing summit meeting in the Denmark Capital.
"Read my lips," said Richard Holbrooke, special US representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, "I am not working on that problem," when asked by a Pakistani journalist if the Obama administration was 'serious to appoint any adviser to resolve this issue,' since as the latter contended, "We all know that deep down, there is no solution of Afghanistan and the South Asia problem, without resolving the Kashmir issue that is controlled by Indian government."
The apparent consensus among South Asia watchers and experts in United States is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's three-day visit to Mumbai and New Delhi was a slam dunk in effectively quashing the contention of naysayers, both in India and the US, that the Barack Obama administration was less committed to the India-US strategic partnership than its predecessor George W Bush administration.
The Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy meets four times a year. It is possibly for the first time that the committee held a discussion on India-US economic relationship.
The plunging global economy is an even bigger threat to the United States' national security than the al Qaeda terrorist network or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, according to America's new intelligence czar.Traditionally, US intelligence chiefs always preface their opening remarks with either terrorist or nuclear proliferation threats, but DenisBlair's first sentences in his testimony before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was about the economy.
Given the current geo-political situation in South Asia, a top Barack Obama administration official on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan will figure in talks when United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Indian leaders, during her upcoming visit to India. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake appreciated the recent meetings between the leaders of India and Pakistan and identified it as a positive development.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the Obama Administration is not cutting and running" from Afghanistan.
As top Obama Administration official went to the Capitol Hill to explain to them the new Af-Pak policy, lawmakers questioned Pakistan's role and wanted assurance from the US government that Islamabad would be honest and sincere this time.
The US, which witnessed one of the worst economic crisis in recent times, is coming out of recession faster and stronger than many countries of the world, a top Obama Administration official has said.
On the eve of US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke's visit to the South Asia, The Guardian newspaper has said Pakistan is the greatest foreign policy challenge for the Barack Obama administration.
In a brief speech, United States President Barak Obama has welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency.Its fitting that you and India be so recognised," Obama told Singh at the ceremonial welcome at the White House.
Hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his country "qualifies" for a civilian nuclear deal with the US, like that of India, the Obama Administration in a blunt message told it that such a deal is not on platter of its talks with Islamabad.
Even though India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Obama Administration said on Wednesday that New Delhi had a key role to play in strengthening of global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
"I think we're aware right now of about 135 US citizens affected by the floods. We have no reports of deaths or injuries," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said. "As of Wednesday, I think there were still a handful of American citizens that we had not yet had contact with, so I would assume at this point that we have not accounted for everybody, but at this point we're not aware of anybody that has been killed or injured," Crowley said.
"I think it's the importance of our relationship with India on a host of issues. Obviously, counter terrorism is important," Gibbs said at his daily news conference.
US Congressman Ed Royce, a ranking Republican on the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, has warned the Obama administration against undoing all the Bush administration's hard work in developing closer ties with India, by coveting China at the expense of New Delhi.
US experts believe it is imperative for Obama to "demonstrate that he recognises India's increasingly important role in the broader Asia region, and his interest in building a long-term strategic relationship. He must quell concern that India is a side issue for his administration, which has been consumed by Afghanistan and Pakistan and also heavily emphasising working with China."
The United States will not conduct nuclear tests and move to seek the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Obama administration said today, as it underlined the importance of the NPT to the non-proliferation regime, the two pacts that India has failed to support in its present form.
Lifting of restrictions on these dual use technologies is one of the major areas of focus of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he meets US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday.
India is expected to get access to Lashkar-e Tayiba operative David Headley within 30 days of sending a letter of request, which is being prepared, government indicated in New Delhi on Monday.
The Obama administration has said that too much is being read into the joint United States-China statement issued by President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao in Beijing. The statement had irked the Indian administration on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US, as New Delhi perceived it as an attempt to interfere in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.
Amid concerns in India over the reference to the Indo-Pak ties in a US-China joint statement, the Obama Administration on Wednesday said its relationship with China is not at the "expense of" India and that nothing much should be read into the document.
'You'll see during the course of this visit, we'll have some important deliverables to announce in the area of energy and climate change,' US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake on the prime minister's journey to Washington, DC next week.
Geithner said during their discussions this week, in Singapore and China, US President Barack Obama emphasised that the US and China must be at the centre of efforts to put the global economy on a more sustainable and balanced growth path.
The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand and reorient its fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda and wants its army to pursue the militants into north Waziristan.
The Obama Administration has sought an "assurance" from India on nuclear non-proliferation to take forward the Indo-US civilian nuclear trade between them.
Tim Geithner, President Barack Obama's choice for Treasury secretary, on Thursday accused China of "manipulating" its currency and pledged "aggressive" diplomatic action to drive Beijing into action.
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington, the United States has said preparations are underway to ensure 'a good, substantive schedule' for the Indian leader, the first state guest of the Barack Obama administration. President Barack Obama has invited Dr Singh for his first State Dinner at the White House on November 24. Officials at both the State Department and the White House have held a series of meetings to give final touches to the visit.
The United States is building a deeper relationship with both India and Pakistan which are facing the common threat of terrorism in the region, a top Obama administration official has said.
The protectionist measures in the West and attacks on Indian students in Australia is likely to negatively affect the Indians' overseas job dreams and the aspirants may prefer domestic offers, experts believe.
The United States may seek to gain leverage from the WikiLeaks disclosures about the Inter Services Intelligence's links with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda to make Islamabad act tougher on militant groups on its soil. "This is now in the open," a senior Barack Obama administration official said, referring to the 92,000 documents of the US defence department's war in Afghanistan made public by the online whistleblower WikiLeaks.
Richard Holbrooke, the United States Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has asserted that the Obama administration "believes that what happens in Afghanistan and Pakistan is of vital interest to our national security and that India is a country that we must keep in the closest consultations with."
After the Congress secured an unexpected victory at the recently held Lok Sabha polls, United States President Barack Obama issued a statement, saying he looks forward to "continuing to work with the Indian government to enhance the warm partnership between our two countries." However, the Obama administration has not yet taken any decisive steps toward cementing Indo-US ties, observes a report from California's Pacific Council on International Policy and FICCI.
Seeking to put in place stricter norms for big entities that pose a threat to the whole system, the Obama Administration has also proposed setting up financial services oversight council.
This is Clinton's first visit to the country since taking charge in the Obama Administration.
United States Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry has said that the Barack Obama administration would not send its troops to combat militants on Pakistani soil. Kerry also emphasised that it is a fight that the Pakistanis have to engage in and fight out, asserting that Islamabad can overcome militant challenges through a homegrown approach."We're not going to send troops by any significant numbers of any kind to Pakistan," he said.
A Pakistani journalist claims to have been receiving life threats from an American agency for critically writing against the Obama administration and for reporting its secret operations in the country.
Terming United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's forthcoming visit to Pakistan as a 'people-to-people trip', Obama administration's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke has said that Clinton's trip to the troubled nation would be one the most important foreign visits of the top American diplomat.
The Obama administration has praised Pakistan for the high-profile arrests it has made in the recent past, in particular those of the top Taliban leaders.
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