India urgently needs to bring substantial strategic depth to its dealings with Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, argues E D Mathew, political commentator
Special United States envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman has resigned after leading the American diplomatic campaign in the volatile region for two years as President Barack Obama's pointsman to the region. Grossman would be replaced by Deputy Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan David D Pearce in an acting capacity. His resignation would come into effect on December 14.
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The Russian-made aircraft crashed on June 3 in Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian Air Force traced the aircraft on June 11, but could not retrieve the bodies due to bad weather and hostile terrain.
Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.
Marc Grossman, former United States under secretary of state for political affairs, is expected to replace the late Richard Holbrooke as Barack Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The post has been vacant since Richard Holbrooke, 68, who was the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan for two years, died suddenly last December.An announcement in this regard is expected to be made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Richard Holbrooke, United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died after undergoing surgery to repair a torn aorta.
Asserting that the implementation of the current Afghanistan and Pakistan policy is 'progressing on track,' United States President Barack Obama has told the US Congress that there is no need to change the current policy of his administration on the two nations.
"As we approach our 10th year of combat in Afghanistan, there are those who are understandably asking tough questions about our mission there. But we must never lose sight of what's at stake," Obama said in his address to the nation to announce the end of combat mission in Iraq.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
In understanding Obama's strategy, we must begin with an obvious but unstated point: The extra forces that will be deployed to Afghanistan are not expected to defeat the Taliban. Instead, their mission is to reverse the momentum of previous years and to create the circumstances under which an Afghan force can take over the mission.
Afghanistan and Pakistan remains a number-one area as the launch point for strategic attacks from Al Qaeda terror network, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
Senior United States administration sources have dismissed speculation raised in some media reports that Richard Holbrooke, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had cancelled his visit to India this time around because he avoided getting caught up in the controversy over the opposition attacks on the India-Pakistan joint statement announced in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt
The death of six Indians working on a United States Agency for International Development-funded road project between Khost and Paktia provinces in southern Afghanistan last week and confirmation from Pakistan that it is concerned over India's "over-ingress" in Afghanistan is setting the stage for a new round of regional diplomacy, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comes visiting later this month.
United States National Security Adviser James Jones met his Indian counterpart M K Narayanan in New Delhi on Thursday evening and is understood to have shared with him assessment of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Jones, who arrived in NDelhi on Thursday after a tour of Afghanistan and Pakistan, met Narayanan at his South Block office.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, went ballistic at a forum in Washington DC, slamming Congressional critics, the media and leading analysts who have predicted that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state and bound to implode, and those who have accused the ISI of colluding with al Qaeda and the Taliban while Islamabad rakes in the massive largesse of American economic and security assistance.
Travellers from these 99 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and Russia, which have been listed under 'Category A', have to submit a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal (newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel, apart from uploading a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report, according to the revised Guidelines for International Arrivals released by the Union health ministry on November 11.
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Rediff.com correspondent Abhishek Mande was attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, considered Asia-Pacific's leading literature event. He shares vignettes of Day 3.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have become 'incubators' of terrorism, and pose a threat to Russia and all constituents of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of former Soviet republics, Russian security chief said on Tuesday. "These countries have become an 'incubator' of terrorism and extremism, which are spreading into the region, CIS countries and the whole world," Director of Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov was quoted as saying.
The recent gains by the Republicans in the American midterm polls may benefit India, says B Raman.
In an bizzare suggestion to crack down on terrorism, a former British Labour defence minister has suggested to drop a neutron bomb on the Pak-Afghan border for creating an impassable barrier between the two countries.
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Germany's left-leaning, Social Democrats Party (SPD) won in the German federal election with over 25 per cent votes, but uncertainty remains over the next leader as results showed that the party won narrowly.
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Russia hinted that militants trained at Pakistan-Afghanistan border could be behind the twin blasts at metro stations here that killed 39 people and wounded 60 others.
Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed concern over terror groups operating from within Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying it was a threat to the entire world.
Major Ketan Sharma, the 29-year-old officer, was killed in an encounter in Achabal area of the south Kashmir district on Monday. A terrorist was also killed in the gun fight which broke out after the security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the area.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border remains the epicentre of the Al Qaeda activities, United States President Barack Obama has said, ruling out sending troops to Yemen where the group has become a concern of late.
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"Indeed, nearly all of the jihadi groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, LeT, and others have joined together in an extended terrorist network that shares the same goals, including destabilising Afghanistan and destroying the Pakistani state," said Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
As United States President Barack Obama announced a new Afghan-Pakistan strategy, the US on Wednesday said its 'core goal' is disrupting, dismantling and defeating terror networks in those two countries, an aspiration shared with India.
Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will be travelling to Europe to consult leaders in Germany, France and Russia, before proceeding to Kabul to attend the inauguration of Hamid Karzai for his second term as Afghanistan's president.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday held a meeting with visiting Chinese General Xu Caiho during which they discussed smoother military cooperation and a combined strategy to create a more stable and secure environment in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama would hold his sixth Situation Room meeting with his national security team on Monday to discuss his administrations strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States has adopted a "completely new approach" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a top Obama Administration official has said, stressing al Qaeda will be denied a safe haven in the region.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Sunday fought back allegations that Pakistan had not done enough against extremists, reminding that the "Frankenstein" of terrorism in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region was financed by the United States but her country had been left alone to sort out the mess.
As US President Barack Obama took ownership of a new comprehensive strategy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan to counter the Al Qaeda and a resurgent Taliban, senior Administration officials acknowledged that India would be a key stakeholder in these efforts too, although New Delhi will not be invited to put boots on the ground in this renewed fight against terrorism because of its regional problems with Pakistan.
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