United States Secretary of State John Kerry has held wide-ranging talks with visiting Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on key issues, including the regional situation with respect to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Images of the events that shaped the world last week.
'If the US-Pakistan relationship continues to suffer, Pakistan may feel it has less to lose and decide that it need not keep a leash on LeT in order to appease America.' 'A tougher US policy toward Pakistan could lead to an emboldened and strengthened LeT and JeM, resulting in more terrorist attacks in India.'
'New Delhi and Washington are now on the same page, on dealing with growing Chinese assertiveness, across the entire Indo-Pacific region,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy, Chancellor, Central University of Jammu.
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David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative is being deposed before a Mumbai court on Monday through video conference.
Hein Kiessling has the kind of access in Pakistan that journalists (and spies) would die for, says Kanika Datta.
A round-up of our favourite photographs from the week gone by.
He said the JeM handler, who is in his late 20s, was in the tribal area of Pakistan when he communicated around 18 times with the terrorists.
'Imran Khan hopes to fulfill the dreams of the founders of of Pakistan in establishing an Islamic Welfare State.' 'The grave situation of the economy makes realisation of this dream very difficult,' points out Colonel R N Ghosh Dastidar (retd).
'Parents would do well by the nation if they were to persuade their sons and daughters not to become puppets in the hands of the Islamists,' feels Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd).
'ISI's leverage on the Kashmir insurgency turned out less than successful...'
The question really is whether the US can be persuaded to embark on a path of calibrated and stronger sanctions on Pakistan.
'The attack on the Pathankot base constituted an act of war. Yet Modi's only public comment up until now on that attack has been to blame it on "enemies of humanity".' 'Modi came to power talking tough about Pakistan. But in office, he has pursued a Pakistan policy that has lost both direction and purpose,' argues Brahma Chellaney.
'Modi has said he has been made the PM of India not to do small things but big things. What bigger thing can there be than to have peace with Pakistan and in the neighbourhood?'
'The response to terror is not always reciprocal terror, nor is launching a conventional response the best response.' 'The best response is to make the sponsor pay a price he cannot afford,' says former RA&W chief Vikram Sood.
The man, named as Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old Army reservist, was responsible for the deadliest attacks on law enforcers in America since 9/11 - shooting 12, killing 5.
True Indian scenes most often lie on less travelled routes, along roads that have fallen off the map, after modern highways have come up. On the fourth leg of their 2,148 km journey, Rediff.com's Archana Masih and photographer Rajesh Karkera discover one such forgotten place in the Thar Desert.
'We think Pakistan has moved decisively against terrorists that threaten Pakistan internally, but still needs to devote attention to those that represent a threat to their neighbours.'
'I am 51 now. I think I can do action till 56.' 'After that, God knows.'
'While US officials understand and accept India's desire for retaliation, they still don't want to encourage steps that would likely lead to war.'
'Who in Pakistan was intending to carry out one of the most grievous acts of international terrorism just a few months ago?' Former CIA official Bruce Riedel reveals how the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the ISI planned the attack on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Herat in May to take Indian diplomats hostage and disrupt Narendra Modi's swearing-in.
A round-up of our favourite photographs from the week gone by.
'Pakistanis are very clever in manipulating us,' former Bush administration official tells US lawmakers.
'What needs to be pursued as the operations progress is a degree of reconciliation amongst the other parties, less the more orthodox Al Qaeda affiliates.'
'Is Trump going to play a mediating role? Can he play a mediating role? It's out of the question.' 'Kashmir is an Indian responsibility.'
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
We present some of the best photographs clicked across the globe in the month of May.
'For a long time Pakistan dreamt that India would break up and that it would be the predominant power in the region,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
After weighing all the costs and benefits, the next administration is likely to reduce and restructure assistance to Pakistan but not to end it altogether, says Daniel S Markey.
'Modi wants to be pragmatic -- acknowledge the problem of Pakistan and that full reconciliation is essentially a non-starter, but at the same time grab the low-hanging fruits (such as trade) to put things on a more even keel, to engender enough stability in the relationship to allow him to focus on other priorities.'
'Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
We should be prepared for a phase of increased tensions in India-Pakistan relationship thanks to the evolving situation in Afghanistan, says Shyam Saran.
'Ashok the Great did not slaughter foreigners or Muslims when he conquered Kalinga. It was Oriya- speaking Hindus whom he butchered by the tens of thousands. But Ashok is called Great, and his lion emblem is the official symbol of the Republic of India.' 'Why do we honour Ashoka and not Tipu, when both men are accused of the same crime?' asks Aakar Patel.
'The original dream of people like Faiz was that Pakistan would be something different from the old India: Progressive, forward looking, democratic (if not socialist), tolerant, diverse and pluralistic.' 'I don't think anyone foresaw the catastrophe that Partition was to become.'
After Modi became the prime minister, the Indo-US relationship has seen an upward trajectory, he said.
The government has returned to talks with Pakistan, but can it withstand pressure from a jingoistic press and a rabidly nationalistic social media.
Given our troubled relationship with Pakistan, we need to keep our security apparatus in a state of alert with state-of-the-art equipment. All bilateral issues with Pakistan -- political, military, economic -- will simply have to go on the back-burner till Pakistan decides it wants to live as a good neighbour, says Vikram Sood.
'There is a remarkable link between the eating of beef (or at the very least, tolerating the eating of beef) and India being a superpower.' 'In India, whenever an empire was strong, religion took a back seat.' 'Alternatively, whenever religion asserted itself, the main empire of India crumbled...'
'The military aim in a future conflict, if it can't be avoided, should be to cause maximum damage to the adversary's war waging capability and capture limited amount of territory as a bargaining counter,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
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