"In our statement, we have said that we have told them that we want them to be cognisant of the fact that there should be no terrorism that emanates from their territory directed against us, or other countries; that we want them to be mindful of the status of women, minorities and so on so forth. And, and I think they have, also, you know, made reassuring... from their side," foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has met top Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman, and held substantive discussions with them on the strategic bilateral ties and regional and global issues like the current situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized Kabul.
The Musharraf episode in the recent history of the subcontinent has convinced many realists in India that the hope of establishing peace with Pakistan is like accepting a dinner invitation from cannibals and expecting to live to tell the tale, points out Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Former Indian diplomats on Monday termed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan as a "setback" for India strategically, and asserted that the priority for New Delhi right now should be to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn nation.
The Talibs appear in complete control of Afghanistan days after American troops left the country.
The only thing that might justify a response is the desperate state of Pakistan's economy and how its people are suffering. But it's better to be heartless for now, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Two Indian aircraft would be permitted to operate from the Kabul airport which is under the control of American security forces, government sources told ANI.
Simultaneously more than 60 countries led by the United States and the European Union issued a joint statement urging those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to bear responsibility and accountability for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
A couple of days before American troops leave Kabul on Tuesday, August 31, images to remember from the Afghan capital and elsewhere...
Biden's remarks could be seen as a setback to the Shehbaz Sharif government's bid to improve ties with the US.
Garcetti suggested that the two countries are working on certain agreements to bolster defence cooperation and they are likely to be firmed up when Modi visits the US or President Joe Biden comes to India in September for the G20 summit.
"The deal is being implemented. We witnessed attempts on the part of the US to undermine this cooperation and make India obey the American orders to follow the American vision of how this region should be developed," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Pak's role in Kabul is not sending a good message to India, a top American lawmaker has said
Biden's lengthy remarks on Afghanistan contained no condemnatory references to the Taliban, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
The United States officials in Afghanistan naively handed the Taliban a 'kill list' to target Afghans who aided American forces in the country, according to a media report.
Death came calling for the 71- year-old terrorist from the sky on Sunday morning in Kabul.
At least seven people, including three Afghan nationals who clung to a US Air Force plane to escape Taliban rule, died on Monday in a melee at the Kabul airport, as hundreds of people scrambled to board flights in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan, following the toppling of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani.
According to one American analyst, the "house that was struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani," who is now the interior minister in the Taliban government in Kabul.
The Taliban has its backers, notably Pakistan and China. Their purpose is to have a monstrous entity near India's northern borders to keep democratic, secular India off-guard, observes Amulya Ganguli.
The Western powers appear to regard Delhi as the most logical destination in the region in these extraordinary times -- as a counterpoint to the ascendance of political Islam and a rising red star over Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India is one of the few countries in the region that enjoys good relations with both Israel and Saudi Arabia, and IMEC would allow it to recreate the old Spice Route to Europe. All this is in jeopardy now, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
'US citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,' the statement said, without further detail, reported The New York Times.
The Biden administration expects the Modi government to continue to remain as its loyal camp follower even as Washington continues to act in self-interests, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of 'insider attacks' by Afghan army and police against American and NATO troops.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Monday recommended to the Biden Administration to designate India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and 11 other nations as "country of particular concern" in the context of status of religious freedom.
Reports coming from the ground confirm that an intense battle between Taliban and opposition forces to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last Afghan province holding out against the group.
Donald Trump's Republican Party has wrested control of the 435-member United States House of Representatives from the ruling Democratic Party with a razor-thin majority, setting the stage for a showdown with Joe Biden in the next two years of his presidency.
'Americans, after 18 years of war in Afghanistan, have got tired and they want to withdraw for their domestic reasons'
Expressing concern over the situation in Afghanistan, a group of eminent persons, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday urged the government to continue engaging with the Taliban and not allow any political party to use the developments in that country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
The US actions can be seen as a riposte to India's neutral position on the Ukraine crisis, its continuing import of Russian arms and oil thus undermining Western sanctions, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
This is Blinken's first visit to India after assuming charge as the US Secretary of State and the third by a high-ranking Biden administration official after it came to power in January.
The maiden bilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will further strengthen the US-India strategic ties and allow the leaders to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can work together to fight terrorism, a senior White House official has said.
'China is a friendly country and we welcome it for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan'
Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is 'simply a deterrent' to protect the country and there will no longer be any need for it once the Kashmir issue is resolved, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said as he asserted that if the Americans have the resolve and the will, the issue can be sorted out.
A closure of the Indian mission in Kabul will be a Himalayan blunder at this historic juncture when the wheels of diplomacy and politics are set to accelerate in Afghanistan, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The unalloyed truth about the Ukraine-Russia conflict is that it is a war that Russia cannot lose and Ukraine cannot win, observes Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
'US officials must grapple with the possibility that one of its closest partners attempted an extrajudicial killing on its soil.' 'This is not something that friends typically do to friends.'
Former United States President Donald Trump has promised that he will take America's relationship with India to the next level again if he wins the presidential election in 2024.
