The nonproliferation lobby in the United States, which is vehemently opposed to the India-US nuclear deal, has objected strongly to the new draft proposal submitted by the Bush administration to the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna, before it convenes on August 21 to consider the India-specific exemption from NSG rules. The group has termed the proposal 'an abomination that should be flatly rejected by the NSG'.
US President Barack Obama has said that he has "reset" the button of relationship with its Cold War adversary Russia, ties with which had dipped a new low during the previous Bush Administration.
US President George W Bush is expected to sign the legislation on the implementation of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal next week.
'India has much to be apprehensive about President Obama's Afpak policy, nuclear agenda and outsourcing.'
"I have the impression, when I'm travelling through Pakistan particularly that they have a very real fear of being encircled by the Indians, which, to most observers, seems to be ridiculous."
The new Indian American Republican Council chairman Dino Teppara and its long-time board member and strategist Suhail Khan -- a former senior Bush Administration official -- contacted by India Abroad / rediff.com for a reaction to the garrulous conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who insulted Indian workers who undertake outsourced jobs by American companies as 'slumdogs,' issued a carefully worded, restrained and cautious statement.
Curtis, who was the lead panellist at a conference at The Brookings Institution titled, The US-India Nuclear Agreement: Expectations and Consequences,' said, "During the Bush Administration, US officials broke the habit of viewing India solely through the India-Pakistan lens. Washington developed a greater appreciation for the Indian democratic miracle and viewed our shared democratic principles as the bedrock for a broader strategic partnership."
Saudi also opposed talks between Washington and Tehran and pushed the United States to encourage the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
United States lawmakers feel that India had also failed to use its non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council to demonstrate why it should be a permanent member
"After six hectic years, particularly the last four of the Bush administration, the pace has been too scorching for both systems and so much had been done", hence there is need for pause, reflection and consolidation feels Dr C Raja Mohan.
Following the 9/11 terror strikes, when the US had made up its mind to bombard Afghanistan, Pakistan''s Inter-Services Intelligence and then President Pervez Musharraf made full efforts to save the Taliban and tried to persuade a red-faced Bush administration to hold a dialogue with the Taliban, as the Inter-Services-Intelligence always regarded it as one of its strategic assets.
Terming the passing of the civil nuclear liability bill by the Parliament as 'flawed', an eminent American expert on South Asian affairs has said the US policy makers and industrial leaders have been taken off guard by this and it threatens to cast a pall over the historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
In a statement, the Hindu American Foundation said: "Never before had a sitting US President personally celebrated the Diwali holiday, and with that one gesture, two million Hindu-Americans felt a bit more like they belonged -- one more reason to feel at home."
Bush had also said that Washington will work with friends and allies to adjust international rules to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the Bush administration of orchestrating the recent conflict in the Caucasus region to benefit one of its presidential election candidates, days after Moscow recognised two breakaway regions of Georgia as independent entities. Putin did not identify the candidate, but analysts say he was apparently referring to Republican hopeful John McCain who is considered by Moscow as close to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Price said India's relationship with Russia developed over several decades.
The US army has appointed a senior general to direct and oversee its cyber warfare division. General Keith B Alexander has been entrusted with the Pentagon's new Cyber Command, the Guardian reported.
Terming the 'historic transformation of United States' ties with the rising democratic power India' as among its key strategic accomplishments, the Bush administration has said it will enable Washington to advance its 'interests and values' in the region in future.
The Bush administration apparently has no problem with the new Pakistani government's peace deal with militant groups in that country's North West Frontier Province, including Waziristan that have been sympathetic and allied with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It has even given the tentative agreement its cautious blessings.
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley had participated in terror camps being run by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan, despite promises by the then president Parvez Musharraf in 2002 to the George W Bush administration, that all such facilities will be shut down. Headley, a LeT operative arrested in October 2009 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had attended five such training camps run by the terror outfit between 2002 and 2003, according to Headley's plea agreement.
The Pakistan Peoples' Party-led coalition government has sent an unambiguous message to the United States that any mess with the newly elected democratic dispensation by President Pervez Musharraf will not be tolerated. The PPP leadership, however, held out a categorical assurance to the Bush administration that the new government would not create a situation leading to the unceremonious exit of Musharraf.
Former Bush Administration official Ashley J Tellis, considered one of US' foremost strategic experts, praised Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his forbearance in dealing with Pakistan, while the addressing the Congress on the impending threat posed by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba on Thursday.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has vowed to plug tax loopholes for 'freeloader corporations' shipping jobs abroad and correct 'wrong' policies of the Bush administration, which were making Americans 'pay the price'. She claimed that that it was the average American who was paying the price for what she termed the wrong-headed policies of the administration. She said plugging tax loopholes will stop freeloader corporations from avoiding $50bn taxes every year.
United States President Barack Obama has ended years of 'veto power' wielded by Pakistan in Afghanistan over India's active involvement in the country post-Taliban, a US expert on South Asia has said. Because of Pakistan's stiff resistance and opposition to involve India in any way in Afghanistan that the Bush administration was literally prevented to take any move to include New Delhi as part of its regional strategy on Afghanistan, said Deepa Ollapally.
Manisha Singh, an erstwhile senior staffer of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a former political appointee during the George Bush Administration, has landed a top job as the executive director of the Barer Institute based at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle.
The India-United States civil nuclear deal inked during Bush Administration has not been handled as well it should have been by the US, a key Republican lawmaker has said.
Clinton said that a stable relationship between India and Pakistan would also help promote long-term stability in Afghanistan. She added that the recent elections in Pakistan had proved the Bush administration's policy towards Pakistan wrong.
Prakash Khatri, who created history when he was appointed the first-ever Ombudsman of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Security tendered his resignation, effective February 29.
The United States has refused to confirm or deny reports claiming Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has rebuffed top intelligence officials of the Bush administration, on proposed American operations inside Pakistan, including joint operations.
Hillary Clinton was publicly sworn in as United States Secretary of State by Vice President Joe Biden at a ceremony held at Foggy Bottom. Hillary's husband and former US President Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea were also present at the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony on Monday, which included several former Secretaries of States and Congressional leaders. She is the 67th Secretary of State. Hillary replaces Condoleezza Rice of the previous Bush administration.
Human rights organisations have been alleging that the Guantanamo Bay military prison, set up by Bush Administration in 2002, was being used to detain and question terror suspects with harsh interrogation measures. The prison camp currently holds about 245 inmates. The executive orders in this regard were signed by Obama at a White House ceremony during his meeting with the retired military officials on Thursday.
The White House has said the Indo-US relationship has been exceedingly well in the last eight years of Bush regime and is expected to continue during the incoming Obama Administration.
Former Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who was the star diplomat in the Bush Administration who negotiated the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, has rubbished Pakistan's request for a similar accord saying the A Q Khan network was the mother of all nuclear technology proliferators and said Pakistan's concerns over India's involvement in Afghanistan are over-rated.
In a scathing indictment of the nuclear liability bill passed by Indian Parliament, Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state in the Bush administration, has warned that if the bill was not amended it could sound the death knell of the historic Indo-US nuclear deal and adversely impact on the envisaged US-India strategic partnership.
On the eve of US President Barack Obama's visit to India next month, a new report has urged, as a top priority, that the US unambiguously and unequivocally endorse New Delhi's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations.
South Asia experts have called the recent Obama-Singh meet a success, going by the positive signals given by both sides in all major areas of cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral.
