With the financial meltdown in the US gripping his administration, President George W Bush told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the one person he wanted to spend time with was the Indian leader for his calming and serene effect.
The two leaders discussed the status of the deal and a range of issues covering Indo-US strategic partnership at the Oval Office in the White House. The meeting slated for 5.10 pm local time (2.40 am IST) started 20 minutes late as Bush was engaged in talks with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain on the financial crisis in the US.
Despite the historic victory of Barack Obama in the Presidential elections and 'the change' he has promised, Unites State's foreign policy would continue to be guided by its national interest as it has been since World War II, feels former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra.Chairing a discussion on 'Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Impact on Asian Security Framework' at Observer Research Foundation, Mishra said the Bush administration had been working on two key US strategies.
The Bush Administration has rejected suggestions that the United States is "stage-managing" the internal politics of Pakistan, and defended Islamabad's failure to rein in militants in the country's lawless tribal areas, saying the military was making "real efforts" against extremism.
Pakistan opened its account in 'shoe-gaming' with a Karachi student flinging his shoe at an American journalist.
A Christian organisation in the US has urged the Bush administration not to start implementing the civilian nuclear agreement with India unless the violence against the community in Orissa stops.
The nonproliferation lobby is not happy at all with Congressman Howard Berman's bill, which he introduced in the House of Representatives on September 25. Nonproliferation activists feel that their strongest advocate, who had been critical of the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement, has let them down by capitulating to the Bush administration with a piece of legislation, which is a clone of the measure that was approved two days earlier by the Senate Foreign Relat
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday demanded an immediate session of Parliament to move breach of privilege motion against the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "misleading" the two Houses on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
While denying, along with the non-proliferation lobby in the United States, that it conspired to deliberately release this correspondence on the eve of the NSG meeting to scuttle the US-India deal as administration and diplomatic sources had contended, Berman's office and Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, which has been in the forefront of opposing the agreement, said the fault lay with the Bush administration and the Manmohan Singh government
Burns was responding to the opening remarks by Senator John F Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, who said it was imperative that the United States "...must consider Pakistan's relationship with India, especially when it comes to Kashmir."
President Obama is sensitive to the criticism that he is willing to dilute his commitment to non-proliferation for the sake of commercial advantages, says T P Sreenivasan.
The Bush administration's point man for South Asia, Richard Boucher, has said that while Washington fully recognises the terrorist threat Sri Lanka continues to face from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, it should continue acting like a democracy and protect all of its citizens. The senior diplomat feels that there is a need for a political solution "alongside whatever is going on militarily and we hope the Tamil Tigers will see that as well."
The cooling of the strategic partnership built by the Bush administration, which conferred on India the de facto nuclear weapon state status, introduces new uncertainties in Asia.
In an exclusive interview with rediff.com, Richard Boucher, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, who is the Bush administration's point man for the subcontinent and who has taken charge of pushing the deal in the US Congress, said, "We are going to work with the Indians, we are going to work with the Congress and we are going to take this as far as we can go."
United States President Barack Obama on Monday ordered a probe into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a Central Intelligence Agency-backed Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum over the massacre of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.
Pakistan has moved one step closer to receiving massive American economic and military largesse -- reminiscent of the billions of dollars it received during the Reagan and George W Bush Administrations when military dictators Mohammad Zia-ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf respectively were in charge -- to the tune of $1.5 billion annually over five years, when the Senate-Lugar aid bill steamrolled through the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a vote of 16-0.
Both sides, however, refused to provide a timeline.
Kimball had strongly opposed the deal in the past.
The nonproliferation and disarmament lobby in the United States, which has been vehemently opposed to the India-US civilian nuclear agreement, is ready to pop open the champagne to celebrate.The nonproliferation lobby is elated as the demise of the agreement is close at hand, with even senior members of the Bush administration acknowledging that the clock has all but run out on the deal.
Pakistan has used a substantial amount of military aid from the United States, meant to fight terrorism, to build up its army with modern weapons and equipment for a conventional warfare against India, Pentagon documents have revealed. All this was done with the knowledge of the George W Bush administration, which not only provided $1.9 billion in Foreign Military Financing but also signed agreements with Pakistan for military sales worth nearly $5 billion during the period.
When asked if India should be test-firing a nuclear capable missile at a time when Washington is trying to dismantle the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, McCormack replied: "It's not the first time they've test-fired missiles.
"Every country, whether it be India, United States, other country, could be potentially part of this small network of countries where terrorists can obtain material or expertise," said a senior US official.
As he prepares for his second term in office, US President George W Bush has said his administration will give top priority to the war on terrorism and the hunt for Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Part of the focus of the current discussions is also on the "next steps" that are involved in the civilian nuclear initiative such as status of India's negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency on India-specific safeguards and the NSG
Asking the Indian government to take a "courageous" decision on the civil nuclear deal considering the "short timelines", the Bush administration has cautioned it against attempting such an arrangement with other nations ignoring the United States..
"I will take a new policy toward Pakistan, one that builds on the democratic yearnings expressed by the Pakistani people in the elections last week and recognises that the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan are among the most important and dangerous in the world," she said.
Covert terror strikes by United States' drones along the Pakistan border is becoming a common feature of the war against terror.The regrouping of Taliban militants and Al Qaeda factions, the inhospitable terrain of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Pakistan government's lax administration in the region has prompted the US to launch these air strikes. For this mission -- the US has chosen remotely directed unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Bush administration may fail to save its most trusted friend because the PPP and PML-N are determined to form a coalition and clip all those powers through which a president can dissolve parliament.
Vijay Mallya, chairman and chief executive officer of Kingfisher Airlines Limited was in Washington, DC on Monday to sign a contract worth $300 million with Pratt & Whitney
Khan also echoed the complaints of the PPP delegation, led by Bhutto's close friend and confidante Sherry Rehman, which is also visiting Washington. He alleged that Musharraf and his regime were planning on rigging the elections and hence his party was boycotting the February 18 elections.
"We continually review our strategy with respect to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. So it is something that is occupying quite a bit of our time at the State Department, DOD, as well as the White House," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
In a setback to the Bush administration, the US Justice Department has ordered a formal criminal probe into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes of terror suspects under the supervision of a federal prosecutor.
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set to become the first foreign dignitary to visit President Barack Obama at the While House next week, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday said that India and the United States will look to take forward their strategic partnership and cement the ties forged under the Bush administration.
"The conference will signal broad international support for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders' courageous efforts and will be a launching point for negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington on Wednesday.
The UK daily reported that in Britain security officials say there is genuine concern that al-Qaeda will attempt a "spectacular" in the transition period, but suggested it may be aimed more at President George W Bush than the incoming African-American President-elect.
US Congress fires first salvo on the eve of ElBaradei's visit to India and even before the 123 Agreement is presented to NSG, presents laundry list of concerns in legislation.
The Bush administration voted for the Canadian candidate instead of Chidambaram, who till end of September had been the front-runner to head the IMF's influential Monetary and Financial Committee.
United States President George W Bush intends to appoint current US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad as the country's ambassador to the United Nations to replace John Bolton
