Atul Keshap, a senior Indian American career diplomat and one of the rising stars in the United States foreign service, has been picked by Nisha Desai Biswal, the newly appointed assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, to be her deputy.
The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American woman administrator Nisha Desai Biswal as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making her the first person from the community to hold the top diplomatic position.
In what could be yet another historic appointment in the annals of the Indian-American community's immigrant experience, senior administration sources have told rediff.com that Nisha Desai Biswal is strongly tipped to be appointed the new assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs
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.
Nisha Desai Biswal, the Obama administration's point person for South and Central Asia, will travel to India next week to hold talks with officials of the new government on a series of bilateral and regional issues.
The United States is looking forward to welcoming the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, but refrained from making any announcement on the possible trip in September.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held talks with United States President Barack Obama on "substantive" bilateral, regional and international issues including defence, security, trade and situation in West Asia in view of threat by Islamic State militants.
Kathleen Stephens, a career foreign service officer who has never served in India but was United States Ambassador to South Korea from 2008 to 2011, will only be a stop-gap charge at Roosevelt House in New Delhi, till President Obama names a new envoy to India.
'Recalling his visit as the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations in 2015, President Obama wished the Prime Minister warm congratulations ahead of India's upcoming 68th Republic Day anniversary,' the White House said.
The US and India likely to sign a high quality bilateral investment treaty to create an enabling business environment.
Bilateral investment flows have grown immensely with foreign direct investment into India from the US reaching $28.2 billion last year.
"Japan will participate in MALABAR this year which is our largest bilateral naval exercise with India and it's scheduled to take place at the end of this month," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Amy Searight told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on Thursday.
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The United States has been successful in engaging with India on tracking money used by radical groups to penetrate into the country, the Barack Obama administration has said as it praised Indian Muslims for demonstrating a great deal of "resilience" against overtures by terrorist groups.
India on Thursday hit back at China for its statement that Nuclear Suppliers Group membership can't be a "farewell gift", saying it was not seeking the membership to the 48-nation grouping as gift but instead based on its non-proliferation record.
An influential Republican senator has asked India to "just quit" buying oil from sanctions-hit Iran.
Modi is expected to travel to the US late September.
United States President Barack Obama has nominated Nisha Desai Biswal as the new assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs.
Biswal, who is in her late 40s, said there is a lot of fear and anxiety in a lot of communities.
A top Obama administration official on Thursday said that though some progress is being made in the implementation of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, it is going to be a long and tough road to work through the issues related to India's nuclear liability law.
The outgoing Obama Administration has hit out at China for blocking India's entry into the elite NSG by describing the communist giant an "outlier".
The US wants its trade with India to grow multi-fold, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told lawmakers.
The Obama administration has christened his vision of Indo-US ties that has overcome the "hesitations of history" and working for the betterment of the global good as "Modi Doctrine".
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal believes the India-US nuclear deal is not in limbo and it is for India and Pakistan to set the pace for conversations to resolve their issues. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday laid a wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers and paid homage to Indian-American astronaut late Kalpana Chawla at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.
The United States has appealed to India to uphold the Vienna Convention principles and ensure the safety and security of its diplomats stationed in the country, as New Delhi took a series of steps in response to the arrest and inhuman treatment of its diplomat in New York last week.
The United States has hoped that the major diplomatic row over the arrest of the Indian Deputy Consul General in New York will not affect bilateral ties with India. In a major diplomatic embarrassment to India, 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody on Thursday as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty.
United States recognises that the Indian electorate has weighed in with a resounding mandate for Narendra Modi, and we want to work with the prime minister-designate on advancing his goals for India as a regional and global player, says Gujarat-born US State Department official Nisha Desai Biswal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan, a key strategic partner, next month as he embarks on a busy foreign travel schedule in coming months that will include Bhutan, Brazil and the US.
'I am hopeful that you will see more focused attention on this relationship,' former US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai Biswal tells Alokananda Chakraborty.
Describing the just concluded United States visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as extraordinarily successful, the White House has said that his meeting with President Barack Obama has re-energised the strategic relationship between the two largest democracies of the world.
US Senators want Obama administration to clarify what India's 12 agreements with Iran are all about.
'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.' Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.
The United States is looking forward to a "very substantive and consequential" visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington later next month and is working on a "pretty ambitious roadmap" for his bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama, a top American official said.
India has sought access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, the Mumbai terror attack convict now lodged in a US prison, as it insisted on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 assault.
The United States has agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the arrest of an Indian diplomat has caused hiccups in bilateral ties, but said it is now focused on getting the relationship back on really strong footing.
Hours before Narendra Modi takes the stage at Madison Square Garden, fans thronged in thousands to the venue to catch their seats at the arena.
'The threat that India faces and the threat the United States faces is not just to the homeland, but to our people and to our institutions wherever they may be.' In an exclusive conversation with Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal outlines the importance of Prime Minister Modi's visit for America.
"Getting straight to business. PM @narendramodi just concluded a fruitful interaction with top energy sector CEOs at a Roundtable meeting in #Houston. Discussion focussed on working together for energy security and expanding mutual investment opportunities between India & US," MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
Aziz Haniffa, who has covered every Indian Prime Minister's visit to the US since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, gives us a peek into what's happening in Washington, DC on the eve of the Modi-Trump summit.
