India had signed a $5.43 billion deal with Russia for the purchase of five S-400s.
The United Progressive Alliance-Left parties may have averted a showdown at the key meeting on Wednesday, but the hours preceding the meet were dramatic, and full of suspense.
India on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to cease its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and declare a truce in the conflict zone. The Centre also rushed National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to Colombo to step up its diplomatic pressure.The decision was taken at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Modi and Trudeau held extensive talks, exploring ways to boost ties in several key areas, including trade and energy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned home on Thursday after a nine-day-three-nation tour of Myanmar, Australia and Fiji during which he had a range of international engagements.
Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, on Tuesday, justified India's refusal to play bilateral cricket with Pakistan during the International Cricket Council's Disputes Resolution Committee hearing into a compensation claim against the Board of Control for Cricket in India, a Board official said.
Anil Antony announced his resignation via a tweet in which he said that he was getting "intolerant calls" to retract his tweet against the documentary and the "wall of hate/abuses" on Facebook over the same issue have prompted him to take the decision.
Indian sources said "while two of the diplomats will be given clearance to travel to Kolkata for the Pakistan-Bangladesh cricket match, five will not be given the permission as they have ISI and defence links."
Headed by additional secretary in the Home Ministry, B K Prasad, the team will also monitor the evacuation of stranded Indians in Nepal.
The ministerial group is to look into pricing of some essential commodities, including petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas and PDS kerosene. The GoM also includes Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister T R Baalu and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar.
He said both sides reaffirmed to sincerely work towards complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC.
Antony will take over as Defence minister from Pranab Mukherjee who has been appointed the next External Affairs minister.
McNaughton, an Irish national who won the Pulitzer Prize in May 2018, allegedly travelled to restricted and protected areas in Jammu and Kashmir without permission. He also reported from the state without valid permission.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the three-member committee, said on Monday he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A K Antony. After the government notification was issued on August 29, the issues of 'anomalies' in the pay for officers was first raised by Air chief Fali Homi Major in his letter in his capacity as acting Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee.
The armed forces had decided not to implement the revised pay scales from October 1.
The External Affairs Minister said the Wuhan informal summit was held without any agenda and without having any objective to discuss any specific issue.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar left London at the end of a four-day visit to the United Kingdom on Friday with a message of convergence as the two countries agreed on an ambitious '2030 Roadmap' towards a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
'A firm national resolve can only deter and defeat the nefarious designs of the adversary,' notes Rup Narayan Das.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has come out with a communiqu announcing distribution of portfolios of the ministers sworn-in on Monday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers:
Of the 20,000 Indians who were stranded in war-torn Ukraine, 6,000 have been brought back to the country so far and the Centre is making all efforts for the safe return of the remaining ones, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Wednesday.
During the nearly two-hour meeting that lasted almost till midnight at 10 Janpath, Mukherjee, the government's pointsman on the deal with United Progressive Alliance allies and the Left parties, and Antony apprised Sonia of the talks they had with leaders of the constituents of the ruling alliance and the Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI in the last two days. Emerging from the meeting, neither Mukherjee nor Antony spoke to the media.
In first high-level engagement between India and Russia after National Democratic Alliance government came to power, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry O Rogozin on Wednesday held extensive talks on crucial bilateral issues including trade and energy security.
The External Affairs Ministry has served a show-cause notice on arms dealer Suresh Nanda, alleged to have received kickbacks in defence deals, asking him as to why his passport should not be revoked following a plea by the CBI. The CBI, while pleading successfully for suspension of Nanda's passport for another month till March 30, had made a simultaneous plea to revoke his travel document permanently, ministry sources said.
Jaishankar said so far there was no "visible expression" of the talks on ground.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump will travel to New Delhi and Ahmedabad during the visit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks on stepping up bilateral cooperation in a range of key areas with a special emphasis on ramping up trade and investment when global slowdown is emerging as a major concern.
The original Nobel medallion, along with some memorabilia of the Tagore family, was stolen from the museum at Rabindra Bhavan on March 25, 2004.
Swaraj and Tillerson discussed a wide range of bilateral issues, including the situation in the neighbourhood and the Indo-Asia Pacific region, officials said.
External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh briefed the leaders on the high-profile visits at an hour-long meeting.
The southern deep-sea port of Hambantota is considered strategically important for its location.
The Sri Lankan President appreciated India's gesture and thanked it for the support and solidarity shown, the statement said.
India is also likely to push for a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Zone and is sharing details of the study it conducted in this regard.
Kalam begins his tour with a three-day visit to Singapore.
The talks will be held in Islamabad, sources told PTI in Delhi on Monday after a meeting between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.
'Good to meet US Secretary of State @SecBlinken today. I welcome President Biden's strong commitment to strengthen the India-US Strategic Partnership, which is anchored in our shared democratic values and is a force for global good,' Modi tweeted.
The stand by China spelt out by its foreign ministry insisting that it takes the 1959 line on perception of the LAC amid a nearly five-month-long border standoff in eastern Ladakh triggered a strong reaction from India.
Mukherjee is visiting Pakistan to formally invite President Pervez Musharraf to attend the SAARC Summit to be held in India on April 3-4.
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