Obama says China shouldn't be threatened by good Indo-US ties.
The contract would give a big boost to India's $150 billion nuclear power programme, and a broader push to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
'Our policy is pro-Sri Lanka.' 'Burma is not the only girl on the beach in South Asia.''
No Indian government has taken on China like this ever before and shows that the three top Indian officials -- Sushma Swaraj, Manohar Parrikar and Ajit Doval - ran into China's Great Wall on the twin questions of Pakistan and terror when they interacted with their Chinese interlocutors In past few days, says Rajeev Sharma.
'An isolationist US and a disintegrating European Union will create a power vacuum that only China is in a position to fill -- a conclusion that is uncomfortable but unavoidable,' says Nitin Desai.
'I told all those Indians in Cheen there are some netas who go on holiday and don't work. Here I am, working and working, going on so many yatras, shaking hands with all big world netas till my hands feel they will fall off' 'Hai Hai, so much remains to be done, so many countries still to be visited...'
'The world wants India to succeed. It also worries now that India over-promises and under-delivers,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The government has made it much harder for tycoons to get special dispensations from Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his debut among the world's most powerful people, ranked 15th on the Forbes list topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin who pipped his US counterpart Barack Obama for a second year in a row.
The stakes are high and it is not certain that slow-moving foreign office bureaucracies can measure up to the challenges being thrown up, says Hardeep S Puri.
'Even in this age of self-willed and authoritarian leaders and spontaneous gestures, a script is still written,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash, imagining the 'talking points' are for the India-US summit on June 26.
'India and China are at new inflection points, domestically and internationally. India needs to throw up a new leader whose vision is clear, experience laden with wisdom and articulation brimming with restraint and tolerance,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
'Presidents may come and go, but America will go on forever,' an American business leader tells Ambassador T P Sreenivasan in New York.
Amid souring ties, the president visited Beijing for three days. On his return to India, a hope of better ties has arisen, says senior correspondent R Rajagopalan, who travelled with Pranab Mukherjee to the Asian superpower.
China's obsession with exports and electronics assembly can also be attributed to having learned from the Singaporean textbook.
Suddenly the sands are shifting and even friends are acting strange.
'Unlike Japan and China, the US has a long relationship with India. He is going there to fly the Indian flag in a gesture of friendship. This is a journey like none other, meant to signal that the two democracies are in a defining relationship of the 21st century.'
The Dalai Lama is a huge charmer, knowing how to say things that will please an audience in his gentle avuncular manner.
'Little did those in India's strategic community realise that any wise adversary in China's place and circumstances would only take the land route to disturb and trouble India.' 'It is along the land border that all of India's post-Cold War allies would be of little or no political and diplomatic, and least of all, military help,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The best message the Prime Minister could bring to London is that he will return to India to focus on economic matters. Britain, on its part, should ensure that it addresses matters that concern India, instead of engaging in pomp during his visit, says Adam Roberts.
'If we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the US and China as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.' 'The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's envoy to China -- in the Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture 2019, delivered on March 8, 2019 in Pune.
'It is absolutely critical on pure economic terms, but it's also smart politically, because a recent survey reported that 73 percent of Indians view climate change as the most pressing global concern,' US Secretary of State John Kerry tells a high-power audience in Washington, DC.
'Modi is a symbol of Asia Rising; and, for the first time in decades, a non-white has the potential to be the most compelling global leader.'
Outlining eight "pillars" for the future of India-China relations, President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday underlined the need for comprehensively resolving challenges including the boundary question through "political acumen" and "civilisational wisdom".
'The book has immense value because it reveals the inner workings of the think-tank which appears to provide facts and insights to Modi, though he himself takes the final decisions and articulates them in his characteristic rhetorical style,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The Obama administration sees India not only as a land of huge potential for expanded business and trade but also as a strategic partner in the face of an increasingly assertive China, whose leader visited Modi in India last week.
'What gives hope is that Modi's own leadership is vitally linked to his capacity to deliver on the economic front. Indeed, if he succeeds, India's foreign policies will have changed beyond recognition,' feels Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Chinese govt has itself to blame for first trying to slow down the property market and later propping it up.
The Sheikh Hasina-Narendra Modi summit put India-Bangladesh ties on a firmer pitch. Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd) takes stock.
The greatest challenge before India is how to strike a fine balance of its relationship between its neighbour and strategic rival China, and the US.
'Europe can be discussed on a golf course...' 'North Korea? What do I care what the man with the bad haircut does?'
India needs to build its Grand Narrative, and its cultural power, which conquered all of ASEAN (then known as Indo-China), needs to be forcefully projected while simultaneously hard economic and military power are also emphasised, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
'How can a State, which claims to be a responsible power, unilaterally grab a "disputed" area to build a road on it?' asks Claude Arpi.
With clouds of storm hovering over Parliament's budget session, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday sought the "cooperation" of all MPs in the smooth conduct of legislative business but gave no indication of plans to bring changes in the controversial land acquisition ordinance.
Although the India-Japan relationship has its own driving forces in terms of robust economic ties and shared values, China is the elephant in the room in the strategic parleys between the two countries, says Rup Narayan Das.
Manish Sabharwal is chairman of TeamLease, which has helped hire 1.4 million sales and customer service reps and logistics employees such as couriers for companies across India since it was founded in 2002.
'How can Kashmir be demilitarised if the terrorist threat remains and Pakistan continues to incite elements in Kashmir to keep the internal situation unstable?' asks former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
There is speculation that China released the White Paper on Tibet in a hurry after a Spanish court agreed to hear charges of genocide against former Chinese president Hu Jintao. Ajai Shukla reports
