Over the past few days, the Biden administration has been reaching out to its friends and allies to support it against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
A visit to Tibet appears to have become the new touchstone for expressing fealty to Xi Jinping, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Akhtaruzzaman Elias's The Raincoat describes the effect of the 1971 war on a college and on one of its teachers in particular.
The two nations had agreed on $700 million deal under which Pakistan was to pay $270 million (Rs 179 crore) from its national funds to purchase eight F-16s while the US was supposed to finance the rest of the amount from its Foreign Military Financing fund.
Describing India as one of the most important partners of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, the Biden Administration on Tuesday said that it welcomes India's emergence as a leading global power and its role as a net security provider in the region.
The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have welcomed the announcement by the militaries of India and Pakistan to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors, and hoped that it would lead to greater peace and stability in South Asia.
In the test, a space rocket boosted a hypersonic glide vehicle, one capable of carrying a nuclear device, which circled the globe before impacting.
Trump defended his decision saying that the United States has done its part and now it is the time for other regional players to play their part.
Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The trust some people in India had that the Biden-Harris administration would be friendly to India has been eroded already, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Calling India a 'growing world power', the United States has said that the country, which aspires to become a permanent member of the UNSC, remains a leader of developing nations and the Non-Aligned Movement in the post-Cold War era.
The US move came after the Justice Department said that hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world.
Danti is highly focused on diplomatic entities. It may already have full access to internal networks in Indian government organisations.
'India will come increasingly in the US crosshairs if it insists on maintaining its strategic autonomy, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Nobody bothered to articulate the upsides; instead, the four-year tour of duty and denial of life-long pensions got played up.
Job-seekers for government and related opportunities found that their future was at risk, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
The defence minister has to correct a major asymmetry. Will his discipline come in the way?
As per a senior NIA official, the anti-terror agency has "nominated Inspector General of Police Santosh Rastogi to assist the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court to secure and seize the records related to the visit of Prime Minister to Punjab on January 5, 2022, from State and Central Agencies".
'The Indian Navy has sufficient combat power in areas of interest to India that can quickly scale up operations if the need arises.' 'This includes all the choke points leading into the Indian Ocean as also areas within.'
The elephant in the room will permeate the conversations, predicts Rup Narayan Das.
'2020 will show whether India's troubled domestic economic and political house reveals a mismatch in their strategic association or whether closer strategic ties are yet possible,' says Anita Inder Singh.
Describing the order as a "matter most urgent", the director asked the oil marketing companies to make adequate stocks of LPG which can last up to two months both at bottling plants as well as godowns.
There is growing acceptance of the idea in the international community that engaging the Taliban government is a far better approach than ostracising it, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
'Defence does not new 'planning commissions'; it needs an implementation commission.'
Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China, observes Aditi Phadnis.
The amendment moved by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher on Friday requires the US Defence Secretary to certify that Pakistan is not using its military to "persecute minority groups for their legitimate and nonviolent political and religious beliefs".
'This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar Number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments...' the home ministry declared in July 2015. 'UID/Aadhaar has been used as a fish bait to ensnare and entrap present and future generations of citizens,' warns Gopal Krishna.
In his opening remarks at a ministerial meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral coalition, also known as 'Quad', External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India remained committed to a rules-based world order, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes.
On December 10, Kissinger began to encourage the Chinese to take action against India: 'If the People's Republic were to consider the situation on the Indian subcontinent a threat to security, and if it took measures to protect its security, the US would oppose efforts of others to interfere with the People's Republic.' On the 50th anniversary of India's greatest military victory, Claude Arpi recalls how the US suggested that China intervene militarily on Pakistan's side.
The Biden administration expects the Modi government to continue to remain as its loyal camp follower even as Washington continues to act in self-interests, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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.
The IAF had said that during the aerial engagement on February 27, one of its MiG-21 Bison shot down a F-16.
India and the US also made a strong push for the intra-Afghan peace process to end violence in Afghanistan and ensure that it does not become home to terrorism, and vowed to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and on COVID-19 response and economic recovery.
India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people, including 329 of its nationals and two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul in the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the city after its takeover by the Taliban
Support from the committee gives Xi an indefinite extension on the reins of power, which will surely result in hawkish and insular policies. It does not bode well for relations with the USA, or with anyone else who does not bow the knee to Beijing, for that matter.
Tuesday's talks between Modi and Trump are likely to send across a clear message of growing congruence of interests between India and the US on major geopolitical developments in the region and beyond, particularly when China has been expanding its military and economic clout.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan appealed to people to boycott products from China and also directed officials of his ministry not to procure any Chinese products for day-to-day office use while his ministerial colleague Ramdas Athawale said all restaurants and hotels that sell Chinese food in India should be closed down.
As the Under Secretary for Commerce, Juster played a key role in developing the Indo-US deal.
Tired of the alleged "double game" being played by Islamabad, American lawmakers have announced to hold a Congressional hearing next week to discuss whether Pakistan is a "friend or foe" of the US in the war on terror.
