Libya said both the countries can play a major role as Libya is the northern gate for Africa, and India is an active member seeking to play an essential role in Asia.
India on Thursday termed Pakistan's much-awaited response to the Mumbai evidence dossier as 'positive' and promised to share whatever more information it can with Islamabad after examining its queries. Soon after Pakistan handed over the response to India's High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed it with senior ministerial colleagues P Chidambaram and A K Antony.
India on Tuesday said the inclusion of Afghanistan in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation would go a long way in establishing lasting peace and stability in the region.
Mukherjee said India's position has always been that the solution has to be found 'through dialogue, discussion and negotiations.'
The 10-member GoM headed by external affairs minister and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will include defence minister A K Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, communications minister A Raja, railway minister Lalu Prasad, chemical and fertilisers minister Ram Vilas Paswan, law and justice minister H R Bhardwaj, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday concluded his four-day visit to Moscow leaving for home without meeting with President Vladimir Putin. He is the second senior Indian minister to have visited Moscow in one week who the president hasn't met, the other being External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Union Cabinet for the first time after he underwent a heart bypass surgery nearly two months ago. The meetings of the Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs were held at his official Race Course Road residence today, unlike the meetings which were held in South Block during his absence. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had presided over those meetings.
The three-member committee was constituted following a direction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is currently abroad, government sources said. However, the defence forces have now agreed to accept the pay scales with the existing 'anomalies', but would wait for a decision from the committee in which Defence Minister A K Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram would be members.
Three MPs, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, came on wheelchairs.
The Left parties on Wednesday night said that the government's move to get the draft nuclear safeguards agreement circulated to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors was 'expected', especially after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that the nuclear watchdog will be approached very soon.The Bharatiya Janata Party expressed surprise about how the draft was circulated.
India on Friday said there was no dilution in its stand that Pakistan must hand over the perpetrators of terrorism to face the law in India. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked Pakistan to undertake a full investigation into the November 26 Mumbai attacks in a sincere, transparent and verifiable manner to unveil the full conspiracy into the terror strikes.
Although Afghanistan will be formally inducted as the eighth member of SAARC on Tuesday, Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta also attended the meet.
The luncheon meeting took place at the prime minister's official Race Course Road residence.
"Since home minister has called a meeting of the chief ministers on internal security on Januray 6, I hope to take over before that so that I could represent J&K as the chief minister. But we have few formalities. The governor's rule has to be revoked before that," Omar Abdullah said.
During the meeting, held at the residence of Pranab Mukherjee, the government's pointsman for the deal, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was understood to have been briefed about the deal and the steps India would have to take in the coming weeks to push it through.
The execution of Sarabjit -- sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990 -- was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf so that the new government could review his case. Sarabjit was originally set to be hanged on April 1.
Pranab lost his cool with a scribe.
The statement was made after Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh met Rahul Gandhi on Monday and sought the government's intervention to save the life of her brother. "We appeal to the government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh's case with clemency on humanitarian grounds," Mukherjee said in his one-page statement read out by him soon after Question Hour in Parliament.
Ahead of the United Progressive Alliance-Left coordination committee meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government on Saturday expressed hope that the differences with the supporting allies on the issue will be resolved. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in Chandigarh that he was engaged in talks with the Left on the deal to sort out the matter.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to go ahead with the scheduled Indo-Pak meeting after the blast at Pune's German Bakery that has so far claimed 10 lives, is not an easy one for him, with two key ministers of his government opposing the move.
A core group of ministers on Wednesday held inconclusive deliberations on a proposal to raise fuel prices, necessitated by a spike in global crude prices that threatens to spawn an oil import crisis.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also discounted the possibility of midterm polls to the Lok Sabha in the wake of differences with the supporting Left parties on the deal.
"We express our shock and horror at her death," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
"As far as states are concerned, it's the primary responsibility of the states to provide security. But if the state government wants any assistance from the Centre in that respect, we will be glad to provide that," Mukherjee said.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India not signing NPT does not mean it is part of the nuclear arms race.
"We have made it quite clear both to Iran and the US that our relationship does not depend on the relationship or closeness with USA, or it will be affected because of relationship with Iran. These are totally independent stands," said Pranab.
The Left has already made it clear that its top leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Abani Roy and Debabrata Biswas will be their nominees in the committee, which is expected to be a political one.
"There are new developments in the neighbouring country. We are keeping a close watch on the happenings. I and the prime minister are taking stock of the situation," he told reporters.
The US has capped the number of H1-B visas at 65,000 a year. The bailout-condition could affect Indian skilled workers. "We are already witnessing worrying signs of protectionism in the world's biggest economy. We need to argue against this trend at the international fora," external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said inaugurating the 42nd Indian Labour Conference.
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.
External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh briefed the leaders on the high-profile visits at an hour-long meeting.
Pakistan will take up with India 'certain violations' of the provisions of a 1960 treaty in water projects, being constructed by the neighbouring country on Chenab and Jhelum rivers, during External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Islamabad in May.Design changes in the water projects being built by India go beyond the provisions of the Treaty and Pakistan is making efforts for their rectification. The Indus Waters Treaty gave Pakistan the rights to the rivers.
"I am shocked. It once again proves that terrorism has not been eliminated in Pakistan and was rather continuing unabated," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media-persons after a poll rally in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
India on Monday welcomed the end to political crisis in Pakistan and hoped that government in Islamabad would be stable so that it can devote attention to fighting terrorism.
Broad consensus is emerging within a Group of Ministers chaired by finance and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on a proposal seeking comprehensive changes in the foreign direct investment policy. This includes scrapping automatic approval in sectors that have FDI limits and in which ownership or control is shifting to a foreign company, and a new definition for calculating indirect foreign equity.
After three years of peace process, the daily claimed that there was little headway to boast about towards the resolution of the "real disputes" and Pakistan has ended up ceding more ground with every diplomatic encounter.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met visiting President Mahinda Rajapakse.
With investigators suggesting involvement of some Hindu outfits in cross-border Samjhauta Express train blast, the issue is all set to figure in the Indo-Pak Foreign Ministerial and Home Secretary-level talks next week.
Speaking to media persons aboard Air India 001, conveying Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Moscow, Menon said, "This is one relationship without any wrinkles or difficulties." The foreign secretary was reacting to an inquiry whether Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's refusal to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the latter's visit to Moscow last month.
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