Sources said a rare exception was made to allow arrival and departure of Aziz, who led the Pakistani delegation, by air at Amritsar which is not a designated port for entry and exit of Pakistani nationals, besides giving swift clearance despite a last minute change in his scheduled arrival by a special flight.
According to the tentative plan, September 23-24 is being worked as the expected dates for Modi's US visit.
'A couple of more such happenings in the coming weeks can push Kabul into total anarchy, and a Syria-like conflict may ensue,' warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The prospect is of a self-confident and self-sustaining India will make it a more effective player in the global arena,' External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar points out delivering the Sardar Patel Lecture-2020: India and the Post-Covid World.
In the last year since the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed on July 7, allegedly by the Sirajuddin Haqqani faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, India has well and truly joined in United States president Barack Obama's 'AfPak strategy' that is aimed at jointly looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan as the expanded theatre of war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"Nests and sanctuaries are located in territories of some countries," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kabul on Thursday, adding that there was no need to name them. Maintaining that all countries should fulfil their international and bilateral obligations and deny sanctuary to terrorists, Mukherjee said: "They will have to fight against the menace of terrorism at whatever cost."
Pakistan would want to take full advantage of the situation to direct Taliban trained terrorists into the Kashmir Valley, alert Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Condemning the assassination of chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council Burhanudin Rabbani, India on Tuesday said that the forces of terror and hatred have silenced "another powerful voice of peace" there. Expressing shock at the death of Rabbani, also former president of Afghanistan, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna "unreservedly" condemned the act of "great brutality." "I fondly recall my meetings with him in Kabul and again in New Delhi last July," he said.
The government is also planning to put all the Indians working in projects like power and road together to ensure their safety, reliable government sources said on Wednesday. This follows an assessment made by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon's visit to Kabul last week in the wake of terror attack on Feb 26 on guest houses frequented by Indians in which seven Indians were killed.
Like autumn leaves, we are left with a huge, miserable-looking heap of broken dreams. Whoever thought a day would come when we couldn't even agree with the Americans as to who were the Taliban we both have been fighting against all these years?
Hoping to take Bharatanatyam and yoga to places they have never been, India is planning to come up with at least eight new cultural centres in different parts of the world to use its soft power to spread its influence in regions of interest.
Australian foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton will visit India from September 10 to 12 to take part in the dialogue with their Indian counterparts.
Hit by yet another suicide bomb attack on its mission in Jalalabad, India on Saturday said "terror machines" that operate from "beyond the borders" was the main threat to the security of Afghanistan and refused to be deterred from its commitment to assist the war-torn country.
India on Monday conveyed its concern to Pakistan over the recent spurt in border ceasefire violations and the attack on its embassy in Kabul for which ISI has been blamed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday wrapped up his two-day visit to Russia, during which the two nations signed 16 pacts to expand cooperation in various sectors.
'If a 'two-front war' develops, Iron Brother may only turn out to be a drag on the PLA, since Pakistan is in no position to wage a war with India,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
China, the Ukraine crisis and Quad will dominate the discussions, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
Sharing concerns over the recent spurt in terrorism in Afghanistan, India and Afghanistan Monday agreed on a collective fight against the menace and sought Pakistan's cooperation.
Air India on Monday cancelled 14 flights from the national capital as a section of the agitating executive pilots refused to accept the management's proposal to set up a committee to look into their grievances and continued with their stir.
Wang arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening in the highest-level visit between the two countries after the ties came under severe strain following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh that began nearly two years ago.
Vowing to redouble its efforts to help Afghanistan as a response to the bombing of its embassy in Kabul, India has attacked Pakistan for trying to strike a deal with the local Taliban, saying such bargains "were undermining efforts to defeat terrorists in the war-ravaged country."
In an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna says Indians will continue to be a target for terrorists, in Afghanistan and at home, and that he's convinced the United States fully shares India's concerns on fighting terror.
Describing the organisers of the 26/11 and Kabul embassy attacks as "clients and creations" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, India has said those behind the carnages are known to prepare for strikes across the world and cautioned against any compromise with such forces.
Soft power approach combined with low visibility and maximising Afghan participation remains India's strength, and policies to reinforce the Indo-Afghan ties need to be built around this, says Dr Shanthie Mariet D'Souza
Bose's views make it amply clear how he would have dealt with communal and supremacist forces post-Independence had he been there at the helm instead of Nehru, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
Afghani President Ashraf Ghani took to Twitter to express his gratitude towards the government of India and the people of India for providing Afghanistan with hydroxychloroquine tablets, paracetamol tablets, and wheat.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper sat down on the side of G-8 meeting in Rusutsu (Japan) July 9 to discuss a range of issues, including Afghanistan, enhanced trade, civil nuclear cooperation, and climate change.
Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will be travelling to Europe to consult leaders in Germany, France and Russia, before proceeding to Kabul to attend the inauguration of Hamid Karzai for his second term as Afghanistan's president.
'If the US-Pakistan relationship continues to suffer, Pakistan may feel it has less to lose and decide that it need not keep a leash on LeT in order to appease America.' 'A tougher US policy toward Pakistan could lead to an emboldened and strengthened LeT and JeM, resulting in more terrorist attacks in India.'
Avtar Singh Khalsa, a longtime leader of the Sikh community who had planned to run in the parliamentary elections set for October, was killed in the attack.
'Pakistan and the jihadis's capacities have been diminished because of increasing dominance of our security forces.'
The India-Afghanistan relationship does not have to be a template of each country's relations with Pakistan, and Delhi will do well to leave it to Ghani to redefine the parameters of Afghanistan's security cooperation with India. A zero-sum mindset can only exacerbate regional tensions, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The quake hit at 12:37 pm near Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan in the Hindu Kush mountains at a depth of 191 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
India despatches high level team to Afghanistan on kidnapping
Dhaka is not in favour of full membership to Afghanistan and instead supports observer status to it, informed sources said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he hopes the historic cricket Test match between India and Afghanistan would strengthen ties between the South Asian neighbours and allies in the fight against militancy in the region.
India, which plans to start flights to Kabul whenever Pakistani airspace opens, on Wednesday agreed to take a slew of steps, including waiving off expenses, to assist Afghanistan in building up its aviation infrastructure.
"I have the impression, when I'm travelling through Pakistan particularly that they have a very real fear of being encircled by the Indians, which, to most observers, seems to be ridiculous."
With increased security threat on Indian assets in Afghanistan, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police will dispatch a fresh contingent of its troops to the war-torn country next week to augment the security of key Indian assets."A batch of officers and personnel will leave for Kabul in the next ten days to augment our strength," Director General of ITBP Vikram Srivastava told PTI.
The Taliban have the ISIS in its crosshairs. The Taliban has shown the skill to assimilate extremist elements if they are reconcilable as well as the ruthlessness to eliminate troublemakers, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
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