Afghanistan, sitting on vast reserves of iron, copper, cobalt and gold, has invited Indian companies to tap the nearly $1 trillion worth of minerals discovered in the country as the two nations try to enhance and diversify their trade ties.
Pakistan on Monday freed 48 Indian fishermen from a jail in the southern port city of Karachi as a goodwill gesture and sent them to the Wagah land border crossing to be repatriated to India.
Dr Ramamurthy Kosanam was reportedly abducted by Islamic State terrorists in Libya nearly 18 months ago.
The Obama administration has declared that the Indian American community has always been and will continue to be indispensable to the United States-India Strategic Dialogue. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, who will be by Secretary Hillary Clinton's side as she co-chairs the talks with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, explained how integral the Indian American community has been to this dialogue.
Were External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, right, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, centre, and Hardip Singh Puri, India's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, left, perturbed by Libyan dictator Muammmar Gadhafi's demand that Kashmir be made an independent country, an observation embedded in his 96-minute diatribe.
With the rising death toll in anti-government protests in Libya, the government on Tuesday decided to evacuate nearly 18,000 Indians residing in that country. "Arrangements for air and sea evacuation of our nationals from Libya are being finalised," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said. Rao, along with other top officials from other concerned ministries, held a meeting to work out the logistics of the evacuation process.
Promising safety and security of Indian students, Australia is considering amending the law to enlarge definition of offence to include race, religion, ethnicity and nationality related violence, the Rajya Sabha was told on Friday.
Three days after another Indian was attacked in Australia, India on Wednesday noted that though such incidents have not stopped completely, their number has come down and advised the Indian community to seek help from the Consulates whenever such assaults take place.
"Let me assure the nation that all Indians are safe and all those Indians who are willing to be evacuated will be evacuated safely and without any expenditure incurred by them," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.
'In today's economically integrated world, economic relationships constitute the bedrock on which social, cultural and political relationships are built,' the minister tells the US-India Business Council in Washington, DC.
The incident comes following the vandalism of three Hindu temples in Australia by Khalistani supporters.
Under pressure from India, Australia on Wednesday set up a high-level working group to study the spate of attacks on Indians in that country.
When word got around in the ministry of external affairs that Siddhartha and Malavika were going to New York and would be with SM Krishna, protocol officers went to Delhi airport to see off the couple. Siddhartha chided them for doing so and when the officials said a government vehicle would be picking them up at John F Kennedy airport on arrival, he told them that he would take a taxi to reach the New York Palace hotel where his father-in-law was staying. K P Nayar reports.
At least 30 suspects have been detained in Bangladesh's Chattogram city for their alleged involvement in the killing of a lawyer and attacking security personnel following the arrest of a prominent Hindu community leader. The violence erupted after Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was denied bail and sent to jail in a sedition case. The lawyer, Assistant public prosecutor Saiful Islam, was killed during clashes between security personnel and Das' followers. The interim government has condemned the violence, urging people to remain calm and has ordered an investigation into the killing and appropriate legal measures.
On a three-day visit to Egypt, the first by a senior Indian leader after last year's revolution, Krishna met the head of current military-led government, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Prime Minister Kamal Al Ganzhoury as well as his counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Islamabad on Tuesday on a two-day visit during which she will hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz and attend a multilateral conference on Afghanistan.
Narendra Modi will be travelling to Israel, the first by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish country with which bilateral defence cooperation is on an upswing.
Continued attacks on Indians in Australia do not "augur well" for bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Tuesday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on asked Sri Lanka to observe 'restraint' while dealing with Indian fishermen who stray into its waters during talks with his counterpart G L Peiris, who is in New Delhi to explain his country's position on a United Nations report accusing it of "war crimes".
Even as China promised an inquiry over the alleged ill treatment of an Indian diplomat there, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said the issue has been taken up seriously with that country.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Wednesday alleged that the Libyan army had shot dead an Indian worker there and the authorities of the violence-torn country falsely claimed it to be a death in a road accident.Vaiko said 42-year-old Murugiah from Tirunelveli district was shot dead by the Libyan Army after it ordered the workers to vacate their place of accommodation. "On February 22, they were forced to vacate the place and the army opened fire on them."
Somalia on Monday assured India that it will do everything possible to get 53 Indian hostages released from pirates in that country, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said. He said India has also offered to help Somalia implement job-generating projects to tackle piracy in the African nation. These issues came up for discussion between Krishna and visiting Somalian Deputy Prime Minister Abdiweli Ali during a meeting in New Delhi.
The India-Pakistan dialogue process should be "uninterrupted and uninterruptible" and help in building trust between the two countries, Pakistan's minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Tuesday.
Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna summoned the New Zealand High Commissioner on Thursday over racist remarks made by a TV show presenter on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
India said on Tuesday that China had been showing "more than the normal interest" in the Indian Ocean affairs and its "intentions" are being closely monitored.
Recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh have ignited political debate in West Bengal, with the ruling TMC and opposition BJP utilizing the issue to advance their respective agendas. While the TMC emphasizes communal harmony and calls for international intervention, the BJP criticizes the TMC's inaction and links the situation to its push for the Citizenship Amendment Act. The issue has also brought other opposition parties into the fray, with all sides highlighting the interconnectedness of the region's socio-political fabric.
Australia on Thursday assured India that 'firm action' will be taken against those responsible for the recent attacks on Indian students, as External Affairs Minister S M Krishna took up the issue with the authorities in Sydney, amid serious concerns over it back home. During his meeting with New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees, Krishna, who is on a five-day visit to Australia, was assured that firm action will be taken against the perpetrators.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday said the Indian government will be contacting the government of Bangladesh to seek the extradition of suspected Kandahar hijack accused and top Jaish-e Mohammed militant Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandol.
Australia on Tuesday promised to apply "full force of law" against those responsible for attacks on Indians in the country as External Affairs Minister S M Krishna raised the issue of their safety with his counterpart Stephen Smith.
The foreign ministers' talks failed just when progress seemed on the horizon, says Sheela Bhatt
India is "closely monitoring" the progress in the non-resident Indian children custody row, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in New Delhi on Thursday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had conveyed the offer of aid to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi during a telephone conversation on Friday.
The post-mortem on the United States-India Strategic Dialogue co-chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna -- which also had the icing on the cake of President Barack Obama attending and delivering remarks at Clinton's reception for Krishna and the Indian delegation at the conclusion of the talks, where he pledged his unequivocal commitment to further US-India ties -- in the eyes of South Asia experts in Washington, DC, was mix
An Indian orphan who was deported from the United States in 2008 following her arrest on drug charges on Monday wrote to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna asking him to help her get back to the US so that she can live with her two children -- eight and nine year olds.
During his visit to China beginning Monday, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna is expected to raise a number of issues with his counterpart Yang Jiechi and other top leaders. The tour assumes significance because this is the first high-level visit between the two countries after a series of spats in the media accusing each other.
Noting that there are well-established conventions and practices as to how members of the diplomatic community should be treated, Krishna said such an incident has taken place for the second time in the last three months.
The impact of situation in Pakistan-Afghanistan region on the security of both India and Russia will come up for discussions during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's talks with Indian leadership on Tuesday.
India is looking to a top panel set up by Australia to address the concerns of Indian students, who have been targets of spate of attacks there, the External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Saturday.
India has been asking Pakistan to hand over 42 fugitives including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, but Islamabad has refused to cooperate, Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday night spoke of the possibility of the Centre advising Indian students against traveling to Australia if the attacks on them continued. Krishna said different kinds of action can be taken by the government in the wake of the attacks like issuing an advisory for Indian students not to go to Australia. "But, I think that (the advisory) would not be in the interest of our bilateral relations," he said.
