Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Parliament on Friday that the "cowardly act" on February 26 in Kabul "will not bend our determination to help Afghanistan".
Pakistan on Saturday released former Afghan Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, meeting a long-standing demand of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to advance peace efforts in the war-ravaged country.
Life has come a full circle for Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.
'The hardliners in Delhi are in for a big disappointment,' predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Warning of 'shocking scale' of vote rigging in the Afghan Presidential elections, the main challenger to Hamid Karzai has said the poll fraud will remove all legitimacy from the new government.
The Centre on Saturday ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the Taliban and said that New Delhi will only be dealing with the legitimate government led by President Hamid Karzai.India believes that Taliban is the 'antagonist and not the protagonist' and is also aware of its collusion with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba, said sources. The LeT and the Taliban are specifically targeting Indians and Indian interests in the war-torn country, said sources.
Less than a week after they met in Washington, DC, United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday called Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and discussed his administration's Af-Pak policy and climate change with him.
US President Barack Obama will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other world leaders about his new policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House said on Tuesday.
"I do not think that India has been squeezed out. I think India is playing a stellar role in rebuilding Afghanistan which has been acknowledged by the people of Afghanistan and by the legitimate Government of Afghanistan, and that is what matters," Krishna said in an interview to Karan Thapar for Devil's Advocate.
The United States on Wednesday expressed its serious concern over corruption in Afghanistan, but said right now it is focused entirely on the November 7 run-off to presidential elections.
American Senator John F Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who just returned from a trip to Afghanistan after twisting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's arm to acquiesce to hold a run-off election after charges of massive fraud and corruption were uncovered in the recent election, has warned that Pakistan could become the epicenter of terrorism in the world, since it is now the headquarters of the Al Qaeda.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday on a two-day visit, discussed cooperation in the field of security and developmental projects with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta.
Streets in capital Kabul were mainly quiet and tense early on Thursday as Afghans awoke and headed to the polls for an anxiously awaited presidential election that Taliban fighters have vowed to disrupt with attacks
At least three gunmen, all reported to be members of the Taliban, stormed a central Kabul bank on Wednesday morning, and are currently surrounded by police.
Afghanistan elects a new president on August 20 against the background of horrific violence.
A number of documents indicate that Pakistan International Airline has put embargo on Afghan citizens who have travelled to India.
US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny the Al Qaeda safe haven and reverse Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan.
As United States President Barack Obama is about to finalise his new policy on Afghanistan, his envoy to the country has expressed his misgivings about sending more troops to the war-torn nation and raised questions on the capability of Hamid Karzai as head of the state.The two strongly worded classified cables, sent to Obama last week, were believed to have been discussed by Obama with his key national security and defence aides at the White House on Wednesday.
Making an aggressive move on its foreign policy front, the new United States administration has reached out to key world leaders, with President Barack Obama himself calling heads of the states of Canada, Saudi Arabia and Britain, besides United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached out to as many as 21 foreign leaders including Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on friday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is not interested in peace talks or the reconciliation efforts of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "I do not expect Mullah Omar and those people to be at all interested in this. In fact, they've made it very clear that they're not," Clinton told CNN.
United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins, who was in New Delhi on Thursday said in an interaction with the press that improvement in Indo-Pak ties will automatically improve the situation in Afghanistan, even as he discussed the current state of play in US-Afghan relations and attempts to work towards reconciliation with top officials.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was obviously so impressed by her meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that she ventured into the White House briefing room after sitting in on the meetings between President Barack Obama and the two leaders, to express her optimism that a solid alliance had been formed committed to crushing the Taliban and other extremist elements destabilising the region.
A number of world leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on Friday called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to express their solidarity with India in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai.Besides Brown, other leaders to call up Singh included Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
Condolences continued to pour in from world dignitaries for former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who breathed her last due to cardiac arrest on Tuesday night.
A total of six Indians, including a Border Roads Organisation driver and four ITBP soldiers, and 129 Afghans were killed in these attacks. The 215-km long Delaram-Zaranj highway, a symbol of India's developmental work in the war-ravaged country, was handed over to Afghan authorities by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.
India has completed the construction of the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram Highway in South-Western Afghanistan despite attacks by Taliban and the loss of precious lives of Indian nationals working on the project.
Concerned over increasing influence of Taliban in Pakistan, the United States on Wednesday told top leadership in Islamabad that the "era of lip service was over" and it was now time to work plans and be very specific.
There has been a sharp increase in acts of terrorism in Afghanistan since the new Pakistan government assumed office in Islamabad in March.
"They've got elections coming up, but effectively the national government (led by Hamid Karzai) seems very detached from what's going on in the surrounding community," Obama said, clearly expressing his displeasure over the functioning of the Afghan President, considered close to former President George W Bush.
'Pakistan is determined to garner the peace dividends.' 'On the diplomatic front, this will be, principally, in terms of a revival of Pakistan's relations with the US,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A feisty Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari says there is no likelihood of his being deposed in a military coup, but if it does happen it will be because the United States along with other democratic countries has had a hand in it.
Dr Singh and Gandhi, along with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had the discussion with Advani on the issue during the State dinner hosted for visiting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in New Delhi on Monday.
Terming the Kabul embassy bombing an attack on the Indo-Afghan friendship, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday declared that it would not deter New Delhi from continuing its reconstruction of the war-torn country and announced a fresh assistance worth $450 mn for it.
Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has urged the United States to strike a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan on the pattern of the Swat pact, saying that the real threat was from the Al Qaeda. "The only way forward is dialogue, which is what (Afghan President) Hamid Karzai is finally saying. You have to start talking to the Taliban," Khan said. He warned that US President Barack Obama's Afghan policy is 'exactly the same way as the mess' made by Bush.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
The Democratic Senator with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
India named a road in the national capital after the slain Afghan war hero, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the first such honour extended to a leader from that country.
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.
Karzai warned Pakistan that Afghanistan was no longer weak.
Kenzo Oshima led a 10-member mission to Afghanistan earlier this month.
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