External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday presented a cream-coloured south silk sari to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who in return gifted the famous Bangladeshi Jamdani sari to the visiting Indian leader.
She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan.
'Why did your generals try to grab a few square kilometres of Indian territory in Ladakh?' 'And what happened to the hard work that you and Prime Minister Modi put into the Wuhan and Mamallapuram meets?' Claude Arpi writes a letter to Xi Jinping, China's self-styled supreme leader, who turns 68 today, June 15.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held bilateral talks with all Heads of Government and State attending the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the only conspicuous exemption.
The US lawmakers, describing themselves as "longtime friends of India", wrote in the letter that "more than six months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most internet in the region".
Former external affairs minister, K Natwar Singh, shares his critique of the Narendra Modi government's foreign policy in this e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis. Edited excerpts
India's soft power diplomacy came into play during this cataclysm affecting the world as the pandemic defies barriers and borders, notes Rup Narayan Das.
'There was no need for opting for such an elaborately and expensively organised spectacle,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Sushma Swaraj's suave moves helped Narendra Modi pull off a diplomatic coup, helping regain her standing.
In the first high-level bilateral engagement after the installation of the NDA government, India on Thursday assured Bangladesh that efforts were on to evolve a national consensus on the contentious Teesta river water sharing deal even as it announced easing of visa norms for certain categories of visitors from Bangladesh.
In a grand ceremony with overtones of a United States presidential inauguration, heads of state and government, India Inc honchos, opposition leaders, Bharatiya Janata Party members and showbiz stars rubbed shoulders as they watched President Ram Nath Kovind administer the oath of office to India's 58 new ministers.
'Bharat Ratna and longest bridges, while necessary, will not promote the peace and prosperity of the citizens of India. Only just popular laws and foresight on the part of the leadership will'
The senior Congress leader opined that the situation in Assam can now be divided into two phases -- pre-CAA and post-CAA, and it was necessary to unite all anti-CAA forces in order to protect the ethos of the Assam Accord.
Thimpu apparently didn't think it necessary to take Delhi into confidence. Bhutan is loathe to getting dragged into the geopolitical rivalry between India and China. And for Beijing, this was too good an opportunity to be missed to thumb its nose at the powers-that-be in Delhi, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If someone is trying to do a vote bank politics under the garb of the CAB then it is not in the interest of the country'
'Imran Khan would only have spoken with the full awareness of Modi's complex political personality.' 'He has the great advantage of being privy to the confidential exchanges between then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Modi during the latter's celebrated surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 as well as the 'back channel' conversations between the national security advisors of the two countries,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of seven countries, including the United Kingdom, on the sidelines of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
'Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The union home ministry has rejected the ministry of external affairs's proposal to grant visa-on-arrival facility to Bangladeshi nationals and visa-free entry to citizens of that country under the age of 18 and over the age of 65.
'If there is lesser number of elections, populism will naturally be restricted.' 'Decisions will be taken speedily because there won't be the spectre of adverse electoral impact of the decisions because elections will be held once in five years or maximum two times in five years.'
Despite presiding over scores of factories in what is today India's largest garment exporter with 105,000 employees, Ahuja is a modest man with much to be immodest about. He tells Rahul Jacob that the government needs a free trade agreement with Europe fast to ensure a level-playing field with Bangladesh and Vietnam.
During her nearly 17-minute speech, she did not mention Pakistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will focus on extended neighbourhood, particularly the ASEAN and Central Asian regions, says Archis Mohan
Just hours after the White House confirmed that United States President Barack Obama would be travelling to India in January, the State Department on Friday announced that it will send a top diplomat to India next week to lay the ground work for the historic presidential visit.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that developing close relations with India's neighbours is a key priority of his government, ahead of his planned visit to Kathmandu on Tuesday afternoon to attend the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Summit.
Both nations have to find ways to be sensitive to each other's politico-strategic and economic concerns, say Dr Rahul Mishra and Sana Hashmi.
In a proud moment for India, the United Nations General Assembly will declare June 21 as International Day of Yoga.
In January Amit Shah launched the 'Bhag Mamata Bhag' programme in West Bengal. On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the red carpet for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What changed in two months?
'Why has the peace been kept?' 'Basically because there is a balance.' 'Maybe they think that balance has changed.' 'People can make mistakes. People can miscalculate.' 'If that is the cause, then I think what we have done, matching their build-up, etc, it is giving a good account of ourselves in the face-offs.'
Verdicts paving the way for construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya and India's multi-billion dollar Rafale fighter jet deal with France were 2019's landmark imprints of the Supreme Court, which also found itself at the centre of a controversy with then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi being accused of sexual harassment before getting the clean chit.
'When you come through the hassles and struggles of business life, your mind is wired differently.' 'You are more connected to reality,' Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral tells Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan
How will the return of a majority government at the Centre, the new India-US friendship and the Mangalyaan triumph change India?
Both sides will discuss the ongoing incidents of ceasefire violations at the border, the resolution of which will be given topmost priority
SAARC countries are facing common challenges and they should cooperate with each other to address them, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, underlining that India is committed to reviving the grouping as a major forum to promote active regional collaboration.
The AGP had in January withdrew its support to the BJP government in Assam in protest against the Centre's decision to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
In the city to lead India's 70th Independence Day celebrations, M J Akbar called terrorism a major threat to human rights.
Amid a spurt in terror attacks in various countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said terrorism is the "gravest threat" to the world, "equally impacting" India and Mozambique which agreed to strengthen security and defence ties and bolster cooperation in food security.
'I don't know who is deciding Indian foreign policy today. I don't know who is deciding how India deals with Pakistan,' former Union minister Ram Jethmalani takes on the Modi government.
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