The government is contemplating the imposition of the fee to be collected by the army-run National Logistics Cell as a condition for reopening the supply routes that were closed in retaliation for a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has taken responsibility for the attack on NATO supply trucks in Sindh, which claimed 5 lives on Friday. The TTP has warned that such attacks will continue till Pakistan blocks the supply line to Afghanistan for NATO trucks.On Friday, nearly 12 Taliban militants blocked a road at Shikarpur Sindh and stooped the NATO tankers. After chasing away the drivers, they set nearly 35 tankers on fire. Some of the tankers were destroyed completely.
'There are ominous portents of an isolationist administration not only building a physical wall to the south to prevent unwanted immigrants from entering the land of milk and honey, but also trade walls not just against China, but all nations,' foresees Sreekant Sambrani.
The top United States admiral involved in the Libyan war has admitted to a US Congressman that forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are actively targeting and trying to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner said that Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, told him NATO forces are trying to kill Gaddafi.
There is nothing to be worried about as bilateral ties are robust with solid foundations. Both are on the same page on the economic and defence/security ties bilaterally and globally and that shall continue irrespective of change in political dispensation in either country, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The military alliance had been divided over the stand taken by the US over Iraq.
The Pakistani military on Monday rejected the regret expressed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief for a cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and warned that the action could have "grave consequences".
Expressing "strong concern", China on Monday said it was "deeply shocked" by NATO air strikes on Pakistani border posts that left 24 soldiers killed and asked NATO to respect Pakistan's sovereignty besides seeking a probe into the incident.
The committee noted that Indian export market was at present confined to neighbouring nations like Nepal, Myanmar\nand Maldives, besides catering to the replenishment market.
For the first time in seven months, trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops crossed from Pakistan to Afghanistan on Thursday after authorities in Islamabad lifted a blockade of the vital routes ending a bitter standoff with the United States.
Saturday's Quad meeting in Delaware is taking place against the backdrop of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
United States President Barack Obama is at loggerheads with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, refusing to meet him apparently over blockage of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply lines into Afghanistan, an issue which continues to strain ties between two nations, American media reports said on Monday.
An alliance of over 40 religious and extremist groups forged by Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has vowed to march to the Afghan border to force Pakistan government to close NATO supply routes.
"Whatever happened over the weekend on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan is a tragedy. We express regret for it and as well as condolences for the loss of life. In no way shape of form should this be construed as an intentional attack on Pakistan by the United States. That is simply incorrect," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told media persons.
The Pakistan government is considering the possibility of making compromises in its efforts to obtain an apology from the US for a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, according to a media report on Thursday.
First look of Pranab Mukherjee with the NATO secretary general.
Twenty tankers which were destroyed were on their way to Afghanistan, and were attacked on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, early on Wednesday morning,a group of gunmen opened fire at nearly 40 tankers parked at Akhtarabad along the main highway between Quetta and the border town of Chaman, a witness said.
Greece is spending three times as much on security as Sydney did in 2000 because of increased terror fears.
India will continue to be a strategic partner for the United States despite concerns over its ties with Russia, the Biden Administration has said.
'The Indian government is better prepared this time and has reached out to all contenders and not putting all eggs in one basket.'
Pakistani authorities have temporarily stopped the movement of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation trucks to Afghanistan following an attack by militants even as the Foreign Office on Thursday said a new memorandum of understanding covering the transportation of supplies will be signed soon.
"For more than a year, General Allen has served with distinction as the Commander of US Forces and NATO International Security Assistances Forces in Afghanistan, seeing us through a critical period in our military efforts and in Afghanistan's transition," Obama said.
The Afghan government could collapse following the departure of NATO forces in 2014, especially if the presidential elections that year are fraudulent, a report has warned.
The US is looking very carefully at what Modi did when he was in Moscow, a senior State Department official has told lawmakers concerned over the growing India-Russia ties.
A mechanism for Europe which will link together the missile defence assets from different allies under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's command has been declared operational by the organisation. Announced by the alliance 18 months ago, the system has been termed by NATO Director General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a step towards the organisation's long-term goal of providing full coverage and protection for all its European partners.
The Pakistani Taliban threatened on Tuesday to attack NATO supply trucks if they tried to resume supplies to troops in Afghanistan. Tahir Ali reports.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated this after a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who sought deepening cooperation and developing political dialogue between Pakistan and the European military alliance to achieve common strategic objectives. Any 'activation on the eastern border' would affect Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror, Qureshi told a joint press conference after their talks.
NATO on Monday endorsed plans to hand over to Afghan forces the complete responsibility of security in the war-torn country by 2013 as the military alliance gradually transitions in its role from combat to training before their final withdrawal in 2014.
The expression of remorse by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enough to break the deadlock that had led to the blocking of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes for the last seven months, following the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border NATO strike at the Salala check-post in November last year.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officer in Afghanistan took about 45 minutes to notify a senior allied commander about Pakistan's calls that its outposts were under attack, according to new details of the probe into last month's air strike that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops has widened the US-Pak rift, according to a leading American daily, which said the Obama administration's regret and Islamabad's anger over the strike reflects a "deepening distrust" that gets harder to repair with each new confrontation.
"The goal is to have an Afghanistan again that has a degree of stability such that forces like Al Qaeda and associated groups cannot have safe haven unimpeded, which could threaten the region and threaten US and other interests in the world," US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said, outlining the issues that would figure at the key summit.
The United States on Tuesday said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries have decided it is important to have participation of Pakistan at the Chicago Summit on Afghanistan hoping that Islamabad would be able to reopen the supply routes by then.
Pakistan has formally communicated to the United Nations its protest and condemnation of the air-strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that killed 24 soldiers and has strained ties between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon has written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, informing him of the NATO attack of November 26 "on Pakistan's border posts (that) resulted in the martyrdom of 24 officers".
"We want to make certain that no terrorist organisation can find a haven anywhere, and, with a border adjoining Afghanistan, that makes Pakistan a priority," Mattis said.
Russia and the United States will continue to develop a "positive, at the least, partnership dialogue", President Vladimir Putin said but warned that Moscow would "be forced to aim missiles" at countries perceived as a threat, specifically Ukraine, which is keen to join NATO.
Telling his fellow countrymen that America is at an inflection point, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he has decided that the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation spy planes mounted a 24-hour air space surveillance over Libya, as British Defence Secretary Liam Fox hinted that a no-fly zone could be enforced without wiping the North African nation's air defences.
