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.
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.
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.
The current instability in the world is a result of long term systemic and socio-politico problems, points out Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Greece is spending three times as much on security as Sydney did in 2000 because of increased terror fears.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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 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 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 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.
Speaking to reporters, Trudeau said, "The news coming out of the United States further underscores what we've been talking about from the very beginning: which is India needs to take this seriously."
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".
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.
The increase in India's military spending was "mainly a result of growing personnel and operations costs" which made up almost 80 percent of the total military budget in 2023, the SIPRI report claimed.
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.
Russia moves forward with the plan as part of the plan to deploy tactical nuclear bombs in the country bordering Ukraine.
The United States continues to negotiate with Pakistan on re-opening of the crucial NATO supply routes to Afghanistan that were closed by Islamabad after a cross-border NATO air strike killed 24 of its soldiers last year, the State Department said on Wednesday.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has announced plans for a large-scale airlift of relief supplies from Europe for the survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan, as donors pledged more assistance after a slow start of aid efforts.
However, leaders of the NATO-led ISAF mission countries at the end of their Chicago meeting pledged to have a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, given that they still have a long way to go in the fight against terrorism and achieving political stability and satisfactory-level security in the country, to have another NATO-led mission for Afghanistan post 2014.
According to sources, this decision was taken during a high-level informal meeting held at the Presidency, which was chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and attended by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, ISI DG Lt. Gen Zaheerul Islam, foreign secretary and Pakistan's ambassador to US Sherry Rehman, reports The Nation.
United States President Joe Biden has slammed his predecessor Donald Trump for dragging Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's husband into the swirl of personal attacks.
The Defa-e-Pakistan Council, a grouping of 40 radical groups cobbled together by LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, has warned that it will not allow even food supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan to pass through the country.
The Chinese cyber-penetration of key offices in both NATO and the EU has led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan was humiliated at the NATO Summit in Chicago because of President Asif Ali Zardari's "zero credibility".
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