The United States asked Pakistan to reconsider its decision to boycott an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn next week, saying it is in Islamabad's interest and that its participation was "very important" for the future of the war-torn country.
'Putting tanks on the Ladakh border is not enough to combat China, what is needed to ensure resilience against any cyber-attacks or attacks in outer space or China flexing its economic muscle, as it did with Australia.'
Amid deepening crisis in Afghanistan, United States President Joe Biden defended his move to withdraw troops from the country, saying history will record this as a 'logical, rational, and right decision'.
'Washington must retain control over any peace process until the Taliban gets worn out,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
From Covid to climate change, Shankar Acharya's look at some of the trends and events that might shape 2022.
American analysts and their camp followers in India are talking absolute rubbish when they try to establish that India is facing a Hobson's choice in regard of Donbass, called upon to take sides between Russia and the West, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Asserting that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are 'responsible' leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said they both are capable of solving issues between the two countries, and that it was important that no 'extra-regional power' should interfere in the process.
Each Bhabha Kavach has four hard armour plates, which protect the wearer from the front, back, and either side. It can protect CAPF personnel from 7.62 mm bullets fired from AK-47 rifles -- the chosen weapon of terrorists from Kashmir to Bastar.
More than India's alignment with the Quad, India's defence cooperation and partnership with the USA is of critical importance, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Trump and Macron's handshake was white-knuckle prolonged one, with as usual fierce, crunched bones, tightened jaws and both had a fixed smile and as per the French president was entirely intentional.
Delhi has come to accept the Taliban takeover in Kabul as a reality and seems increasingly unsure of its dogmatic view of the Taliban as a mere proxy of the Pakistani military and security establishment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The India-Pakistan relationship is in a deep freeze, though it could be a lot worse had there not been a new LoC ceasefire a year ago.' 'The India-Pakistan relationship will only start to thaw if the Pakistani military decides it's prepared to push for detente.'
Afghanistan will never allow its territory to be used for any anti-India activity, Afghan ambassador Shaida Mohammad Abdali said here and dismissed apprehensions that withdrawal of NATO forces may allow the Taliban to make a comeback.
The United States has put on hold all its military-to-military engagements with Russia, attributing the move to Russia's intrusion into Ukraine.
A victory for France over Portugal in Sunday's European soccer Championship final would give the country a welcome morale boost, French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday.
The Western powers appear to regard Delhi as the most logical destination in the region in these extraordinary times -- as a counterpoint to the ascendance of political Islam and a rising red star over Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Although most of Kosovo is ethnically Albanian, many Serbs consider it their native homeland and a cradle of their culture. Some 13,000 people were killed in the 1998-1999 war, sparked by clashes between the forces of the rump Yugoslav state -- Serbia and Montenegro -- and Kosovo separatists. The conflict ended when NATO carried out an air campaign against Serbia.
United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has ruled out paying Pakistan USD 5,000 per truck carrying vital supplies across its territory for NATO troops in Afghanistan, citing financial challenges faced by America.
Welcoming fellow leaders including Macron and US President Donald Trump to a summit of the NATO defence alliance in Brussels, premier Charles Michel said the Western bloc must go on setting aside differences to protect each other.
Beijing's growing assertiveness as kingmaker in Kabul has suffered a setback with Washington quietly moving in, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan missed a valuable opportunity to create goodwill with the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members when it failed to announce a reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan at the summit held Sunday and Monday in Chicago, says Lisa Curtis.
he United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan, to get to terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base, from which attacks could be continued against the United States.
Any form of entanglement with India or the US on the strategic plane will be anathema to Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa rulers, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people, including 329 of its nationals and two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul in the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the city after its takeover by the Taliban
Biden and Modi committed that the US and India will work closely together to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, renew their partnership on climate change, rebuild the global economy in a way that benefits the people of both countries, and stand together against the scourge of global terrorism, the White House said in a readout of the call.
The US has hailed a power-sharing deal between rival Afghan presidential candidates as a "moment of extraordinary statesmanship" that ended a prolonged dispute threatening to plunge the war-torn nation into further political turmoil and complicate the NATO troops withdrawal.
Lashing out at the United States for putting a bounty of USD 10 million on his head, a combative Hafiz Mohammad Saeed on Tuesday said Washington was "frustrated" with him for his countrywide protests against the resumption of NATO supplies and drone strikes.
'Throughout the nearly 20-year US-led war, State sponsorship from Pakistan has been a constant.'
Handke emerged as a vocal defender of the Serbs during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia, even comparing them to Jews under the Nazis, a remark he later retracted.
Harris slammed President Donald Trump and pledged to 'rejoin' the Paris agreement on Climate Change and 'strengthen and re-enter' the Iran nuclear deal. "Joe Biden and our administration is gonna have a massive job to repair the damage done by Donald Trump and his administration, and to restore our place in the world," she said.
'This fall is nothing. We could see worse if everybody hits the panic button.'
Pakistan's parliament will decide the contours of future relations with the United States and its allies after November's cross-border NATO air strike, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday.
Noting that "time had come to review relations", Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said that Americans have been issued a notice to vacate Shamsi airbase in line with the cabinet's decision after the cross-border NATO attack that killed 24 soldiers.
India and the US also made a strong push for the intra-Afghan peace process to end violence in Afghanistan and ensure that it does not become home to terrorism, and vowed to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and on COVID-19 response and economic recovery.
Harris recounted how she and her team got a call that Biden wanted to talk and then got another call where she was told Biden wanted to do a zoom call. She described how she went in "our little makeshift office" and then when the call started Biden immediately asked her to join the ticket. After referring to her mother, Harris also described how husband Doug Emhoff's ear was on the door outside the room listening in on the call. Eventually Jill Biden and Emhoff joined the call with Biden and Harris.
The US is not in a forgiving mood for being humiliated in such a manner by an insurgent force and made to look 'loser' internationally, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
The temporary suspension of the crucial North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply route to Afghanistan by Islamabad last year in response to incursions by allied forces and the Davis Raymond episode reflects the fragile nature of the United States-Pakistan relationship, the Obama administration said in a new report.
In a significant policy statement on the Taliban which is making big gains in its offensive in Afghanistan, China has asked it to make a "clean break" from all terrorist forces, especially the Al Qaida-backed Uyghur Muslim militant group ETIM fighting for the volatile Xinjiang province's independence.
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