>Putin's last-minute intervention with PM salvages $5.43 bn pact.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured the Centre of all cooperation to fight terrorism and promised to work together, as the country's security and intelligence chiefs including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed with her the Burdwan blast case.
'How do we explain that on the economic, internal security and strategic fronts, India's unstable coalitions have acted more decisively and boldly than all our full-majority governments yet?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
'If they aim to remain aligned with the public sentiment, as any democratic government should, then they must respond. Why else would the prime minister have cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia? And why would he have instructed the home minister himself to travel to Srinagar to assess the situation firsthand? This suggests that something is indeed being planned. I am quite certain of that, although the exact form it will take remains to be seen.'
NSA Doval is set to travel to Beijing this week to attend the BRICS NSAs meeting scheduled to be held from July 27-28
It is expected that FBI chief Wray will hold talks with senior Indian security officials.
Facing threat of terror attacks, the home ministry has ordered security audit of nearly 100 civil airports and decided to bring all such facilities under the Central Industrial Security Force cover gradually.
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, speedy trial of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and capture of a Pakistani terrorist in Udhampur are some of the key issues to be raised by India at the forthcoming NSA-level talks with Pakistan.
'Ajit Doval has done a splendid job in handling the Pathankot attack and certainly helped save heavy destruction of critical air force assets,' says Abhay Jere.
India was U Thaung Tun's first port of call after his appointment, which should intrigue China and Pakistan, says Rajeev Sharma.
Pakistan is still considering the dates proposed by India for the NSA-level talks between the two nations, an official of the Foreign Office said in Islamabad on Wednesday.
China has approved the construction of the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to the Indian border. The USD 137 billion project, which is expected to dwarf even China's own Three Gorges Dam, has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, the downstream riparian states. Concerns in India are centered around China's potential to control water flow, potentially enabling the release of large amounts of water to flood border areas in times of hostilities. The dam is part of China's 14th Five-Year Plan, and the Chinese government claims that the project is safe and prioritizes ecological protection.
Members of the Vivekananda International Foundation are thrilled that the national security advisor and principal secretary to the prime minister are from its ranks, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
The Pakistan high commission has invited Kashmiri separatist leaders for consultations with Sartaj Aziz ahead of the National Security Advisor-level talks with India in New Delhi next week.
Two days ago, the Chinese foreign ministry following a meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Johannesburg claimed that Xi and Modi had reached an 'important consensus' on stabilising bilateral ties at the interaction on the margins of the G20 Summit last November.
Prime Minister Modi felt there were too many silos with no arrangement to take a comprehensive view on national security. The PM has entrusted NSA Ajit Doval to evolve a comprehensive roadmap and get it implemented, reveals Nitin Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Strategic News International.
The noted lawyer said that his request to Doval is part of the enquiry procedure which calls for appropriate "logistical infrastructure" before beginning the probe.
It is learnt that the home minister will review the area domination plan, zero terror plan, law and order situation, cases related to UAPA and other security-related issues.
'China has refused to act upon the threat posed by Pakistan using terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy.' says Rajeev Sharma.
Pakistani Foreign Office said they have come to the conclusion that the proposed NSA-level talks between the two countries would not serve any purpose, if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
US Principal Deputy NSA Jonathan Finer said the US and India have a "complicated history" and they have not always been "wholly aligned".
The G7 summit, to be held in the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia in Italy's Apulia region from June 13 to 15, is likely to be dominated by the raging war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.
All leading newspapers carried the story about cancellation of NSA-level talks on the front page, highlighting the Indian "pre-conditions" which, according to local media, led to the breakdown of parleys.
Gen Rawat is due for retirement on December 31 and top government sources said, if everything goes according to plan, then the government would name him as the country's first CDS before he hangs up his boots.
India received consular access on at least three occasions to Nikhil Gupta, who is detained in a Czech prison following charges by the United States relating to a foiled assassination attempt on a Sikh extremist.
There is no threat from either Al Qaeda or ISIS of a magnitude which the country cannot deal with, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Tuesday but asserted that security agencies were keeping a "very close watch".
Jaishankar said that both sides also exchanged views on the next steps in the India-China bilateral ties.
He said India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together, but talks on terror can definitely go ahead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a meeting to review the Ukraine crisis amid the ongoing exercise to evacuate Indian nationals, mostly students, from the country facing attack from Russia.
In their first structured bilateral talks in nearly five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday agreed that India and China can have a 'peaceful and stable' relationship by displaying maturity and mutual respect and endorsed the pact on the resolution of the dragging eastern Ladakh border row.
'The Modi government's pusillanimity vis-a-vis Pakistan makes almost certain that India will, in the coming weeks and months, be confronted with cross border terrorist actions of increasing intensity,' warns Satish Chandra, former deputy national security adviser.
The home minister also reviewed the preparations for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage scheduled to begin on June 29.
The plan to relieve NSG from VIP security tasks has been in the making since 2012 when NSG commanders foresaw an event where simultaneous terror attacks could be witnessed at one time on multiple centres in the country and the commandos will have to be rushed in different directions.
China said that it would not attend the security dialogue on Afghanistan convened by India due to "scheduling reasons".
Criticising the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government's decision for holding a National Security Advisor-level meet between India and Pakistan in Bangkok, the Congress Party on Sunday said the government's series of flip flops since it came to power depicts less productive outcome from such a meet between the two neighbouring countries.
With less than 24 hours to go for Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz's arrival in New Delhi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told a press conference that Pakistan had only till Saturday night to give a categorical assurance on two issues.
'NSA Doval and the PM are known to admire Israel's tough response to cross-border terrorism.' 'However, New Delhi's situation is far more complex than Tel Aviv's, which enjoys military superiority over all its neighbours,' says Ajai Shukla.
India and China on Monday held a fresh round of military talks with a focus on disengagement of troops in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh and ease overall tensions in the region.
The Congress accused the BJP and a section of media of deliberately twisting Gandhi's remarks.
India on Monday pressed for early disengagement of troops in remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh during a fresh round of high-level military talks with China, people familiar with the matter said.
