China on Thursday declined to comment on reports that the debris of its Long March 5B rocket, which last week launched the core module of the country's space station, is set to re-enter the earth's atmosphere this weekend, amid concerns that it could cause damage if it crashes in civilian areas.
The Pentagon insisted that the United States naval ship had issued several warning to a fishing boat in the Persian Gulf before it fired shots killing an Indian fisherman and injuring three others.
Slated to be in India on December 8, Carter would travel to Japan, Bahrain, Israel, Italy and Great Britain before returning to the US on December 16. This is for the first time that an outgoing American Defence Secretary has included India in his itinerary for the final overseas trip.
The US Congress could certify just 12 Electoral College votes on Wednesday before pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, interrupting a joint session of Congress where lawmakers were set to certify President-elect Joe Biden's win.
Top American Senators have asked Pentagon to develop a closer defence relationship with India, while emphasising that it is in the interest of both the US and India to continue building a strategic and military culture of cooperation between the two countries.
Top Pentagon leaders have warned US lawmakers against including their "pet projects" in the annual defence budget, particularly at a time when it is struggling to save money in view of the tough economic environment.
The growing influence of the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon in shaping relations with Pakistan was a key reason behind United States Ambassador Cameron Munter's decision to quit his post, the media in Islamabad claimed on Wednesday.
The US maintained normal diplomatic relations with the government in Taiwan until 1979, when then-President Jimmy Carter abruptly cut off formal ties with Taipei and recognised the Communist regime in Beijing.
In a fresh jolt to United States-Pakistan ties, the Pentagon on Monday said it is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan for a "short period of time", after talks failed to lift the six-month blockade of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes to war-torn Afghanistan.
'I don't sense that China wants that kind of conflict or would support that'
The United States and Afghanistan have completed their joint fact-finding investigation into the incident of desecration of the Quran by US soldiers last month, the Pentagon has said.
North Korea on Friday launched an ICBM for the second time in a month.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Democratic Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned Trump's reported habit of affecting an Indian accent to imitate Modi.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had shared with Pakistan in recent years the indications of Islamabad's "complicity" with extremist groups, renewing top United States commander Admiral Mike Mullen's allegations that Inter-Services Intelligence was conniving with the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is refusing to participate in the United States-led probe into North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead along the Afghanistan border last week, the Pentagon has said.
The US military fired an intercontinental ballistic missile-type weapon on Tuesday from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It then fired a missile to intercept it from Vandenberg air force base in California.
The United States is set to unveil its new defence strategy on Thursday that will guide Pentagon budget cuts in coming years and is expected to end the decade-old policy of maintaining a force capable of fighting two wars at once.
Praising India's "constructive" role in the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the Pentagon in a report told the United States Congress that New Delhi has now expressed an interest to help strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces.
'Chinese experts estimate that the new US administration is 'at the crossroads of how to re-manage and control' Sino-American differences and strategic divergences and Biden's bottom line is that the US would have 'extreme competition with China, but won't allow competition to develop into conflict',' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India is still a small market but whatever we do, we do it with full focus.'
Having lost out on the multi-billion Indian Air Force contract, the Pentagon said American fighter jets -- F16 and F18 -- would have provided India unbeatable platforms with proven technologies at a competitive price.
The Japanese government warned the people in northern Japan to prepare for a potential incoming missile from Pyongyang.
A casual clearance sale purchase has yielded a cache of remarkable photos never publicly seen before, all depicting the clean up operation in New York following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. The images, taken from overhead and on the ground, show workers and heavy machinery moving rubble from the base of the World Trade Center in the days and weeks following 9/11. The photographer is believed to be a man who was one of many tasked with cleaning up the site. Jason Scott, an American archivist and historian, said on Twitter he was given a cache of about 2,400 photos found on rotting CDRs. He then made them public on photo-sharing site Flickr.
A high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral relationship between India and China, the Pentagon has informed the United States Congress. New Delhi remains concerned by China's close military ties with Pakistan and its growing footprint in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa, Pentagon said in its annual report.
Observing that its relationship with New Delhi and Islamabad is not a zero sum game and that it values ties with both, the Pentagon said safe havens that exist in Pakistan are still an obstacle to ultimate success in Afghanistan.
Breaking its silence on its tumbling space rocket, whose debris is expected to fall on Earth this weekend, China said most of it would be burnt during re-entry and it is "highly unlikely" to cause any damage on the ground.
The United States has decided to suspend its military aid to Pakistan following Islamabad's request for a "significant cutback" of American military trainers on its soil, the Pentagon said on Sunday. "A series of events over the last eight months have affected our bilateral relations. As a result, the Pakistan Army has requested a significant cutback of US military trainers, and limited our ability to obtain visas," said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan.
Amid growing tension between the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan, United States has said it had not sought or received any assurances from the Pakistani army that it would not stage a coup.
The US has deployed its elite counter-terrorism unit Delta Force for covert operations in Iraq to capture or kill high-ranking Islamic State operatives and gather intelligence, according to a media report.
The defence ministry is finalising a decision to allow the FGM-148 Javelin missile, built by US companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, into a contest to supply the Indian Army with anti-tank guided missiles. This is bad news for Israelis
The Pentagon has ruled out media coverage of a ceremony marking the return of 30 US soldiers, including 22 Navy SEALs, who were killed when the helicopter they were travelling in was shot down in Afghanistan.
In a scathing indictment of Pakistan for continuing to host terrorist safe havens within its borders, United States Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, took strong issue with senior Pentagon officials.
The abduction and the subsequent murder of noted Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad might have been approved by the Pakistan government, a top United States military leader said on Friday.
US Special Forces have moved into Syria's Raqqa area and taking the fight to the terror group.
The 119 nearly identical construction sites, that could potentially house powerful weapons capable of reaching the American mainland, are similar to those seen at existing launch facilities for China's arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, the report said.
The Taliban is on the run and the US forces have reversed the momentum, said a top Pentagon official on Monday, cautioning against reading too much into a single combat incident in which more than 30 US soldiers was killed in Afghanistan.
Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, has warned that despite all of America's military operations in Afghanistan, and the claim by Pentagon officials that Al Qaeda and the Taliban is on the run, a failing and instable Pakistan with terrorist safe havens within its borders, remain a key challenge.
Like China, India too should connect the dots and move ahead with a long-term perspective in Afghanistan, advises Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The transcript of the US Department of Defence background briefing with senior defence officials from the Pentagon and senior Intelligence officials by telephone on US operations involving Osama bin Laden
