New Delhi has consigned to itself the role of the underdog, says Ajai Shukla
Making an aggressive move on its foreign policy front, the new United States administration has reached out to key world leaders, with President Barack Obama himself calling heads of the states of Canada, Saudi Arabia and Britain, besides United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached out to as many as 21 foreign leaders including Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
India on Tuesday assured that its assistance was neither "transitory" nor in "transition" to Afghanistan, which said it was looking forward to increasing training and capacity building of its security forces apart from equipping them with Indian help. The two countries also set in motion the implementation of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, inked last year during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Delhi, by launching the Partnership Council.
India has turned down Afghanistan's request for the supply of lethal weapons, saying it was not "either in a position or willing" to contribute lethal weapons right now, days after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Less than a week after they met in Washington, DC, United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday called Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and discussed his administration's Af-Pak policy and climate change with him.
India's post 2014 Afghanistan policy appears to be glued to the best-case scenarios of a successful democratic transition. New Delhi hopes that it would remain 'business as usual' and would not necessitate a drastic revisiting of its continuing strategy. This, in short, is a strategy of convenience, says Shanthie Mariet D'Souza.
Sixteen Afghans were killed by a 'rogue' United States soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning. The dead include nine children and three women, plus five wounded.
A high-ranking Pentagon official on apologised to the Afghan leadership for the burning of the Quran by United States military personnel and also discussed the reconciliation process in the war-torn country.
The United Nations Security Council has dropped five prominent Taliban members from its sanctions blacklist under an ambitious national reconciliation plan of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
United States efforts to seek an end to the war in Afghanistan has reached a "critical juncture", American officials have said indicating that Obama's pointman Marc Grossman is rushing to the region to resume preliminary talks with the Taliban.
US President Barack Obama will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other world leaders about his new policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House said on Tuesday.
Giving incremental fillip to their cooperation in strategic areas including trade and security, India and Afghanistan on Tuesday inked a partnership pact amid assertions that the agreement was not "directed against any other State or group of States".
India on Thursday approved small-scale projects worth $100 million for implementation in strife-torn Afghanistan.
The two-day visit to New Delhi of Professor Burhanudin Rabbani, chairman of the high peace council of Afghanistan, from July 14 will be an occasion for Indian leaders to have detailed discussions on the reconciliation process initiated in Afghanistan with the Taliban groups.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai during which they discussed ways to enhance cooperation in key areas and the recent attack on the Indian consulate in Herat that the Afghan leader maintains was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was obviously so impressed by her meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that she ventured into the White House briefing room after sitting in on the meetings between President Barack Obama and the two leaders, to express her optimism that a solid alliance had been formed committed to crushing the Taliban and other extremist elements destabilising the region.
Peace talks with the Taliban, trade and security would be high on the agenda during a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Afghan capital Kabul.
Diplomatic observers and South Asia experts in the US do not believe that two of India's major concerns that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh brought up with President Obama on Afghanistan, during his state visit in November and again recently on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit have been alleviated during the summit between Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Musharraf meets US commander over Afghan allegations
Amid a series of anti-US rhetorics coming from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the White House showed signs of "frustration" on Monday with regard to this war-torn country, where its forces have been engaged in war against terrorism for the past eight years.
The German government has approved a substantial USD 190 million (Rs 1,007 crore) contribution annually to bankroll an Afghan army, post withdrawal of foreign forces in 2014 from the war-torn country.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
Afghan-Taliban commanders Aminullah and Maulvi Bismillah represented supreme militant commander Mullah Omer in three round of talks with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who "partially participated" in the parleys, sources familiar with the process told PTI on Wednesday.
The ability of President Hamid Karzai to maintain inter-ethnic unity will determine whether history will be repeated in Afghanistan, says B Raman
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday on a two-day visit, discussed cooperation in the field of security and developmental projects with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta.
To step up pace of reconciliation talks, the Afghanistan government has opened direct contacts with the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani faction of Taliban, which is believed to have close ties to Pakistan's military intelligence. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's government has been in direct contact with Jalaludin Haqqani, the ageing leader of the Haqqani network, which is based in Pakistan and run by his eldest son Sirajudin.
There were speculations galore about the Pakistan premier's early departure in the wake of the Indo-Pak bilateral talks, reports Prasanna D Zore from Addu
An independent United Nations-appointed panel probing the killing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will on Thursday release its sensitive report on her assassination in 2007
Applauding India's key role in Afghanistan, the United States has said that New Delhi has been helpful in providing training to the security forces of the war-torn country to help improve the situation there.
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon has reached Kabul to review the security of Indians working on several development projects across Afghanistan.
In the wake of last week's Kabul attack, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon will travel to Kabul on Friday to discuss security of about 4000 Indians working on developmental projects across Afghanistan, for which the government has certain proposals.
Taliban militants in the terror hotbed of North Waziristan have threatened the Pakistan government with a "big war" if the country's army launched any military operation in the region.
'I actually believe it's not all that appropriate that there be an Indian Consul on the border with Pakistan,' says Afghan expert Sarah Chayes.
The United States is set to give control of a controversial prison having nearly 3,000 Taliban rebels and terror suspects to the Afghan authorities.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's low-key visit to Kabul on Thursday is a visit for "reassurance", said a diplomat who is one of the most well informed officials on Afghanistan in New Delhi. "When PM Singh will meet Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai he is likely to say that India is a friend of Afghanistan and Indians are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Afghan's endeavour for peace and development."
Dr Singh and Gandhi, along with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had the discussion with Advani on the issue during the State dinner hosted for visiting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in New Delhi on Monday.
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, Afghan president Hamid Karzai's first choice as the speaker of the new Afghan parliament, is at once the perfect bridge the latter needs to reach out extensively in the Islamic world and Pakistan, says former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, possibly the first and last India to have met Sayyaf in his native village
The Democratic Senator with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
In its first public appeal to Taliban and other Afghanistan-based militant groups, Pakistan on Friday asked them to "turn a new leaf" and join direct talks with the Kabul government under a peace process aimed at ending the decade-old war in the neighbouring country.
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