On March 8, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance former Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti's nomination as US ambassador to India.
United States Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the new Democratic co-chair of the re-constituted US Senate India Caucus, feels that he has impossible shoes to fill, that of erstwhile Senator and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Dodd, one of the senior-most members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, addressed an overflowing audience of Indian Americans from across the country in the ornate Mansfield Room of the US Capitol.
"This means we need the Pakistani political system -- or as many parts of it as possible -- to buy into the goal of eliminating extremist influence in Pakistan."
"Does it make sense to spend hundreds of millions on P-3 naval surveillance aircraft specifically designed to hunt submarines? So far as I know, al-Qaeda has not yet developed a submarine navy," the Delaware Democrat added. "The White House claims that weapons systems like these are indeed counter-terrorism tools, but such a claim is an insult to common sense," said Senator Joseph Biden.
The announcement for the QUAD Caucus came from Congressman Ami Bera, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee, Congressman Rob Wittman, and Senators Tammy Duckworth and Pete Ricketts, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Joseph R Biden, Jr, the chairman of the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who will be the key player in moving the US-India civilian nuclear agreement forward in Congress if India succeeds in getting in back on the Congressional court expeditiously, says it may be possible to get the deal consummated this year, but that it's going to be in terms of a best-case scenario a photo-finish.
The ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar, has bemoaned the fact that more than three years after the historic US-India civilian nuclear deal was signed, it still remains in limbo sans any implementation.
The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee is divided on the usefulness of continuing US aid to Pakistan, reports Aziz Haniffa.
The massive $7.5 billion aid legislation to Pakistan, authored by United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John F Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar, would be approved without any difficulty in the coming weeks. The massive aid to Pakistan will be approved in spite of the serious doubts raised by some members of the committee, including a senior Democrat and a few Republicans, they said.
Pak's role in Kabul is not sending a good message to India, a top American lawmaker has said
'There are reports that the Biden administration is contemplating imposing CAATSA sanctions against India, the largest democracy on Earth'
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence-sponsored Haqqani Network, responsible for the killings of United States and coalition troops in Afghanistan and widely believed to have been responsible for the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul a few years ago, is on the verge of being designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
Nikki Haley becomes the first Indian-American to serve on a Cabinet rank position in any presidential administration in the US.
The former Los Angeles mayor's nomination was pending before the US Congress since July 2021 when he was nominated for the prestigious diplomatic posting by Biden.
A scribe who reported government-army rift had barred from leaving Pakistan.
Juster, 62, is an old India hand who played a key role in the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
We have nothing to gain by raising our concerns internationally as our narrative has got entangled with several controversial concepts in the United Nations, asserts Ambassador T N Sreenivasan.
After the 1962 War with China, there was a demand to forge greater defence cooperation between India and the West. One such voice was that of Sudhir Ghosh, a distinguished MP, to tie up strategic cooperation with the USA immediately after the Chinese attack on India, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who was on a visit to the US last month, said that America's relationship with Pakistan has "not served" either of the two countries and raised questions on the Biden administration's approval of a USD 450-million sustenance package for the F-16 fleet.
'Today, our hearts are with India. Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones during the bridge collapse and join the people of Gujarat in mourning the loss of too many lives cut short,' Biden said.
The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American woman administrator Nisha Desai Biswal as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making her the first person from the community to hold the top diplomatic position.
The US is making investments in defence ties with India to uphold a favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Thursday indicating that strengthening ties with New Delhi is one of the key factors to address the pacing challenge from China.
'Riding around in an armed personnel carrier, as I did when I was there, and seeing the faces through the window of Afghans watching that monster vehicle go by, you get a sense of the disconnect that Afghans must experience,' US Senator John F Kerry said.
Addressing New York-based think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Islamabad might move some troops from its border with India to the "guts of Pakistan".
Leading South Asia experts, who have interacted closely with Senator John F Kerry, the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have hailed his appointment as the new secretary of state to succeed Hillary Clinton. Aziz Haniffa reports.
United States President Barack Obama is likely to nominate Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of state, according to media reports. Kerry, currently the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations committee, has been a close confidant of Obama on foreign policy issues.
United States President-elect Joseph Biden has always been a strong supporter of India and India-US partnership since his days in Senate and later as a Vice-President.
Juster played a key role in the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
United States President-elect Barack Obama's Secretary of State designate Senator Hillary Clinton, appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of her confirmation process on Tuesday, said that the Obama administration will condition military aid to Pakistan, on its commitment to counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.
Leading South Asia experts, who have interacted closely with Senator John F Kerry, the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- whose nomination as the new secretary of state to succeed Hillary Clinton is expected to be announced shortly by President Barack Obama -- have hailed the pending appointment and predicted that he would be catalytic toward further advancing US-India relations.
India is "a powerhouse" in today's world and indispensable to "the conduct of global affairs", believes Senator John F Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and erstwhile Democratic presidential nominee in 2004.
The Kerry Lugar bill that would give a whooping US $ 7.5 billion non-military aid to Pakistan, which US President Barack Obama last week termed as a "down payment" and "investment" into America's future, would be introduced in the US Senate on Thursday.
A top American Senator has warned Pakistan that the US would have no other option but to resort to "self-help" if Islamabad does not become more cooperative in the war against terrorism.
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