Increasingly, the space for India to engage other countries is shrinking and hardening, primarily because post-Sharm El Sheikh, we have a leadership that worries about the public backlash all the time, and because the two communities who should be tasked with preparing the ground for engagement --the ministry of external affairs and the media -- are instead drawing red lines.
The BJP on Tuesday asked the government to clarify whether January 2004 accord with Pakistan or the recent Sharm-el-Sheikh declaration would be the basis of renewed talks with that country and suggested caution as the neighbour continued to "sponsor terror".
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani will meet in Thimphu on Thursday, said sources.
Pakistan on Tuesday asked India to start the composite dialogue process and delink it from the investigations into the Mumbai terror attacks, citing the Sharm-el-Sheikh agreement even as it assured that all leads provided to them were being seriously pursued.
Israel will also continue to send supplies to the Gaza Strip at Abbas' request.
The much-awaited meeting between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi has just started in New York. The meeting is on.
Ahead of the meeting of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday urged Pakistan to shed its mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi and take action against those involved in the terror attack on Mumbai. He made it clear that there was no change in India's stand on Pakistan since the Sharm-el-Sheikh talks with his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
It seems that the Sharm-el-Sheikh controversy and Congress party's politics over it has hit the Prime Minister's Office. A source in the government is underplaying the September 27 meeting between Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York.
Nearly three weeks after the Indo-Pak joint statement in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistan today insisted that there was no change in its foreign policy and raked up its demand for an "independent Kashmir" for "long-lasting" peace in South Asia.
India's naivete and Pakistan's deceit have inadvertently conspired to produce a stalemate that maintains a dangerous status quo between Pakistan aided terror and India's inertia. To break this logjam, we need to be pragmatic. A military option kept hanging like a Damocles sword in tandem with an ongoing dialogue is vital to ensure results.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said the United Progressive Alliance government had dealt a "huge blow" to the basic tenets of the country's foreign policy by delinking terror from talks with Pakistan and asked it come out with a "contingency plan to undo the damage."
Worried by the growing dissent within the party over Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's joint statement after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday directed the party spokespersons not to say even a single word on the subject.
What Dr Manmohan Singh has done is to open the conversation, once again. It was essential to break the deadlock which, after a point of time, could have been counter-productive, says Wilson John
"Surely, India gave concessions to Pakistan keeping in mind a long term goal. I think Dr Singh has made a sacrifice to gain bigger things in future. We understand he has taken a risk by going against public opinion in India. Dr Singh has shown some flexibility," says Pakistan media expert Hamid Mir.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday issued a joint statement after the completion of their dialogue, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit, at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.Gilani described the talks, the second top-level meeting between India and Pakistan since the terror attack on Mumbai in November last year, as 'free and frank'. Terrorism is a threat to both countries, said the joint statement.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on July 16 on the sidelines of the Non Aligned Movement summit in Egypt "in a bid to restart the stalled peace process" between the two countries.
Pakistan has indicated that it was attaching immense importance in its meeting with India on the sidelines of Non-Aligned Movement summit in the resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and is looking to make an all out effort to address New Delhi's concerns.The foreign secretaries' of the two countries are to hold talks on the sidelines of the July 14-15 summit.
World number one Nicol David secured a record-equalling fifth World Open title by beating Egypt's Omneya Abdel Kawy 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh on Wednesday. Malaysia's David needed only 30 minutes on the all-glass court to match the haul of Australia's Sarah Fitz-Gerald, who collected her titles between 1996 and 2002.
The latest stand of the Congress party, which is still not being seen as a wholehearted endorsement of the prime minister but qualified in the sense that the party will wait to hear what he has to say, was spelled out by the All India Congress Committee media chairman Janardhan Dwivedi who made a suo motto statement to the media two days before the prime minister is to speak in the House.
Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation to the World Trade Organisation mini- ministerial at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Cairo, beginning June 20.\n\n\n\n
The Russian President falls short of blaming the IS for the attack, vows to step up air strikes in Syria.
It's travel time for everyone, including Bollywood's celebrities.
After moving into 10 Downing Street a couple of weeks go, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is making his first outing on the world stage.
'I was not scared because I knew I had not done anything wrong. And I was walking for a good cause.'
'If you say I won't talk to them at all, does terrorism stop?' 'Even if they say they will give up terrorism, "I will fight terrorism along with you," but even then you say I still won't talk to you until you do the following things, then that is a political call.'
The terror group claimed that an IED hidden in a soft drink can was used to bomb the plane.
Sanam Singh enjoyed a good day in office, reaching the men'[s singles quarter-finals and doubles semi-finals in the US $15,000 ITF men's Futures tournament in Toronto, Canada.
He also lashed out at the Congress over a joint statement issued by India and Pakistan in Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009.
Investigators on Sunday began probing the crash of a Russian Airbus plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that killed all the 224 people on board.
These images prove we live in a wonderfully weird world.
Congress on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party over sending an invitation to Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif for the swearing-in ceremony of prime minister designate Narendra Modi, reminding the party of its earlier remarks that terror and talks cannot go hand in hand.
However, the act of terrorism has not been ruled out officially by investigators.
Basit punctuated his pitch for dialogue with his advocacy for "self-determination" of the Kashmiri populace.
The plane was last detected in the skies over Greece, about 40 minutes from Athens, according to Sky News Arabia.
Rather, cold reactions are expected considering the contentious issues the US is bound to raise -- Taiwan, human rights, and North Korea.
With several Parliament sessions during UPA-II being largely disrupted, BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday "regretted" that a lot of valuable time was lost in the last five years due to "confrontationist politics" and said the Opposition achieves much more through debates than disturbances.
A Russian civilian Airbus plane carrying 224 people, mostly tourists, crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday with most of those on board feared dead as the jet's wreckage was found in a mountainous area.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
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