'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.' Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that India and China are going through a 'particularly bad patch' in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still doesn't have a 'credible explanation' and it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
After a busy day in Stockholm, Sweden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the United Kingdom on Wednesday. PM Modi is in London to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The PM will also have a top-level meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May as well as a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace. Here's a glimpse of NaMo's busy English day.
'Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Democracy is the heart of our body politic and elections are its life blood. Because there is some disease that affects it, we cannot apply leeches to drain it off, killing the body in the process, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
'IOC has in the past sent letters to International Federations not to award major events to Spain after athletes from Kosovo were not allowed to participate under their own flag at the Karate World Championships. And you never know it might be India next'
The Taliban is highly pragmatic and would regard it wasteful to resume military offensive to capture Panjshir. The Taliban's preference, historically, has been to keep the military option as the last resort, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The ineptness of successive American presidents, from Bush the Younger to Joe Biden the Old, combined with the cluelessness that Americans demonstrate in foreign lands, contrasts with the Chinese leadership's seemingly singular focus on the accumulation of wealth and power, asserts T N Ninan.
In diplomacy, a prime ministerial visit should be viewed as a rare event, not a routine one, which should be taken recourse to only when other options like ministerial visits are not available. But Modi has a different style of functioning. He wants to do everything himself, says Rajeev Sharma
Longtime diplomatic observers feel that if Narendra Modi were to become prime minister or even a Cabinet official if the BJP captures power in the next election, there is no way the State Department would refuse him entry into the US, unless Washington wanted to risk the unravelling of the carefully nurtured US-India strategic partnership. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing that the meeting, however, does not indicate any change in India's policy towards Pakistan.
'The pressure to work together is even greater than before, because the Chinese have launched a full-court press on the border, in the region, and globally to advance their geopolitical agenda.'
India will look to play a key role in the APEC, EU and Africa regions to increase its competitiveness.
Existing trade deals, especially the 2009 pact with the Asean bloc, have been panned by the Centre for not boosting exports but flooding the domestic market with cheap imports. Subsequently, New Delhi has called for reviewing FTAs with Japan and South Korea. Going by that, a trade deal with the US is unlikely to be beneficial, say experts.
Olympic trials: TTFI seeks MEA's help in getting visa for para contingent.
Acknowledging that it is clear to all that many terrorist groups operate in Pakistan, he said the US continues to work with the Pakistani government in this regard.
The alacrity with which regional States responded to Delhi's invite signals that expectations are high regarding an Indian role in the efforts to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In a 35-minute address to the Indian diaspora, the prime minister said that his government was not afraid of taking "big" and "tough" decisions in the interest of the country.
2,138 firms deposited unaccounted Rs 5,000 cr in zero-balance accounts during the note ban
'Putin has set aside all the rules and now he is deciding the rules.'
'This is a US-India effort and it is not necessarily to counterweight anyone.'
Connectivity is what SAARC needs the most but Pakistan is not interested, says Rajeev Sharma.
On the sidelines of the SCO visit in Ufa, the two heads met and decided to revive dialogue and find ways to expedite the trial of the Mumbai attacks.
To strengthen closer and enduring partnership with countries of Association of South East Asian Nations region as part of India's Look-East policy, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil left on Thursday for a state visit to Laos from September 9 to 13 and Cambodia from September 13 to 18.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
He said that if there are issues that need to be talked about, it is between India and Pakistan.
'The world is finally recognising that China is pushing a form of government that many only now are beginning to recognise as problematic'
The US president previously offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, a proposal rejected by New Delhi which maintains that there is no role for any third party in bilateral issues.
The defence minister said "last year in Galwan Valley, our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in line of duty. I salute all brave soldiers who laid down their lives fighting for the nation."
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Notwithstanding their differences on the boundary question, India and China on Wednesday vowed to deepen their multi-faceted ties for a "lasting friendship" as Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Phuket.
Professor Deepa Ollapally said, "The way in which this was carried out, it does suggest that they needed some fairly sophisticated, coordinated planning. And, if the reports are true about their rounding up Americans and British, then it sounds like there is an Al Qaeda hand possibly, which again would be the most obvious difference between every other terrorist attack that has gone on before (in India)."
'Modi's initial forays into foreign policy had the flavour of Aswamedha Yagas launched by ancient kings to conquer the world.' 'He overcame the hesitations of history and explored unconventional ways to win friends and influence people.' A fascinating excerpt from Ambassador T P Sreenivasan's new book, Modiplomacy -- Through a Shakespearean Prism.
In his opening remarks at a ministerial meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral coalition, also known as 'Quad', External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India remained committed to a rules-based world order, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The 10-member ASEAN described the Indo-US nuclear deal as an extremely positive step, hoping that the two countries would be able to conclude the pact soon.
Henry Kissinger once said, 'It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal.' India will have to wait and see, observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
He did not mention the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
China said that decision is in line with the rules of the committee.
India and China achieved a major milestone this year when their bilateral trade crossed the landmark figure of $100 billion but it did not generate any fanfare in both capitals as the two Asian giants are going through a "particularly bad patch" in their relations due to a set of actions by Beijing in violation of agreements that led to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Starting with a modest $1.83 billion in 2001, the bilateral trade crossed $100 billion-mark in the first 11 months this year, a significant milestone for which the two countries carried out campaigns to boost trade and build it as a major stakeholder to improve the relations between two nations, whose ties otherwise remained frosty over the festering boundary dispute and strategic rivalry. According to last month's data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC), the India-China bilateral trade totalled $114.263 billion, up 46.4 per cent year-on-year from January to November 2021.
