Former US President Bill Clinton is in North Korean capital Pyongyang to negotiate the release of two American television journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for illegally entering North Korea.
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington, the United States has said preparations are underway to ensure 'a good, substantive schedule' for the Indian leader, the first state guest of the Barack Obama administration. President Barack Obama has invited Dr Singh for his first State Dinner at the White House on November 24. Officials at both the State Department and the White House have held a series of meetings to give final touches to the visit.
In an exclusive interview to Rediff.com, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake speaks about President Obama's trip to India, the recent US-India Strategic Dialogue and the fate of the nuclear liability bill.
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the highest-ranking Indian American in the Barack Obama administration, has set the record straight over conflicting reports that he had visited a relief camp run by a front organisation of Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan's Sindh province and handed over US aid.The JuD is headed by Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba and alleged mastermind of the horrific 26/11 terror attacks.
Burns is also likely to get New Delhi's feedback on the recent bomb attack outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, which claimed 17 lives and injured over 60.
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set to become the first foreign dignitary to visit President Barack Obama at the While House next week, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday said that India and the United States will look to take forward their strategic partnership and cement the ties forged under the Bush administration.
During the meeting, Obama expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabia's contributions to the campaign against ISIL, the White House said in a readout of the meeting.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will travel to the United States next week to hold discussions with top officials of the Obama Administration on a wide range of bi-lateral and regional issues.
United States President Barack Obama will host Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House on November 24 for the first official visit of his presidency, the White House has said.
United States has begun preparations to accord a "robust" welcome to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November, the first state visit of the Obama administration, to make it a special visit for the Indian leader and a "milestone" event in the Indo-US relationship.
India and the US have expressed their commitment to expeditious realisation of full potential of the Civil Nuclear Agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's State visit which laid the foundation for further enhancing bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
United States President Barack Obama will visit Asia in April next year, to push closer ties, but India is unlikely to be part of his stopovers given that the country could very well be in the middle of a general election.
Visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday met United States Secretary of State John Kerry and discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, the state department said.
United States President Barack Obama's proposed visit to India in January next year is a great opportunity to strengthen and expand bilateral strategic partnership, top American administration officials and experts have said.
Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president and a champion of peace and human rights, has died at the age of 100. Carter, who was known for his work with the Carter Center, promoting democracy and conflict resolution, was also a close friend of India. He visited the country in 1978, forging a lasting relationship between the two nations.
The United States on Thursday said its partnership with India is the 'real key' to global order and the invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the first state visit to Washington during Obama administration reflects the very high priority accorded to the country.
United States Barack President Obama during his visit to India -- and preferably during his address to India's Parliament -- should do something big, like declaring 'forthrightly' Washington's support for India's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, another report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has said.
The Obama administration's point man for South Asia, United States Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, tells rediff.com/India Abroad's Aziz Haniffa in this exclusive interview that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who co-chairs the second US-India Strategic Dialogue with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene personally at the highest level of the United States administration to ensure that United States President Barack Obama visits the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
"He (Biden) is very much part of this period when Indo-American relations underwent a radical transformation, which I reasonably date back to (Bill) Clinton's visit," Jaishankar said.
'The Modi visit will prove to be the watershed where India and the United States commenced technology trade and transfer.'
United States President Barack Obama may cancel his scheduled visit to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as tension builds up between the two countries over fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, according to media reports.
Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal will travel to Bangalore and New Delhi from March 4 to 6
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday effusively praised each other after their first substantive meeting with the US President calling the Prime Minister a man of "honesty and integrity" who has helped unleash India's "extraordinary economic growth".
Sikhs For Justice's petition demands cancellation of Prime Minister Modi's visit.
The United States on Tuesday said it shares a very broad relationship with India and key issues of security, economy and energy among others would be discussed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to the country.
Barack Obama and Raul Castro vowed to set aside their differences in pursuit of what the US president called a "new day" for the relationship between the neighbours.
It is in Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi, officials in Washington believe, US President Barack Obama has found an Indian leader who is willing to walk the talk to realise the common goals of the two countries. Lalit K Jha reports
Robert O Blake, the new Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making his debut before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday, said Secretary of State Hillary's Clinton's trip to India next month will be a tangible manifestation of the Obama Administration's commitment to take the Indo-US relationship to the next level.
Amidst reports that North Korea has invited top American diplomats to Pyongyang for a bilateral dialogue, the United States has asserted that there is no such plan for its officials to travel to the country. The Barack Obama administration also reiterated its condition for having any bilateral dialogue with North Korea within the framework of six-party talks.
The relationship between the US and India has been very productive, in particular on the trade and technology front, and 2023 can be considered the best year historically for bilateral ties, according to a former top American trade official. Arun Kumar, an Indian-American, who served as the assistant secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and director general of the US and Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS) during the Obama administration, said this during an interview with PTI in Washington. "Looking back on 2023, it was a very productive year for the US-India relationship, by many accounts the best year historically," he said.
US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the two met on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar in November 2014, how he barely had two years left to his presidential term and so much to do. The wish list included getting his daughters to see a tiger in the wild and the Taj Mahal.
The Obama administration said there has not been an "iota of change" on its policy on Kashmir, which considers it a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, dismissing the latest Pakistani efforts to seek United States intervention in this regard.
The deal, estimated to be worth USD 2 to 3 billion, has been approved by the state department, the sources said.
Doval will meet US Defence Secretary James Mattis on March 24, Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis told reporters, adding that they are likely to discuss a wide range of bilateral security issues and those related to the defence relationship.
The Obama administration has said that too much is being read into the joint United States-China statement issued by President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao in Beijing. The statement had irked the Indian administration on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US, as New Delhi perceived it as an attempt to interfere in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan, a key strategic partner, next month as he embarks on a busy foreign travel schedule in coming months that will include Bhutan, Brazil and the US.
The Obama administration has made it clear that there has been no change in the United States' policy towards Tibet even as it decides to hold talks with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama after President Barack Obama's visit to China scheduled in November.
The United States is looking forward to welcoming the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, but refrained from making any announcement on the possible trip in September.
On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, asked at the regular noon briefing if Clinton would be replying to Walsh and if the US would review its position in 2005, when it refused Modi a visa to come to the US, said: "Our position on the visa issue hasn't changed at all."
