External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today met his United States counterpart John Kerry in Montreux for the first time after a row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat as they committed to move forward bilateral ties and return to close partnerships on strategic issues.
New oil supply projections and the failure of climate talks mean that India must alter its geostrategic stance.
The memoranda of understanding were signed during a day-long 2nd India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in New Delhi.
India and China will be holding the second Strategic Economic Dialogue in Delhi later this month with an aim of enhancing business engagement between the two of the fastest growing economies, significantly at a time when the western world is facing crisis.
As China's ruling CPC appointed 'fifth generation' leaders headed by Xi Jinping, high-level Sino-India contacts are set to resume this month starting with the Strategic Economic Dialogue, which would be followed by a likely visit of National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon in Beijing.
The defence minister also said that India attaches importance to peaceful resolution of differences through dialogue and is committed to respect various agreements inked for maintenance of peace along the borders.
'Steve was the foremost strategic analyst on South Asia,' remembers Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The United States apparently is always looking over its shoulder vis-a-vis China, conscious that its envisaged strategic partnership with India and its trilateral partnerships in East Asia and the Pacific -- with India and Japan and India and Australia respectively -- are not construed as ostensible encirclement of Beijing.
'They are aware that they have been unable to bring about any change in the security situation in Kashmir and have failed to internationalise the Kashmir issue.'
Despite the Oscars, the box office glory, and the universal acclaim, Francis Ford Coppola, I am sure, remembers The Godfather with as much frustration as pride. Like Michael Corleone, he got into it with the best of intentions, and got out of it on top but lost in the heights. Sreehari Nair revisits the film as it turns 50 this month.
In the first highest level face-to-face contact between the two sides after border tension erupted in eastern Ladakh in early May, Singh and Wei met for two hours and 20 minutes in Moscow on Friday evening on the sidelines of a meeting of the defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The talks between the two armies are going to be held this week at multiple locations including Patroling point 14 (Galwan area), Patrolling point 15, and Hot Springs area, top government sources said.
Both India and China are in Phnom Penh to participate in the two-day East Asia Summit, an offshoot of the Asean meet. China and India, along with the US, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are participating countries in EAS, besides the 10 Asean members.
'The past year has yielded extraordinary results in the strategic, commercial, and people-to-people components of the India-United States partnership, US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
Establishing dialogue with the Quetta Shura must be recognised as a key strategic requirement. This would allow India to catalyse a favourable settlement in post-2014 Afghanistan, says Ajai Shukla
'What matters is that India's perspective on global issues -- climate change, intellectual property, free trade, trade routes being kept free, digital technology -- are listened to with respect,' says Ambassador B S Prakash.
EAM Sushma Swaraj said that terror and talks cannot go together.
US Deputy Secretary of State William J Burns will travel to India along with four other Asian nations, including China, next week as part of America's continued dialogue with these countries on a range of bilateral and regional issues.
'For Pakistan, the comfortable old calculations and certainties are no longer valid.' 'Strikes on Indian targets now carry a high risk of retaliation and escalation,' notes Ajai Shukla.
The Trump administration has a "very positive view" of the Indo-US relationship and a lot of interest in taking the ties forward, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said on Saturday after his wide-ranging talks with senior Cabinet members and top officials in Washington.
'Both sides should, therefore, focus on easing tensions in the friction areas by refraining from any actions that may lead to an escalation in the situation'
Prime Minister Modi is visiting Palestine, UAE and Oman from February 9 to February 12.
'... 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.
Even as the United States snuggles closer to India with the thinly veiled objective of containing China, the Indian strategy is to avoid alienating either nation.
The last time the Chinese military had taken Indian soldiers captive was in July 1962 after a clash in Galwan Valley.
'This visit will further the convergence of our political, economic and strategic interests,' Modi tweeted.
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Jaishankar arrived on a day-long visit to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Modi's visit to Bangladesh later this month to participate in the celebrations of 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's Independence and 50 years of Bangladesh-India diplomatic relations.
The US side had pushed for removal of price caps on medical equipment such as coronary stents and a commitment by India to reduce trade imbalance
Karzai will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after which the two countries are expected to ink a strategic pact to streamline the various assistance programmes of India and institutionalise bilateral security dialogue.
The USS John Paul Jones acted like a dog marking the lamp post, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The annual high-level strategic and economic dialogue between the United States and China began in Beijing on Thursday with Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for a "new type of relationship" between the two countries to break the traditional belief that big powers only have conflicts.
As per the schedule released by the White House on late Saturday night, Trump will spend 100 minutes at the NRG Stadium.
'Even as discord over US-India trade and commerce colours diplomatic relations, defence relations between the two countries remain on a firm footing,' points out Ajai Shukla.
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Thimpu apparently didn't think it necessary to take Delhi into confidence. Bhutan is loathe to getting dragged into the geopolitical rivalry between India and China. And for Beijing, this was too good an opportunity to be missed to thumb its nose at the powers-that-be in Delhi, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Indian version is that the two top diplomats merely exchanged pleasantries, while the Pakistani side characterised the encounter as an 'informal dialogue'.' 'The truth, as always in such piquant situations, is somewhere in between.' 'It stands to reason that ice has been broken,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Chinese action followed 'India's recent, illegal construction of defence facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region', a write-up in the state-run Global Times tabloid said, quoting unnamed military sources.
The Indian delegation led by Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Commander of the Tibet Military District Maj Gen Liu Lin held an extensive meeting in Maldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh on Saturday that began at around 11.30 am and went on till evening.
India and China met and spoke a lot this year, but failed to produce any meaningful results.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit India early next month as part of a three-nation Asia tour to consult with the Indian leadership on key regional and global issues including Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Myanmar.
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