United States President Barack Obama's confidant Susan Rice, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has joined the White House as the national security advisor.
Susan Rice, the tough-talking United States Ambassador to the UN, was named as President Barack Obama's new National Security Advisor, in a significant shakeup to the White House foreign policy team.
The new sanctions imposed on North Korea by the United Nations Security Council would bite hard, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said on Thursday after the passage of an unanimous resolution in this regard.
Strongly condemning the attempted rocket launch by North Korea, the United Nations Security Council on Monday took steps to tighten sanctions against the country, ordering new "entities and items" to be added to the sanctions list.
The United States has adopted a "completely new approach" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a top Obama Administration official has said, stressing al Qaeda will be denied a safe haven in the region.
In a bid to strengthen non-proliferation, the United States wants to secure loose nuclear material within four years and also ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which bans all forms of atomic explosions, the country's top diplomat to the United Nations has said. "We want to secure loose nuclear material within four years. We want to start a follow-on agreement. We want to ratify the CTBT. We want to have a fissile material cut-off," US Ambassador to UN Susan Rice said.
United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice in her phonecall to her Indian counterpart said the White House expects Pakistan to take "effective action to combat and delegitimise" United Nations-designated terrorist groups.
It also asked Pakistan to act tough on terror.
'Biden's promise of returning to 'normalcy' after Trump appears to mean that the same old politicians, who are responsible for the 'endless wars' in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are being brought out of the woodwork after four years,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has reiterated its reluctance to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty despite United States President Barack Obama's call for all nations to sign the disputed pact.
'Under Narendra Modi's leadership, we will be able to regain our rightful place in the community of nations,' veteran diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, who joined the BJP on January 2, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Immediately after India launched its surgical strikes, sources said, it had informed the US of its action.
'The interests of the United States and India are sharply aligned on the issue of Pakistan-based terrorism.'