India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the United Nations Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
The reaction came a day after India said at the United Nations Security Council that 'quiet and constructive diplomacy' is the need of the hour and that any step that could escalate the tension should be avoided.
The 15-nation Council met on Friday to vote on the resolution tabled by the United Arab Emirates and backed by over 90 member states. The resolution got the backing of 13 Council members who voted in its favour while the United Kingdom abstained.
A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Kamboj was previously Ambassador of India to Bhutan and was in June appointed India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, succeeding Ambassador T S Tirumurti.
The Maltese resolution envisages a win-win situation, which the two parties fail to see in their mood to bring each other to book. It may well mark the beginning of the end of war, predicts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Prashant Kishor is a businessman before he is a politician, and given that the expected average turnout for JSP candidates is 5,000 to 6,000 votes and since Bihar has a significant number of seats where the margin between the winner and runner-up falls within that range he will capitalise on exactly that to showcase his presence.'
Speaking in the Security Council briefing on 'Threat to International Peace & Security Caused by Terrorist Acts' on Wednesday, Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti reiterated India's firm belief that terrorism in one part of the world is threat to peace and security of entire world.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a Brazil-led draft resolution that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to allow full access for aid to the Gaza strip after the US vetoed the text.
Putin is keen on establishing a good personal rapport with Trump and anchor a meaningful US-Russia partnership, realistic enough to accept that Trump is as good an American president as Russia would ever get, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
He said despite efforts by the UN, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa.
Kamboj said the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a large-scale loss of civilian lives, especially women and children.
Lisa Curtis, who served as deputy assistant to President Trump and as National Security Council senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021, said she expected the same bumps for India and the US, as in Trump's first term, including tariff, dependence on Russia over arms supply and oil purchase from Iran. Curtis, however, said both countries could never enter an alliance but develop a partnership that is "short of an alliance". She hoped them to achieve a cooperation that deters China, but also prepares both countries in case of a crisis or conflict, be it in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, or another flare-up on the India-China border.
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
China has signalled that it will prevent India from assuming leadership of the Global South, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The General Assembly held a plenary meeting on Thursday on the issue of UN Security Council reforms during which Pakistan yet again raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Biden has reiterated America's support for India's permanent membership on a reformed UNSC and its entry into the NSG during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Modi at the White House.
India abstained on the procedural vote taken in the Security Council ahead of a meeting to discuss the tense situation on the Ukraine border.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday failed to adopt a resolution calling for humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war after a veto by the US.
The announcement of McMaster's ouster, who the White House said had a "good working relationship" with Trump, is the latest in a string of high-profile White House departures since President Trump took office in January 2017.
The resolution proposed by Russia that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza but made no mention of Hamas' attack on Israel.
Heaping praise on India, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Indian leadership is 'self-directed' and led by the country's national interests, according to Reuters.
The RSS-affiliated ABVP has won the post of joint secretary in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) election, ending a nine-year period out of office. The ABVP's victory marks a significant shift in the political landscape of JNU, breaking the Left's long-standing dominance. Left candidates won the remaining three central panel posts, but the ABVP's victory is seen as a major gain for the right-wing group.
In a statement later, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu discussed Israel's military campaign in Gaza, including its "objectives and phasing".
The Russian embassy said in the spirit of the special and privileged strategic partnership with India, Moscow is committed to maintaining close dialogue with New Delhi on the situation around Ukraine.
'We are not secessionists, we want to coexist with our countrymen but not on the terms that will strip us off our dignity and a right to peaceful existence.'
You don't want to fight and do trade at the same time. Meanwhile, diplomacy is going on and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste, Jaishankar asserted.
Trump may temper his approach from time to time, but to think that he will change his basic philosophy is delusional, asserts T T Ram Mohan.
The Biden administration has reaffirmed its commitment to support India's permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council and New Delhi's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
Multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators of terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said
'Every decision India makes along the LoC, it must also consider implications along the LAC.'
Expressing hope for a potential deal by Ramadan, he also acknowledged the possibility that an agreement "may not get there," as reported by CNN.
Closed meetings are not open to the public and no verbatim record of statements is kept.
On Monday, Korosi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri with an overall focus on pressing global issues including those related to the UN.
Indian-Americans are taking over the country, United States President Joe Biden said on Thursday, referring to the high number of people from the community getting a place in his administration.
This attack came after Moscow launched a major aerial assault on Ukraine.
India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu, on Monday wrote a letter to President of the 74th Session of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, expressing New Delhi's strong disappointment over the decision regarding roll-over of the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on UNSC reforms into the next session of the General Assembly that begins this month.
Unless something changes, Mr Trump is a huge threat right now, which is perhaps not being recognised fully, cautions Debashis Basu.
China on Thursday sought to defend its move to block a proposal by the United States and India at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar, saying it needs more time to assess the application.
Representatives from the United States and Qatar, the UN, China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the EU, Germany, India, Norway, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan joined a regional conclave on Thursday to discuss ways to contain the escalating security situation in Afghanistan.
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