All people deserve to have a voice in their government and be treated with respect no matter who they are, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday while noting that Indians and Americans believe in human dignity, in equality of opportunity, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion and belief.
'If the Chinese are bringing Pakistan more 'behind the curtain,' in terms of intelligence and military cooperation, it will be tailored to their common interests like confronting India over territorial disputes'
United States President Barack Obama has nominated US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O Blake, who has also served as the Deputy Chief of US Mission in New Delhi, as the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. If approved by the US Senate, Blake would replace Richard Boucher, who is currently Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs. However, the communique did not mention Central Asia being part of Blake's portfolio.
India has airlifted more than 6 million COVID-19 doses to nine countries in Phase-I under its initiative termed "Vaccine Maitri".
"I think the principle benefit would be greater visibility to the relationship at the highest level with President Obama and Prime Minister Singh," Karl F 'Rick' Inderfurth, the former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs said.
India is more likely than China to reach the global power status in the 21st century, having the advantages of a democracy and a young skilled workforce fluent in English, an Asian affairs expert has said.
Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal will travel to Bangalore and New Delhi from March 4 to 6
In what could be yet another historic appointment in the annals of the Indian-American community's immigrant experience, senior administration sources have told rediff.com that Nisha Desai Biswal is strongly tipped to be appointed the new assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs
K Alan Kronstadt, an expert in South Asian affairs at the US Congressional Research Service, speak to Sheela Bhatt on why India-US bilateral relations are getting cold.
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.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Dr Alyssa Ayres, the keynote speaker at the National Federation of Indian American Association's conference on Women's Empowerment, has declared that promoting women's empowerment in India is a key goal of the United States administration, particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ahead of a key global summit on atomic security, China on Tuesday defended its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan as "mutually beneficial" and in accordance with international safeguards.
India has more credibility with developing countries on democracy promotion and governance than does the United States, a top United States official has admitted, even as Washington is pushing New Delhi to be part of the effort to make this phenomenon contagious worldwide.
The United States on Friday asked Sri Lanka to speed up its probe into allegations of rights abuses during the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resume talks with Tamil parties on power sharing and reduce the role of the military in the former conflict zone.
The growing Indian-American community will play a major role in strengthening ties between India and the US, with the diaspora making significant contributions in fields such as technology, services and economy, a senior US State Department official has said.
The growing Indian-American community will play a major role in strengthening ties between India and the United States, with the diaspora making significant contributions in fields such as technology, services and economy, a senior US State Department official has said.
Atul Keshap would be 'a superb fit for Sri Lanka as he knows the ins and outs of the politics there and all the political players, including the new disposition in Colombo intimately,' US diplomatic sources in Washington, DC told Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com
China dismissed the reports as groundless.
China's assistance to build new nuclear plants in Pakistan are "inconsistent" with its commitments to Nuclear Suppliers Group, a top United States official has said.
Pakistan's deteriorating security situation, its connection with Islamist militancy, and the implications for the United States and India relations came under focus during a lecture by American Foreign Policy Council Fellow Jeff M Smith, at the Indian consulate in New York recently.
Observing that China has been anxiously watching the rise of Indo-United States relationship, a former top US diplomat believes New Delhi doesn't want to be caught in this Sino-US game at the global level.
The India Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies -- a leading Washington, DC think tank -- will be occupied by Karl F Inderfurth, erstwhile Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs in the Clinton Administration.
United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake, the Obama administration's point man for the subcontinent, still can't get over the Bharatiya Janata Party's opposition to the US-India civilian nuclear deal, despite the fact that it initiated and championed this accord during the time it was in power.
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and United States Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher agreed that there was a need for Pakistan to eliminate Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but differed on the tactics to be adopted for such an exercise.American embassy diplomatic cables leaked by the whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks reveal that US diplomats made repeated efforts to reassure their often frustrated Indian counterparts.
Taking part in an interaction following his speech to a conference of US-India Relations, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert Blake announced that US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will make her first trip to New Delhi in the spring for meetings with her counterpart Home Minister P Chidambaram and other senior officials in the Ministry and intelligence agencies.
'India has ramped up infrastructure on its side, so the Chinese military is finding Indian soldiers in locations where they are not used to seeing an Indian footprint,' points out Harsh V Pant.
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has alleged that it is not Pakistan that is carrying out a proxy war against India in Afghanistan, but the other way around, with the Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad, veritable offices of the Indian intelligence, the Research and Analysis Wing, to foment terrorism in Pakistan.
Karl F Inderfurth, who was Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs in the Clinton administration, and Nicholas Burns, who was Under Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, told rediff.com that Obama's endorsement during his address to a joint session of Parliament thus made his visit to India transformational too in a sense as had the trip by Clinton in March of 2000 and Bush in March 2006.
'There's no wonder that many Pakistani parents send their kids to madrasa and one knows what happens to a small percentage of the kids who go there.
The position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs with responsibilities to work specifically on the India portfolio -- which has remained vacant for nearly a year since the controversial Christine Fair declined the offer of the job -- has finally been filled with longtime South Asian expert Alyssa Ayres
Confirming rediff.com's scoop of October 15 on how United States officials wanted US President Barack Obama to endorse India's bid for permanent membership in the United States Security Council, advising him it could make his India visit truly historic, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert Blake said Monday, that even though the President's announcement of support for India's candidacy during his address to Parliament came as a surprise to many people,
When Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs was challenged as to what action against terror groups, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the US had been able to elicit from Pakistan and that President Obama's statements that Pakistan providing safe havens to these groups being unacceptable was said in India to pacify Indians, he defended the actions taken by Islamabad thus far.
"I believe it would a great thing if the president were to do this during his visit," Karl Inderfurth, professor of international relations at George Washington University, told Rediff India Abroad
The onus today is on China, but it also requires a little diplomatic finesse from India, backed by a modernised armed force, argues BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in this excerpt from his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China And The Quest For Peace.
Christine Fair, who infuriated New Delhi when she alleged that India was meddling in Balochistan, has been offered the India portfolio in the Obama administration.
Veteran diplomat and author Phillips Talbot, a Padma Shri recipient who experienced first-hand the power of Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent movement and was one of the few Americans present during India's partition, has died in New York at the age of 95.Talbot's death on October 1 was announced by the Asia Society, where he served as the president between 1970 and 1981.He was United State's assistant secretary of state for near eastern and south Asian affairs.
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.
The US and India are in sync with their foreign policy toward Sri Lanka, particularly over the repatriation of the remaining 40,000 plus internally displaced persons after the government's victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Tamil-populated northern province, said Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert O Blake.
United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, while briefing reporters on the meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on the sidelines of the 65th United Nations General Assembly in New York, said the issue of direct and complete access to Pakistani American and Lashkar operative David Coleman had not come up at all at these talks.
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