'The strategic direction of the relationship will not be affected. But the perception has been affected.'
Ukraine and Russia need to engage with each other to find a solution to the ongoing conflict between them, India said on Friday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv under the shadow of the raging war.
While India does not figure in the top 10 export destinations for Pakistani goods, it serves as a crucial channel for select goods such as leather hides and cheaper variants of fertilisers that are generally procured by importers at short notice.
A top Bush administration official has said that there is "tremendous potential" for the growth of US-India trade and hoped that the two countries would work together for a strong Doha Round Agreement.
'We will work together for the mutual benefit of the people of our two countries and shape a better future for the world.'
Pakistan has warned the international community that any military moves by India shall be 'responded to assuredly and decisively... onus of any escalatory spiral and its consequences shall squarely lie with India.' Implicit in the statement is a veiled threat that even a nuclear threshold may be reached if push comes to shove, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The 68-year-old influential Arab leader will grace the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. Sisi is accompanied by a high-level delegation.
In what looks like a game-changer in ties between India and Pakistan, the two countries on Thursday vowed to take their $2-billion bilateral trade to the next level.
The phone conversation between Jaishankar and Blinken came days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a two-day visit to India.
Sino-Indian trade is set to cross the $10 billion-mark this year for the first time and New Delhi is determined to further diversify and strengthen bilateral ties, Indian Ambassador to China, Nalin Surie has said.
India and the US on Monday committed to further improving bilateral ties, exploring alternate mechanisms for funding renewable energy and actively pursuing the G20 agenda which includes strengthening MDBs and taking coordinated action to deal with climate change. Several issues, including climate action, rising indebtedness in low and middle income countries and digital public infrastructure, figured during a bilateral meeting between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. India, Sitharaman said, will "look forward to furthering ... bilateral interests through development cooperation and new investment opportunities through Alternate Investment platforms for renewable energy."
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to take part in the India-China Special Representatives' talks to be held on Wednesday aimed at restoring the bilateral ties stalled for over four years' due to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
'Disengagement is merely the first step in a lengthy process of arriving at a new normal along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and the entire land boundary.' 'The Indian government should insist on the restoration of the status quo ante in Eastern Ladakh.'
Disengagement from the LAC will remain a chimera because China has given enough indications that the PLA will not move back any more. China has even deployed drones to monitor and deny any patrolling by Indian troops even in the buffer zones which are all in Indian Territory, explains Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
Dr Jaishankar is expected to discuss the dates for the fifth Quad leaders' summit in India later this year.
There was no talk at all from the Pakistan side to grant the most-favoured nation status to India or trimming its negative list of items even as both sides decided to double bilateral trade to $6 billion by 2014.
India and the US are set to address some of the prickly issues that have acted as major irritants in the commercial relations between both countries recently, to ensure greater flow of trade and investment.
Officials from India and the United Kingdom (UK) are working overtime to address the contentious issues related to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations, in a final push to conclude the deal by the year-end. Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal was headed to London on Thursday after completing his four-day visit to Brazil. Other key officials from India's negotiating team will be joining Barthwal in the UK capital, hoping to make headway in the FTA negotiations, which started in January last year, a person aware of the matter told Business Standard.
World leaders, including the UN Secretary-General and US President Donald Trump, have urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and seek peaceful solutions to the ongoing tensions. The calls for calm come after India conducted airstrikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to a recent terrorist attack. Leaders from the US, Russia, UK, China, UAE, Qatar, and Japan have expressed concern over the escalating situation and emphasized the need for dialogue and de-escalation.
It would be a challenge to India's policy makers how to deal with Trump so that mutual economic growth remains sustained and mutual understanding on global issues are not hampered, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The decision to revise the target by $10 was taken in New Delhi at the India-Africa Ministers Round Table conference chaired by Commerce, Industry & Textiles Anand Sharma.
Richard Verma, the highest-ranking Indian-American official in the State Department, has expressed optimism about the future of US-India ties and emphasized the need to base the relationship on shared values rather than mere transactional dealings. Verma, who previously served as America's Ambassador to India, stressed the importance of the Quad in defending the international order, highlighting its shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The visit next week, which is yet to be formally announced by Downing Street, follows the successful completion of four out of 26 chapters in the ongoing India-UK free trade agreement negotiations.
India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has arrived in Beijing for a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with Chinese officials. The visit comes amid ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and to resume bilateral cooperation in various fields, including the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
According to informed sources, Doval will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday to attend the crucial talks, which were expected to provide a way forward for the two countries to normalise the relations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met his British counterpart Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit here and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas like green hydrogen, renewables and clean technology, economy and defence.
Resuming trade talks after a gap of five years, India and Japan on Friday committed themselves to enhance the miniscule $3.5 billion bilateral trade and resolved to address impediments like the rigid labour laws.
India will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with Japan on Wednesday, setting the stage for free bilateral trade of goods and services.
The proposed India-Israel trade pact should be beneficial to both nations and until New Delhi gets a good deal, it would not do an agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. India and Israel are negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) since May 2010. "With Israel, until we get a good deal, we will not do an FTA. It has to be reciprocally beneficial," the minister said in San Francisco on Tuesday while interacting with the Indian community.
The China-India bilateral trade in the first half of the year totalled $57.48 billion, up 62.7 per cent year on year, perhaps the highest in recent years amid the Ladakh impasse and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released by China's Customs. Though Indian exports to China picked up with 69.6 per cent year on year increase, the trade deficit, a structural problem for India for long, climbed to 55.6 per cent. According to data released by China's Customs, India's exports to China reached $14.724 billion, up 69.6 per cent year on year in the first six months and India's imports from China amounted to $42.755 billion, up 60.4 per cent.
The US asked India on Monday to reduce barriers for increasing bilateral trade and expressed hope of forward movement in the stalled WTO talks.
However, the countries did not take up the issue of proposed withdrawal of export incentives by the US to Indian exporters under Generalized System of Preference.
Citing the latest statistics from Eurostat, the ministrysaid trade between China and the European Union totalled Euro35.6 billion ($49.4 billion) in July, allowing the countryto overtake the US.
Dubbing many of the existing barriers in Indo-Pak trade as "meaningless", Communications and IT Minister Arun Shourie on Wednesday said that the potential for bilateral trade was tremendous.
The Indian government does not track the number of undocumented Indian immigrants residing in the US. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, in a written response to a query in the Rajya Sabha, said these immigrants have "legally exited India" but have either overstayed their visa validity, or have entered the US illegally or without valid documents. The response comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to the US, during which he will hold a bilateral meeting with President Trump. The two leaders are likely to discuss India-US cooperation in sectors like trade, investment, energy, defense, technology and immigration.
Nine years after New Delhi started implementing its Plan B - bilateral trade agreements - to beat the impasse at the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of liberalisation talks, India seems to be finally rolling.
Raising concerns over India's slow pace of trade liberalisation, the United States said on Thursday that it was apprehensive about India's surplus in bilateral trade.
Trade and economic issues, including visa, totalisation pact and impediments hampering investments, are likely to figure at Monday's US-India CEO Forum meeting, which will be jointly addressed by visiting US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
