As the three-day Commonwealth Summit of 53 nations is in progress at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, Canada has come out publicly that they are opposed to the next 2011 Commonwealth summit taking place in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said there is a possibility that he will meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Summit to be held in Trinidad in November.
The Lok Sabha witnessed unruly scenes during Question Hour today as Congress and Telugu Desam Party members raised the Telangana issue and DMK members of Parliament protested holding of Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka.
'We have been bold and innovative on recognition in the past and we do not need to rush,' advises Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
President Pranab Mukherjee created a flutter in the Congress party by agreeing to meet 40 Congress MLAs from Andhra Pradesh.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that he was optimistic about the chances of Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Kamlesh Sharma for the coveted post. Sharma, a seasoned diplomat, is pitted against Malta Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, a veteran politician who heads the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. The election for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General is expected to take place during the three-day summit, beginning on November 23.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision not to take part in the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka in view of opposition by political parties in Tamil Nadu.
The envoy will have an 'informal confidential exchange' of views with National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra.
He also met Ghana President John Agyekum Kufour on Friday night as part of his bilateral engagements on the sidelines of the CHOGM.
A host of issues relating to bilateral, regional and international matters of concern figured in the parleys.
A 1966-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Shashank succeeds Kanwal Sibal, who retired on Sunday after an 18-month stint.
Santosh Gangwar said that a hue and cry should not be created if one or two such incidents rake up in a big country like India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision not to attend the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo was a loss for Sri Lanka as his absence reflected a breakdown of ties between the two countries, the main opposition said on Monday.
Modi flew to Jaffna by an Indian Air Force chopper after brief visits to the holy town of Anuradhapura where he offered prayers at the sacred Mahabodhi tree and Talaimannar where he flagged off a train service.
Three bills were introduced in Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid uproar with members from Left parties trooping into the Well to protest against rising prices of onion while other members raised the Telangana issue.
The All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam on Monday joined hands in Rajya Sabha to demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should not attend Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka in November.
Sri Lanka, under global pressure over its human rights record, on Thursday launched a six-month census to count the number of casualties during the final phase of the brutal civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.
'No one knows whether exposure to the Nobel process would be to her liking, or would benefit her symbolic position above the fray,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Prime Minister Modi addressed the second plenary of the executive session, during which he reiterated India's focus on small island developing nations of the organisation and delivering 'demand-driven, rather than donor-driven' assistance to the organisation's smaller member states.
'The new order cometh, sweeping out the old,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets off on Tuesday on a five-day tour of Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka that is expected to give traction to the country's Indian Ocean outreach during which he also visit a former war zone and Tamil heartland of Jaffna.
'We should expect a cold-blooded, transactional relation that requires a lot of engagement and mutual trust to sustain,' says Constantino Xavier, Fellow, foreign policy, Brookings India.
'The India-Canada relationship has suffered benign neglect. Its full potential has not yet been realised,' says Rup Narayan Das.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a historic visit to Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north and met newly-elected Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and members of the Tamil community who narrated "harrowing" stories to him about alleged rights violations.
The Union cabinet also decided to put in place measures for speedy investigation and trial of rape cases.
R K Narayan's house has been preserved as a simple museum with his memorabilia, thanks to the imagination of a commissioner of Mysore, who stopped its sale by RKN's successors to a property developer and purchased it for the government.
Amid indication that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is unlikely to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Sri Lanka, the external affairs ministry on Saturday said no decision has been taken on the visit, which has been opposed by parties in Tamil Nadu as well as a section in Congress.
An all party-meeting to discuss legislative business in Parliament's monsoon session on Thursday saw a fierce debate on the issue of Telangana with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding that a bill be brought on it in this session and some other parties fearing repercussions of the decision in other states.
Narendra Modi's promise to allow states a bigger say in strategising and building foreign policy is unexceptionable, says TP Sreenivasan.
If Indian PM boycotts the CHOGM, it is likely to add to Sri Lanka's bitterness. This would not help India's desire to add more depth and content to its relations with Sri Lanka but its ability to influence Sri Lanka's decision making process on the both strategic issues and on Tamil minority issues, says Colonel (retd) R Hariharan.
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