The government will decide steps to be taken by it on the Supreme Court order to end Haj subsidy after receiving the judgment of the apex court on the issue, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Monday.
Voicing concern over alleged attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday asked the defence force of that country not to open fire on the Indian fishermen but apprehend them if they had done something wrong.
Dubbing Pakistan as the 'epicentre of terrorism', India on Thursday slammed it for its inaction against the perpetrators of the terror attack on Mumbai, saying it has not been able to punish any of those accused of masterminding the terror strikes.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of the controversy surrounding Minister of State Shashi Tharoor's role in the IPL's Kochi team. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi recently alleged that Tharoor had asked him not to disclose details about owners of the consortium led by Rendezvous that bought the new Kochi franchisee.Tharoor hit back at Modi by alleging that he had made attempts to pressure the winning consortium.
India and Kazakhstan will soon wrap-up inter-governmental negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation, a move that came after meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kazakh President Noorsultan Nazarbayev.
India will raise the issue of supply of uranium from Australia during the three-day visit of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna from Wednesday, hopeful that Canberra will revisit its stated position of not supplying the yellow metal to non-NPT signatory countries.
Resisting US pressure to further scale down oil imports from sanction-hit Iran, India on Monday made it clear that it has to look at the issue involved beyond the energy trade as it has "vital" security stakes in the Gulf region.
As external affairs minister S M Krishna travels to Beijing on Tuesday for talks till April 8 with his counterpart, Yang Jiechi, highly placed sources in the establishment confirmed that India and China have been in talks for some time to ban Masood Azhar of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Abdul Rehman Makki of the Jamaat-ud Dawa and Azam Cheema of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, under the UNSC resolutions.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will arrive in Beijing on Monday for "comprehensive" talks with the top Chinese leadership covering issues like issuance of stapled visas by Beijing and "illegal" construction in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
"We are looking forward for Pakistan to be more sensitive towards our basic core concern. The core concern is terrorism and terrorism has to be tackled effectively," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said, adding it cannot be 'shoved under the carpet'.
India's concerns on a host of issues, including issuance of stapled visas and "illegal" construction in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, will be taken up by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna during his meetings with Chinese leadership when he visits that country from Monday.
Indian envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said while there is no word yet of a formal bilateral meeting between Krishna and Khar, the "possibility" of a meeting in a social set-up "is very likely."
As India and China marked the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties, Beijing on Thursday said the two sides have put "great emphasis" on developing a comprehensive strategic partnership and hoped to cement it further during External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's visit next week.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been in a damage control mode ever since the explosive cables were leaked out by WikiLeaks, made a telephone call to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to discuss a wide range of issues ranging from bilateral relationship, to the situation in the region including Afghanistan, besides WikiLeaks cables.
Dismissing Pakistan's allegation that India was involved in the recent attack on the Federal Investigation Bureau building in Lahore, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Wednesday said it was "most unthinkable" and a "falsehood" that was being spread.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Friday called on External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and discussed relations between the two estranged neighbours. Bashir, who was in New Delhi for talks with his counterpart Nirupama Rao, spent approximately an hour talking to Krishna.They are understood to have taken stock of the bilateral relations and reviewed the discussions that were held between the two foreign secretaries on Thursday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Friday said that it was unfortunate that Pakistan had not felt the need to thoroughly investigate the role of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba founder Hafiz Saeed in the 26/11 attacks.
India on Friday said time was not conducive to grant visa to former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf to visit the country.
Pakistan on Wednesday voiced concern over External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's remarks -- that next week's Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks should not be 'mistaken' for resumption of composite dialogue -- saying "the outcome of the meeting should not be prejudged nor its scope circumscribed". "We have noted with concern remarks attributed by the media to India's External Affairs Minister on the forthcoming meeting of the Foreign Secretaries," Pak said.
The Cabinet Committee on Security today took stock of the situation arising out of the Pune bomb blast and is understood to have discussed issues related to the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna arrived in Colombo on Thursday on a four-day official visit to boost up bilateral relations, amid growing Chinese footprints in Sri Lanka.
While India has indicated that it may restart the foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan, Islamabad maintains that it would accept nothing short of resumption of comprehensive 'composite dialogue' with New Delhi.
As attacks against Indians continued unabated in Australia, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith for the second time in two days and is understood to have conveyed displeasure over the assaults on Thursday.
Talking tough, India asked Australia to put in more effective security measures to check the attacks on Indians there, failing which it said the people-to-people exchanges which includes those going for education and tourism will get "adversely" affected.
India and China should address each other's 'concerns and sensitivities' on issues impinging security and well being, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Monday. He also said that a hotline between the two prime ministers will also become operational soon. "As rising powers, India and China are projected to have a competitive relationship in the final analysis. It is up to us to disapprove such a scenario by presenting examples of a concrete partnership," he said.
India can remain aloof only at its own peril to the challenges and opportunities presented by China's rapid ascendancy, Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Thursday.
Krishna said whether it was a racist attack or motivated by something else "the fact of the matter is that an Indian student has been murdered and the Australian government is duty bound and morally bound to go for investigations and then bring the culprit to book".
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will raise with President Barack Obama next month concerns over the recent decisions by the United States on visa rules and outsourcing amid hopes that these would not affect the rapidly growing bilateral ties.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Sunday said the law of the country would take its own course in fishermen killing case in which the crew of an Italian ship fired at and killed two Indians off Kollam coast in Kerala.
Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna summoned the New Zealand High Commissioner on Thursday over racist remarks made by a TV show presenter on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
India is looking forward to Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar's visit to the country next month for crucial talks between the two sides. This was conveyed by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who is in Islamabad on a two-day visit for talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, to Khar when she called on the Pakistani Minister on Friday morning.
India on Friday expressed its appreciation for Pakistan's help in ensuring the safe return of Indian sailors who were help captive by Somali pirates aboard M V Suez. "We are relieved that their ordeal has ended and they would soon be safely back with their families," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said. "We appreciate the timely help extended to them and sailors of other countries by the Pakistani navy," he said.
India on Friday strongly rejected Pakistan's allegation that it was sponsoring terrorism in South Asia, with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna terming it as "unacceptable". "The track record of India speaks so eloquently," he said, adding, "We don't need to defend our position."
Slamming Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for raking up Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly, India on Tuesday said the 'unacceptable and untenable' remarks by him was a ploy to divert attention from the internal troubles that country is facing.
India on Tuesday conveyed its concerns to the US on issues like H-1B visa fee hike, export control restrictions and outsourcing ban during a meeting between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his counterpart Hillary Clinton in New York.
India has made a strong pitch for according high priority to nuclear disarmament and an early commencement of negotiations on the fissile material cut-off treaty, while insisting that it favours parleys that are 'without prejudice'.
Both ministers on Thursday greeted each other warmly and made inquiries about their stay in New York so far, Indian envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said. Krishna then asked Qureshi about the flood situation in Pakistan and how the relief efforts were coming along. Qureshi, in turn, spoke about the steps his government was taking and also thanked India for its aid of USD 20 million routed through the UN
Highly placed sources said that the President, who met Krishna during a reception for heads of state and government at the Metropolitan Museum in New York late Thursday evening, personally conveyed the message about his upcoming trip to India during the brief photo-op and handshake opportunity.
Though India still has to travel 'a long distance to put poverty behind us,' the country should not be 'underestimated', said External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.
Hitting out at Pakistan, India said on Thursday that its western neighbour was "striving hard to fabricate" evidence to show India was fomenting trouble in Balochistan. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told the Rajya Sabha that India has conveyed to Pakistan at the highest level that it had no interest in destabilising the neighbouring country.