Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's low-key visit to Kabul on Thursday is a visit for "reassurance", said a diplomat who is one of the most well informed officials on Afghanistan in New Delhi. "When PM Singh will meet Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai he is likely to say that India is a friend of Afghanistan and Indians are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Afghan's endeavour for peace and development."
The Afghanistan government will engage with Taliban elements which are not part of the Al Qaeda network as it continues its military campaign against extremism and terrorism, President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday. "We believe that while we are continuing our campaign against extremism and terrorist networks, the Al Qaeda and its associates, we will also seek means other than a military campaign to bring stability to Afghanistan and to Pakistan by extension," he said.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday condemned what he described as India's 'brutal' handling of protests in Jammu and Kashmir.
India cannot be expected to ignore its genuine interests in Afghanistan just to keep Pakistan in good humour. While for Afghanistan, the pact is a way of trying to deal with an increasingly more menacing Pakistan, says Harsh V Pant.
Pakistan is a "twin brother" and India a "great friend", Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday in an obvious attempt to reassure Pakistan that the strategic partnership agreement signed on Tuesday in Delhi was not targeted against it.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host a quadrilateral summit with leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the volatile Af-Pak region.
Tahir Ali examines the consequences of the assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani on attempts to broker peace in Afghanistan
A large explosion rocked Kabul's main diplomatic and government residential district on Tuesday morning killing at least four civilians and injuring several others.
The United States on Thursday said it plans to shift to "support role" in Afghanistan by 2013 so as to complete the security transition to Afghan forces by 2014 even as it sought to play down President Hamid Karzai's order to pull out American troops from villages and confine them to bases.
Dismissing Afghanistan's demand to strike at terror sanctuaries across the border, US has said that it has no plans to send combat troops to Pakistan.
While some reports say Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational chief of Haqqani network has recently held a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai in the presence of Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kiyani, Kabul-based sources reveal the meeting did not take place.
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has rubbished media reports of him organising a secret meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Haqqani network commander Sirajuddin Haqqani in Kabul last month.
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, Afghan president Hamid Karzai's first choice as the speaker of the new Afghan parliament, is at once the perfect bridge the latter needs to reach out extensively in the Islamic world and Pakistan, says former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, possibly the first and last India to have met Sayyaf in his native village
General David Petraeus, Commander of the US Central Command, on Tuesday refuted reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lost confidence in the American and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces to succeed in Afghanistan.
United States Vice President Joe Biden on Monday made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to have an on ground assessment of the situation in the war-torn country, less than six months before the scheduled start of drawdown of American troops.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council and one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was entertaining some guests at his residence when his bodyguard opened fire on him, a family member told media sources on condition of anonymity.
United States President Barack Obama endorsed all the praise showered on Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai a day earlier by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
The war-ravaged nation of Afghanistan has offered to try and help bring about a rapprochement between the United States and Iran, even as Washington continues its campaign to isolate Teheran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme in violation of its nonproliferation obligations.
'The Obama administration must show the sagacity to cooperate with Karzai's strategy,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
'President Karzai's visit is an occasion to refine our thinking apropos the 'reintegration' and reconciliation strategy toward the Taliban.'
An independent United Nations-appointed panel probing the killing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will on Thursday release its sensitive report on her assassination in 2007
Signalling a strained relationship with Hamid Karzai, United States has indicated that Afghanistan President's White House invitation could be withdrawn if he continues with his anti-US rhetoric.
In a delicate balancing act, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday described India as a 'close friend', while referring to Pakistan and Afghanistan as 'conjoined twins'.In remarks apparently aimed at assuaging Pakistan's concerns about the Indian presence in Afghanistan, Karzai said his country would never allow its soil to be used for activities directed against any of its neighbours.At the same time, Karzai was in Pakistan on a two-day visit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday demanded a thorough investigation into the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan for several years, but ruled out a United States-type operation by India to eliminate Pak-based terrorists wanted by it.
"Welcome to your second home". This is how President Hamid Karzai welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Kabul on Thursday, with the latter responding by assuring the Afghan leader that India will stand with the country through "thick and thin".
Six years after he made his first trip to Afghanistan as Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday embarked on a two-day visit to Kabul during which he will discuss terrorism, regional development and ways to step up India's assistance to the war-torn country.
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon has reached Kabul to review the security of Indians working on several development projects across Afghanistan.
In the wake of last week's Kabul attack, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon will travel to Kabul on Friday to discuss security of about 4000 Indians working on developmental projects across Afghanistan, for which the government has certain proposals.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed that his government has begun informal talks with Taliban "for quite sometime" and hoped that the formation of a peace council will spur these efforts. "We have been talking to the Taliban as countrymen to countrymen," Karzai said in an interview to CNN, days after the American media had reported that secret high-level talks were underway.
In the wake of the terror attack in Kabul, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requested Afghan President Hamid Karzai to ensure full protection for Indians in Afghanistan on Saturday.
The Taliban government will follow the pattern of the Iranian leadership.
Taliban militants in the terror hotbed of North Waziristan have threatened the Pakistan government with a "big war" if the country's army launched any military operation in the region.
The security of all provinces will be under Afghan leadership within five years. This was the pledge made in London on Thursday at a conference aimed at aligning the international community with the reintegration plan set out by President Hamid Karzai.
As the second Hamid Karzai government settles down to business in Afghanistan, India must seriously focus on long-term intervention and assistance in stabilising one of its most important neighbours, a variety of Afghan and Indian politicians, analysts and diplomats said in Kabul and New Delhi.
"Op Devi Shakti in action! @IAF_MC flight with 24 Indian and 11 Nepalese evacuees from Kabul is on its way to Delhi. #DeviShakti," external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted in the morning.
With the US having announced that it will begin pulling out its troops from Afghanistan from July 2011, India said on Thursday that "international presence" in the war-torn country was needed for a much longer time.
Afghanistan on Monday night assured India that it would take all possible steps to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, who are engaged in developmental work in the war-torn country.
According to reports, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has talked to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna as well as his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the telephone to raise the prospect of another "talk about talks".
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is seeking removal of upto 50 Taliban commanders from a United Nations terror blacklist in a gesture intended to advance a political reconciliation in his country.
Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will be travelling to Europe to consult leaders in Germany, France and Russia, before proceeding to Kabul to attend the inauguration of Hamid Karzai for his second term as Afghanistan's president.
