Ahmed Shah Massoud's assassination, 9/11 and the defeat and ejection of the Taliban suggested a break in Afghanistan's history, but the events of August 2021 and the Taliban's return shows how deeper continuities remained in place, points out T C A Raghavan, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.
Modi will hold several bilateral meetings with the leaders of the SCO member countries including China's Xi Jinping.
Significantly, for the first time, the FATF put Myanmar in the "high risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action", often referred to as the watchdog's black list.
The unalloyed truth about the Ukraine-Russia conflict is that it is a war that Russia cannot lose and Ukraine cannot win, observes Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
'The BJP is saying we have Modi, who have you got?' 'We have the people of India on our side.'
'For him to suddenly leave the way that he did, it shattered me.' 'It took me a long, long, time to come to terms with it.' 'Because the loss of such a friend can destroy you.' 'The loss was and continues to be immense.'
The All India Tennis Association decided against seeking a change of venue for the Davis Cup tie versus Pakistan in Islamabad, scheduled on September 14 and 15.
'As far as acquisition of Russian equipment is concerned, with about 70% of Indian military equipment being of Russian origin, a sudden decision to abandon imports from Russia is not feasible,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
While sport climbing made its debut in the Olympics only this year, it has had a popular home in India for many years now.
In an editorial on the eve of the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India on July 17, NYT had termed New Delhi as a 'long-time nuclear scofflaw' and held India responsible on Kashmir, relations with Pakistan and also partly blamed it for the nuclear weapons programme of Iran.
Shehbaz, the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, received 174 votes -- two more than the simple majority of 172.
'Russia is the only country that can act as facilitator for any eventual Chinese-Indian rapprochement,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Politicians, bureaucrats hold different opinions about the delaying of the 2+2 summit.
'The change of vocabulary in the India-US conversation was significant and refreshing.' 'It matched the styles of Trump and Modi.' 'The differences were not papered over, but there was determination to resolve them in the days ahead,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The external affairs ministry said Pakistan has also been asked not to subject the two women to any questioning, harassment or interrogation during their stay in Pakistan.
The plea involves 'egregious violation of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 by Pakistan.'
According to the report, the magnitude of internal migration is about two-and-a-half times that of international migration.
'There were assurances that Jaish-e-Mohammad was being reined in as was the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but Pakistan's security forces could not risk opening too many dangerous new fronts,' notes former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran, who has just returned from a visit to Lahore.
The study estimates that 1,134,000 children lost a parent or custodial grandparent due to COVID-19. Of these, 10,42,000 children lost their mother, father or both. Most lost one, not both parents.
Twitter can probably afford to wait it out. But would it have the moral courage to do so? asks Devangshu Datta.
"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in his latest campaign, 'Modi hai to mumkin hai,' or 'Modi makes it possible', I'm looking forward to exploring what's possible between our people," Pompeo said in his major India policy speech at the India Ideas Summit of US-India Business Council on Wednesday.
"The speculation doing the rounds in media regarding China's protest over NSG membership to India is not true," he said on the sidelines of a function at Balia in Uttar Pradesh.
'If the almost literally heart-stopping Suez block has any positive outcome, it is to be hoped that it will accelerate the setting up of a fab (perhaps Taiwanese) in India,' asserts Rajeev Srinivasan.
If the Indian son-in-law can become prime minister in another country, could the daughter-in-law have not become one here, especially considering that the Indian culture and tradition is for the bahu to live, think and act like her in-laws, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Given all the turbulence created by Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi's unexpected tirade against Saudi Arabia, it is likely to be business as usual between the two countries, albeit with a bit of caution on the part of both, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Both India and Pakistan have already submitted their detailed pleas and responses in the world court.
In Jaipur, the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, both second-line HIV drugs, was administered was administered on an elderly Italian couple undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at the SMS Hospital.
Should India engage Pakistan's generals directly, bypassing Imran? Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan, ponders Delhi's diplomatic dilemma.
The central government said the railways and civil aviation ministry must suspend all concessional travel on trains and flights, except for students, patients and disabled people.
Dismissing allegations that it is singling out China in maritime disputes, the United States has said in the last one year it has challenged the maritime territorial claims of 18 countries, including some of friendly nations like India and Brazil.
With Hamid Karzai stonewalling every US effort to conclude a bilateral security agreement, the Obama Administration is pinning its hopes on India to persuade the Afghan President to sign the deal and end the current political imbroglio on the issue.
On February 24, when Vladimir Putin announced a military operation on Ukraine, few would have thought that Indian government-owned GAIL India would feel the impact. The tensions over gas supplies were essentially a Europe-Russia problem, related to the sanctions western economies imposed on Moscow. But the EU depends on Russian imports for 40 per cent of its gas stocks, an over-dependence that Russia has underlined with Kremlin-owned Gazprom cutting its supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20 per cent, citing maintenance issues.
The Taliban knows that Washington holds the key, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A quintessential military commander, Gen Bipin Rawat possessed an uncanny understanding of geopolitical upheavals, calibrated a tri-services military doctrine to make India face myriad security challenges, and is largely credited with bringing down militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan's offer to normalise relations with India is an attempt to buy temporary peace due to its economic and politico-strategic compulsions, notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
In remarks bound to rankle the Left parties in India, the Bush administration hoped that New Delhi would also ask Iran to comply with the United Nations Security Council's other requirements regarding its nuclear programme. Washington would also encourage New Delhi to ask Iran to "become a more responsible actor on the world stage by ending its rather unhelpful activities" regarding Iraq and support for terrorism, State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said.
'Of all of the branches and networks of ISIS, ISIS-K is certainly one of those of most concern.'
Prime Minister Modi is visiting Palestine, UAE and Oman from February 9 to February 12.
The fault line between the West and Russia has widened into a deep chasm and this is likely to endure in the foreseeable future. Far from forcing its way into the European tent, Russia may be reduced to the status of an even more sullen and weakened bystander on its periphery. The US appears to have won this hand with little cost to itself, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
