Delhi has come to accept the Taliban takeover in Kabul as a reality and seems increasingly unsure of its dogmatic view of the Taliban as a mere proxy of the Pakistani military and security establishment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has announced suspension of all tourist visas till April 15 in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
With Iran reaching an agreement on its nuclear programme, India is expected to be one of the major gainers.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to New Delhi last week was to prepare ground for the next US-India Strategic Dialogue to be held in Washington, says Alok Bansal
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Wednesday met a Sikh delegation in Teheran on the sidelines of his visit to Iran to attend the 16th Non-Aligned Movement summit. Dr Singh's wife, Gursharan Kaur, who has accompanied him, visited the Bhai Ganga Singh Sabha gurdwara, a Sikh shrine and an Indian school on Wednesday
The world's attention is on the new Taliban and the imminent announcement of an inclusive government in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The Taliban knows that Washington holds the key, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Former Indian diplomats on Monday termed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan as a "setback" for India strategically, and asserted that the priority for New Delhi right now should be to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn nation.
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.
The ISSF said there will no ranking points in the tournament scheduled to be held from March 15 to 26 as the organisers are not in a position to guarantee participation of all athletes owing to the extraordinary situation.
'Even during the worst days during the 1990s, India was dealing with the Taliban.'
Internal strife and tribalism is endemic to Afghanistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The aim of the dialogue is to broaden the scope of the blooming bilateral relationship, allowing both sides to exchange notes on global and regional security issues.
"We have many relationships...they have a history. We will do what is in our national interest and part of that strategic partnership is the ability of each country to comprehend and appreciate the national interest of the other," Jaishankar said.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Wednesday asked the Joe Biden Administration to designate four nations, including India, as "countries of particular concern", alleging that religious freedom conditions there in 2020 continued their negative trajectory.
Identifying terror emanating from Pakistan as the "greatest threat" to regional peace and stability, India and Afghanistan have said that setting up an effective counter-terror framework to deal with the challenge will be a major focus at the two-day Heart of Asia conference beginning Saturday.
Aziz also attended a dinner where he exchanged pleasantries with PM Modi.
General Naravane's UAE and Saudi Arabia visits communicate India's long awaited arrival in the domain of integrated foreign policy where the diplomatic and the military domains both complement each other much more substantially, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Hours after the multi-lateral conference began in Moscow, India made it clear that its participation was in sync with its Afghan policy and asserted that attending the meeting was not talking to the Taliban at all.
Swaraj expressed satisfaction over the agenda of the inaugural dialogue while giving the details of the deliberations.
If he doesn't, two things are guaranteed: Failure for him, and continued slide for his nation despite its talented people, strong nationalism, the gift of geography and a formidable army, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Beijing's growing assertiveness as kingmaker in Kabul has suffered a setback with Washington quietly moving in, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Citizens of many countries including Iran, Sudan and Cuba, who come in large numbers to India are facing severe problems as they do not have international credit cards
Vice President Hamid Ansari said that there is no shift in India's foreign policy and asserted that it is participation that matters as it is "not a conference of Prime Ministers".
'Here in Delhi, the Modi government is supposedly looking at 'options' to hit back at Pakistan in any whichever way it can, while in Washington, the Obama administration is looking for ways to strengthen US military cooperation with Pakistan,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
New Delhi must indicate to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that it has a long-term strategy for his country. It should point out that Pakistan's present Afgan policy will destabilise Afghanistan and help Islamic State, says Gautam Sen.
There are very few people in the world who qualify to be called a living legend. Astad Deboo is one of them.
ISI chief Faiz Hameed coerced the Taliban to announce an interim government guaranteed to preserve Pakistan's control over the levers of power in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India is likely to send a high-level delegation, headed by the minister, given the conference's importance.
On the last day of the competition, Yash Vardhan and Shreya Agrawal bagged three gold medals each.
China is in no hurry to disengage at the border and the region and international community is moving on. The spectre of a long haul in Ladakh haunts India, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan's demand for gas stands at 8 billion cubic feet while the current production is 4 billion cubic feet.
'Pakistan is determined to garner the peace dividends.' 'On the diplomatic front, this will be, principally, in terms of a revival of Pakistan's relations with the US,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Modi government will be wasting its time talking to Nawaz Sharif.' 'It would be better if it were to open a direct channel with the Pakistan army,' says Rajeev Sharma.
The Al Qaeda, the Islamic State or Daesh, as it is also called, will continue to exploit the fault lines and the many contradictions in the approaches of different countries, says Hardeep Puri.
How long can Pakistan remain neutral in the Saudi Arabia-led Yemen conflict?
'But India, increasingly, is not that far behind, which is a story I never expected to tell.'
Pak seeks US help to ease tensions with India.
