Less than a fortnight left for her first trip to India as the Secretary of State, Clinton had a breakfast meeting with more than a dozen top Congressional leaders from both Democratic and Republican parties on Wednesday, coming from both the chambers of the Congress -- the House of Representative and the Senate.
The US President is extremely interested in this, as the secretary of state is," Roemer told US lawmakers at confirmation hearing when senator Richard Lugar citing a recent World Bank report informed him that there are 828 million Indians living on less than $2 a day.
The new Obama Administration on Wednesday assured India that it will proceed with the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, signed during George W Bush's tenure, and said the two countries needed to ramp up cooperation in counter-terrorism and global issues such as climate change.
'Recalling his visit as the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations in 2015, President Obama wished the Prime Minister warm congratulations ahead of India's upcoming 68th Republic Day anniversary,' the White House said.
Prakash Amritraj and his American partner Alex Kuznetsov scripted a come-from-behind win to advance to the doubles quarter-finals in the US $50,000 ATP Challenger in Calabasas, United States. The fourth seeded Indo-US pair defeated the local duo of Rylan Rizza and Kaes Van't Hof 6-7(1), 6-2, 10-8 in the first round on Monday night.
A senior officer of the United States Air Force on Monday said his country was happy to see the issue of the US aircraft detained in Mumbai being sorted out quickly.Responding to queries during a press conference held on the sidelines of the Indo-US joint Air Force exercise, Ex-Cope India 2009 in Agra, the Defense Attache of the US Embassy in New Delhi, Colonel Stuart Kowward, said the issue has been sorted out and the officials were waiting for a final signal from India.
Robert O Blake, the new Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, making his debut before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday, said Secretary of State Hillary's Clinton's trip to India next month will be a tangible manifestation of the Obama Administration's commitment to take the Indo-US relationship to the next level.
In a step closer to the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, US President George W Bush has formally certified to the Congress that the 123 agreement is consistent with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Put the poor who have voted for this government at the centre of reforms, says Sunita Narain.
India will now develop its own stockpile of nuclear fuel to fulfil its energy needs, taking advantage of the guarantees given in the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said on Thursday.
Berman's bill -- which is in all respects similar to the Senate Committee's Bill that the government of India has found objectionable and offensive -- contains the additional proviso that in the event of a nuclear test by India, which leads to the automatic termination of the deal, the presidential waiver of this termination could be limited.
The American Jewish Committee, a powerful Jewish group with more than 150,000 members in the US, urged US Senators and Representatives to approve the agreement, also known as 123 Agreement, saying it believes that the overarching benefit of this agreement is strategic. In a similar show of support the US Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation, sent a letter to all members of the House and Senate.
Outgoing US President George W Bush has said that under his presidency America opened a "new historic and strategic partnership" with India, listing it among the highlights of his term's foreign policy.
Addressing the Congress working committee meeting in New Delhi, Gandhi said it was "imperative for us to debunk the false propaganda being spread by the BJP, the Left parties and other political opponents."
India on Friday made it clear that the civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States will be guided only by the 123 agreement which, when operational, will become a 'legal' document in accordance with well-recognised principles of international law and Law of Treaties.
Manufacturers view the agreement - when it is signed - as a defence against the slowdown in the car market.
'As long as the prime minister's assurances are embodied in the 123 Agreement, we do not need to quarrel with an internal document of the United States.'
With his administration focusing on alternative sources of energy so as to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, US President Barack Obama wants to build Indo-US renewable energy partnership which would end up in benefiting not only the two countries, but also the entire world.
Sonia Gandhi,Manmohan Singh and party leaders met Obama.
Following is the reaction of parties on the India-specific safeguards agreement being approved by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
India has received a positive response from the Non-Aligned Movement countries, which are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group on the Indo-US nuclear deal after it briefed them on the safeguards agreement, which the global nuclear watchdog will consider on Friday.
United States President Barack Obama will have a tight schedule during his three-day visit starting January 25, as he will hold talks with top leadership in New Delhi on ways to make progress on key issues like defence and civil nuclear agreement and attend the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest, among other engagements.
The telephonic conversation between Dr Singh and Medvedev was 'in development of constructive (ties), aimed at practical results talks held on the margins of the recent G-8 summit in Toyako (Japan) and they discussed a wide range of issues, including the preparations for the upcoming Delhi visit of the Russian President', according to the Kremlin.
The 10-member ASEAN described the Indo-US nuclear deal as an extremely positive step, hoping that the two countries would be able to conclude the pact soon.
Making a strong defence of the nuclear deal during the debate on confidence motion, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected the Left parties' allegations of betrayal and took potshots at leader of opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani, saying he should not "distort" facts in "over enthusiasm" to score political points.
The United States and India are now poised to take their growing relations to a "third stage", a top US diplomat has said, seeking New Delhi's cooperation in addressing global challenges and combating terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Lobbying for the Indo-US nuclear deal, India on Friday briefed the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors and some Nuclear Suppliers Group countries on the safeguards agreement amid reports that there was no sign of opposition to the accord.
'India's reputation is not and cannot be dependent on the whimsical opinions of some obscure foreign advisory committee packed with Hindu-phobic acolytes,' declares Vivek Gumaste.
Even as it gasped for breath, American insurance giant AIG was lobbying the United States Congress hard to get the Indo-US civil nuclear energy deal cleared, reports ProPublica.org.
On whether President Bush will leave this (the agreement) up to the next President -- as far as final bureaucratic things are still on his table -- Perino said, "Well, I think that the next administration will be able to decide for itself whether or not they want to continue that relationship that we've established with India. But I would see no reason why they shouldn't."
The safeguards pact, which is the next step in the operationalisation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, was sent to the 35-nation Board on a day when the Left parties formally withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance government, following a bitter feud over the deal which has remained stalled for several months.
Emerging from the Rashtrapati Bhavan after submitting the letter withdrawing support from the government, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat told media persons that the draft of the IAEA safeguards agreement must be made public. Claiming that the Manmohan Singh government had not been transparent on the nuclear deal, Karat said the deal will not be acceptable to the Left parties till all the issues raised by them were clarified.
Their parleys, which staved off a breakdown between the Left and the ruling coalition for the time being, followed a series of meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and top leaders of the party till late Thursday night.
Lashing out at the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre to which his party has extended outside support, the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday charged it with trying to send him to jail with the help of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Leaders of Left parties, who have strongly opposed the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, have started receiving "death threat" mails.
Ridiculing the Left for opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said the parties were suffering from 'Americaphobia just like some people have hydrophobia.' "They have Americaphobia, just like some people have hydrophobia. They may have it, but they must understand that the the US is technologically advanced and we need that advanced technology," Mukherjee told a seminar in Kolkata on the N-deal.
The government on Wednesday ruled out giving to the Left the draft of the India-specific Internatonal Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement in connection with the Indo-US nuclear deal, but asserted that all their queries on this subject have been "answered." "It is not possible to give them (Left) the (safeguards) text. We have anwsered all their queries," Union Science Minister Kapil Sibal told TV channels.
At the Howdy Modi event, the PM said that the people who cannot even manage their own country are harbouring terrorists and supporting terrorism.
Both houses of Parliament were adjourned till noon within minutes of assembling on Tuesday following uproarious scenes over the issues of plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra.
The prime minister was received at the airport by India's Ambassador to the US, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and his American counterpart Ken Juster.