Uttam's take on the political situation in Delhi
The United States on Saturday said India's position on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will not impact the nuclear agreement between the two countries and expressed hope about moving forward with the landmark agreement."We've said before that the resolution that was passed on Thursday unanimously by the United Nations Security Council does not have any bearing on our bilateral civil nuclear cooperation," said an US official.
'What we need to watch is how Saudi Arabia's financial assistance will be used by Pakistan. If the funds go to build their military hardware and operations, it should worry us.'
According to a study by the Centre for the Study of Science, Technology and Policy based in Bangalore, there is a good chance of nuclear power contributing about 57,000 MW by 2030 through LWRs and FBRs. By building more PHWRs too -- with totally indigenous technology, but run on imported uranium fuel -- the level could touch 70,000 MW or higher
Stressing that wars are "very bad", Trump said that he seems to have "an ability to end them, to get people together" for which he uses the "power of the United States".
The heart of the matter is that the Indo-US nuclear deal, unless it is closed now right now and on American terms, will soon need to be harmonised with the new Russian-American format and the international regime emanating out of it
Rubio also listed the peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, 'a 12-day war that ended with an American operation that we're the only country in the world that could have done, hopefully pretty soon a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia.'
The crises of the 21st century, 9/11, the economic meltdown, COVID-19, Russia-Iran war and the Hamas-Israel war seem to be never ending. In this situation, Iran might be contemplating a nuclear deterrent to defend itself, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, the distinguished long-time Rediff contributor who turns 80 on June 17..
'Pakistan is an ally who gives the US access.' 'If we have a presence there, it puts us that much closer to China and puts our assets closer to China and Iran.'
'Saudi-Pak defence pact is to anchor the defence and security of Saudi Arabia and not Pakistan, per se, with Islamabad being the junior partner.'
Foreign ministers trying to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear programme in Vienna are considering extending the negotiations as the Monday deadline looms large with "serious gaps" in the dialogue.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan identifies China border dispute as India's biggest national security challenge, followed by Pakistan's proxy war. He also highlighted regional instability, future warfare scenarios, and dealing with nuclear-armed adversaries as major concerns.
New Delhi might have loudly welcomed an age of multipolarity, hedging and strategic autonomy. But it seems the winner in that game is Islamabad, not us, points out Mihir S Sharma.
India has offered to place 14 of the 22 thermal power reactors under IAEA safeguards in a phased manner between 2006-14, Dr Kakodkar told a media conference, adding the agreement would not affect the country's strategic programme in any respect.
India and the US have collaborated through the past one month on launching a powerful satellite; are commencing joint production of GE Aerospace's F414 jet engines in India; India is participating in a massive three week-long military exercise in the Western Pacific, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
During a visit to the UK, former US President Donald Trump reiterated his claim of intervening to resolve a conflict between India and Pakistan, linking it to trade negotiations. He also discussed tariffs on India for buying Russian oil and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
'...it should not delude itself into thinking that India's security or its great-power ambitions will be advanced by those partnerships.'
'Instead, what India should focus on is on riding out the next three-and-a-half years of Trump's presidency with minimal damage to itself.'
Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, US President Donald Trump on Monday urged civilians to 'immediately evacuate Tehran', shortly after which the White House announced he would be departing the G7 summit early to 'attend to many important matters'.
Whether Trump will actually press ahead with the oil sanctions remains unclear, since keeping Russian oil out of the world market risks high oil prices which could boomerang on the US economy and be damaging politically for Trump, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Indian government is dealing with the matter having in mind the national interests of this country in the first place, he said.
A Pakistan that is more secure in its relations with the US is also one that might well wish to indulge in another cross-border misadventure.
According to Mr Babar, within four days of this interview the Mumbai terror attack was underway, bringing the two countries closest to war in years -- 'The warmongers shattered Zardari's dream of peace with India'.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a "full and immediate" ceasefire after a "long night" of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim on several occasions.
President Trump says the US is close to a trade deal with India, while also claiming to have stopped a war between India and Pakistan.
At least four people were killed and 516 others were injured on Saturday in a massive explosion and fire at the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, more than 1,000km south of capital Tehran, according to officials and state media, Al Jazeera reported.
Rubio mentioned the recent conflict between India and Pakistan that President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he solved.
'Government officials use Gmail and ordinary phones without basic security consciousness.' 'Interoperability, especially in joint exercises with countries like the US, worries me.' 'It often means we open our systems to them, but they don't reciprocate.' 'They could have kill switches in their systems and might even be able to affect ours.'
US President Donald Trump claimed that "five jets were shot down" during the conflict between India and Pakistan in May and repeated his assertion that the fighting ended following his intervention. India has maintained that the two sides halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.
'We are part of a global nuclear embargo. We are subject to global nuclear apartheid. And we want to move on, so that our people get the opportunities that they deserve in the context of another option in the energy sector,' says Science & Technology Minister Kapil Sibal.
United States President George W Bush will sign the law on the India-US nuclear agreement very soon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in New Delhi on Saturday.Addressing a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Rice assured that the US will keep its commitments both to the 123 agreement and the Hyde Act while implementing the nuclear deal with India.Rice added that the Hyde Act was consistent with the 123 agreement.
The Communist Party of India Marxist Politburo has decided to meet in New Delhi soon to take an 'appropriate decision' if the talks between the Left Front and the United Progressive Alliance fail to end the logjam over the India-United States nuclear agreement.The party central committee, in its meeting in Kolkata last week, had authorised the politburo to take a final decision if the UPA government went ahead with the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.
Trump said he had a series of phone calls on trade with both India and Pakistan.
Experts believe it would be far-fetched to believe that Riyadh would support Pakistan militarily in any conflict with India, which has robust strategic and economic relations with Saudi Arabia.
'We have a great leader coming, the prime minister of Pakistan and the field marshal.'
As a protege of Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to scale bilateral ties much higher. Trade and investment shall grow. People-to-people contacts shall be scaled up, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
>The formal signing ceremony, originally expected to take place on Monday December 11 in the Rose Garden at the White House, has been postponed to later in the week.
China and Pakistan are in a tight strategic alliance. India must deal with them one at a time, but be prepared in case they decide to collude, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'If you fire two missiles at Jamnagar or ten missiles there, what do you think India will do?' 'India will fire 500 missiles on Tarbela and Mangla, destroy the Sukkur Barrage, destroy Karachi port.' 'When you start issuing threats, it should be with some sense and sensibility.' 'You shouldn't just shoot your mouth off just because you have appointed yourself field marshal.'
