'All this talk of 'tactical nuclear weapons' or a limited nuclear war are 'false flags'! It looks like India and Pakistan are slowly but surely inching towards this realism,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Leader of the anti-nuclear plant project, S P Udaykumar, while boycotting the meeting with Central government-appointed experts, said that his group had lost faith in the Central government and would now only hold meetings with state government officials. Ganesh Nadar reports from Tirunelveli.
India and Pakistan are reportedly expanding their nuclear arsenal, despite a global trend towards disarmament, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has said.
Cementing their strategic partnership, India and Kazakhstan on Saturday signed an inter-governmental framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation and some other key pacts, including a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
Officials hint the visit could finally see a formal defence industrial road map being adopted by both nations.
North Korea on Thursday said it is dropping out of six-party nuclear talks and will "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal."
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.' 'For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?' 'The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.'
Despite four disarmament section talks and six strategic dialogues between the two foreign ministries, China's intransigence on recognising Indian nuclear status resulted in no confidence building measures in the nuclear field between the two, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
Unruffled by global concerns, Beijing and Islamabad are in talks to build a new nuclear reactor in Pakistan of 1 gigawatt capacity, three times more powerful than existing ones, apparently without the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The talks could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iranian nuclear installations and could also help President Barack Obama make the case that he is nearing a breakthrough in the decade-long effort by the world's major powers to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
India on Monday signed a path-breaking broad-based agreement in the civil nuclear field with Russia, which will ensure transfer of technology and uninterrupted uranium fuel supplies to its nuclear reactors, and inked three pacts in the defence sector. The agreements were signed after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow, during which they discussed a whole range of issues.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
Obama and Putin discussed the necessity of countering the Islamic State and the situation in Ukraine, the White House said.
'It's such a mishmash of wonderful things, so many different cultures, subsections of society and weird histories.'
Aziz said Pakistan is committed not to transfer nuclear weapons to other states or assist others to acquire nuclear weapons and consistently supported the goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world.
India and Argentina on Wednesday signed an agreement in civil nuclear cooperation and nine other pacts with a desire to establish strategic partnership.
'You are dealing with a small gang of semi-literate terrorists. These are guys flying kites.' 'There is huge difference between flying kites and actually having a deliverable, executable, plan.'
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will aim to invest $3-4 billion in green hydrogen projects, along with its joint venture (JV) partners, said a senior executive from the company. These investments are planned over three to five years, depending on cost economics. The engineering conglomerate is also in talks to acquire the Nuclear Power Corporation of India's (NPCIL's) share in one of its forging JV companies for a consideration of Rs. 100-150 crore. "We are considering investments worth $3-$4 billion in the green hydrogen space, in collaboration with partners," said S N Subrahmanyan, chief executive officer and managing director of the company.
"During the talks, we confirmed that we will never tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea," visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said after talks with Japanese Prime MinisterTaro Aso in Tokyo. Lee and Aso agreed to press Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme and urged China, North Korea's closest ally, to play a greater role in persuading it to disarm.
Chomsky and Prashad said that they were informed of the event's cancellation in the mail.
Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif on Thursday sought civil nuclear technology to overcome Pakistan's energy crisis during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday met Akie Abe, the wife of Japan's late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and recalled the late premier's invaluable contribution to the advancement of India-Japan relations.
"It is not going to be replicated to other countries," US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said work on India's nuclear programmes will continue despite media reports of the country's nuclear power plants being placed on alert and being made more secure to prevent a terror strike.
According to Russian journal Vedomosti, the agreement was made when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Goa BRICS summit.
Modi held talks with Abe after arriving in the Laotian capital to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-India and the East Asia summits that will take place on Thursday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, if voted to power, will "revise" the country's nuclear doctrine to make it "relevant to challenges of current times", said the party manifesto while talking about maintaining the credible minimum deterrent in tune with the "changing geostatic realities".
India's ambassador to the United States, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who was visiting The NYT editorial board, rejected Khan's criticism.
The two countries decided to set up a joint commission on military-technical cooperation during wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Belarus President A G Lukashenko in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Abu Dhabi on July 15.
India has a 'natural global partnership' with US, says PM.
PM Modi and his Japanese counterpart are likely to sign several agreements, including on civil nuclear cooperation. Both leaders are also likely to discuss defence cooperation, including joint maritime exercises between Japan, India and the United States.
'If the Iran nuke deal holds, Iran becomes a gateway to Afghanistan, and a better one than Pakistan because the route is not so mountainous. Correspondingly, I imagine Pakistan's value to the US will fall,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Jaishankar said he was confident that Prime Minister Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year.
'I am contesting elections to encourage and start a nationwide debate on the present nuclear policy.'
He said there is a need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear power without restrictions.
Sources have told FT that Iran will offer talks without preconditions.
Modi has made nuclear power a key element of his clean energy strategy
National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, who was part of the Indian delegation that held talks with the US side, on Thursday confirmed that the deal was clinched.
