Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's presence at the first-ever Nuclear Security Summit hosted by United States President Barack Obama, beginning April 12, will be key for 'critical substantive reasons', believes Dr Ashley J Tellis, an expert on nonproliferation and nuclear security matters.
Leading South Asia analysts in the United States have slammed President Obama for his stout defense of Islamabad as committed to non-proliferation and a safe steward of its nuclear weapons arsenal, and described his comparing the safety and security of US and Pakistan nuclear weapons is "unhelpful and disingenuous".
United States President Barack Obama has assured Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that Washington has no plans to control Islamabad's nuclear programme.
Ahead of his two-nation visit beginning on Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday met President Pratibha Patil and discussed various issues, including internal security and Indo-Pak matters. A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said the meeting lasted for nearly an hour. "The two leaders discussed the upcoming session of Parliament, and the forthcoming visit of the prime minister to Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit," said a press release.
United States President Obama will host Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a mini bilateral summit before the start of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington beginning April 12, instead of the brief meeting originally slated on the margins of the parley, claim sources. The report about the possible meeting comes amidst growing concern in both the US and New Delhi that the Obama administration has been ignoring India.
Amid growing concerns of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will join leaders of 42 other countries in Washington on April 12 to discuss ways to strengthen the global initiatives to prevent such a scenario.The two-day Nuclear Security Summit, an initiative of US President Barack Obama, will focus on dangers posed by clandestine proliferation and illicit trafficking of nuclear material.
Diplomatic observers and South Asia experts in the US do not believe that two of India's major concerns that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh brought up with President Obama on Afghanistan, during his state visit in November and again recently on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit have been alleviated during the summit between Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Washington on Wednesday for Brazil after attending the Nuclear Security Summit and holding talks with US President Barack Obama during which he asked him to press Pakistan to rein in Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other terror outfits targeting India.On the second leg of his 8-day two-nation tour, Singh headed to Brasilia where he would attend the India-Brazil- South Africa and the Brazil-Russia-India-China summits on Thursday and on Friday.
"We are considering setting up of a nuclear security Centre of Excellence in China through cooperation with relevant countries in order to play a bigger role in regional nuclear security cooperation," Hu said in his remarks at the Nuclear Security Summit.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has claimed that world's most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden is not in his country and said no distinction could be made between a good and a bad Taliban. The Pakistan prime minister admitted he had little information on the whereabouts of the Al Qaeda chief and said that the Pakistan army had conducted widespread operations in region such as Swat, South Waziristan and Orakzai tribal region.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised the issue of Sikh fundamentalist outfits with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit at the Convention Centre in Washington on Monday evening.During the meeting, Dr Singh also noted that this year marked the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Air-India flight Kanishka. He urged Canada to monitor the activities of Sikh separatists in that country.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who had arrived 10 minutes earlier than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on seeing the latter, scooted over, greeted him with a firm handshake and could be seen exchanging pleasantries.After Obama welcomed the last guest at 6.30 pm, all the leaders moved into another cavernous room in the Convention Centre for the dinner that was closed to the press.
Continuing with his agenda, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has sought a civil nuclear agreement with the United States and other atomic powers and asked for the adoption of 'non-discriminatory' criteria. Gilani raised the issue on Monday, during a working dinner hosted by United States President Barack Obama for the world leaders, which kicked off the 47-nation two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
The prime ministers of India and Pakistan may have 'a brief encounter' in Washington on the sidelines of the April 12-13 Nuclear Security Summit, though proper talks between them are more likely during a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meet in Bhutan in April, a media report said on Saturday. The United States administration would prefer to arrange a proper meeting between the two prime ministers on the margins of the nuclear summit next week.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday embarked on a visit to the United States to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, where he is expected to pitch for firm response to the challenges of proliferation and the possibility of terrorists gaining access to nuclear material. During the eight-day visit, Dr Singh will also travel to Brazil to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China and India-Brazil-South Africa summits.
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet in Washington on Sunday, during which the two leaders will discuss the civil nuclear deal and other bilateral and regional issues.
As he prepares to embark on a visit to the US on Saturday to participate in the Nuclear Security Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that nuclear terrorism and proliferation of sensitive technologies are "legitimate concerns" which require "firm responses".
"The Obama administration has favoured new international civil nuclear-energy architecture, an architecture that allows countries around the world to benefit from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy without increasing proliferation risks," said Robert J Einhorn, Special US Advisor for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Arms Control.
The US-hosted Nuclear Security Summit, to be attended by leaders of 40 countries including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is expected to issue a communique endorsing a global crackdown on illicit trade of nuclear material. A draft communique also calls for securing all vulnerable nuclear materials within 4 four years, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
As one surveys the changing face of mulilateralsim today, we see mutation and multiplication. The underlying reality is that the world is multipolar and with more poles, you tend to get more constellations.
US President Barack Obama would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Toronto, a top Indian official said Wednesday. "The Prime Minister would be traveling for the G-20, he will be meeting President Obama," Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma told Indian media-persons in Washington.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his interaction with the press after the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, delivered some short, crisp answers on a host of issues.When he was informed that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had told the press that he had invited the PM to Islamabad and the latter had accepted the invitation, Dr Singh quipped to much laughter, "I am hearing it for the first time."
Speaking on the IPL controversy involving Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that he had to ascertain all the facts after he returned to India on April 17, before taking any action in the matter.When he was asked if Tharoor would be sacked over the Kochi IPL team controversy, the PM said, "I have heard about these things. I don't have all the facts before me and when I go back, I will get all the facts."
Satisfied with the outcome of the Nuclear Security Summit, which vowed to lock down all nuclear materials in four years and prevent terrorist groups from laying a hand on it, United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the world will be a more secure place now. "We have seized this opportunity, and because of the steps we've taken -- as individual nations and as an international community - the American people will be safer and world will be more secure," Obama said
The communique issued at the end of the Summit, which saw the participation of 47 countries constitutes a political commitment by the participating countries on a "voluntary basis" the actionable portions of this work plan.
India, a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, was not invited to a luncheon meeting hosted by United States Vice President Joe Biden, where he professed that the grouping and his country had similar goals on nuclear security and non-proliferation.
'The Washington summit is as much about nonproliferation and arms control as about nuclear security,' says T P Sreenivasan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is unlikely to meet his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh in Washington, where they are scheduled to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12 and 13.
US President Barack Obama will host a two-day summit on nuclear security beginning April 12, during which key global leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are likely to get together to discuss ways to secure atomic material and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism.
US President Barack Obama vowed to secure all the vulnerable nuclear material around the globe in four years; as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda are aiming at getting a hand on them. "At April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists," Obama said in his State of the Union Address.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to visit the US in April to attend a global Summit on nuclear security, a topic that is of immense interest to India considering apprehensions over safety of atomic arsenal in Pakistan and proliferation originating from there.
During last week's Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama asked the media to leave and then screened videos depicting plausible scenarios pertaining to nuclear terrorism.
Pakistan, which was a "major source" of nuclear proliferation in the past, has been invited to the US-hosted Nuclear Security Summit, as America wants it to be part of the solution to the problem, a top Obama Administration official said on Saturday.
According to Dawn, Modi in his message reiterated India's desire to build good neighbourly relations with Pakistan.
Obama seeks reduction of nuclear arsenal in India and Pakistan while Pakistan seeks NSG membership
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for the Belgian capital as part of a three-nation tour during which he will attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington and visit.
'Obama's visit to Hiroshima must generate a fresh debate in the international community about how to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons in international politics and how to disarm the world from these monstrous weapons forever,' says Sanjeev Shrivastav..
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif may meet PM Narendra Modi in Washington on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, a top aide to Pakistan Premier said on Tuesday.
The prime minister is all set to break his record of spending most days in the country without travelling abroad.
Will the external affairs minister's foreign travels end up affecting his chances at the hustings?