It is a simple vegetarian spread 'with less spices and oil' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif is having halal meat dishes during their stay in Nepal for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit.
There is a lot that the SAARC can do if only its two biggest countries, India and Pakistan, leave their disputes back home. Sheela Bhatt gauges the mood at the opening day of the regional summit in Thimphu, Bhutan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday left for Colombo to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation summit beginning on Saturday, during which terrorism is expected to be one of the main topics of discussion. Singh is expected to meet his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the summit and is likely to convey India's concerns over the recent spurt in cross-border terrorism and ceasefire violations.
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.
Afghanistan became a SAARC member in 2006.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani are expected to meet in Thimphu on the margins of the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation Summit, during which the Indian leader is likely to seek an update on the probe and trial in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case being conducted in Pakistan.
PM will raise transit and transhipment issue for NE during SAARC summit
The Summit on April 28-29, to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will also unveil rules and regulations for the ambitious SAARC University which is in the process of being set up in Delhi.
The national capital, which will host the summit on April 3 and 4, will be dotted by crack commandos of Delhi Police and the paramilitary forces.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached Indian assets of a Sri Lankan man and his son as part of a drugs-linked money laundering investigation against them.
'The performance of any government is benchmarked on five parameters -- India's external security, the state of the economy, social cohesion, internal security, and India's relations with the world or its foreign policy. On each of the benchmarks in the past nine years, the NDA-BJP government has come up completely short'
Pakistan will not engage with India 'until and unless they lift the siege' in Kashmir, it said.
Jaishankar was among the first ministers to arrive for the SAARC ministerial meeting. He was in the meeting for over 45 minutes and then left.
Apart from India, Bangladesh and Bhutan have also pulled out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November, saying the environment is not right for the successful holding of the meet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held bilateral talks with all Heads of Government and State attending the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the only conspicuous exemption.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time addressed the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Kathmandu in Nepal. Here are the top quotes from his speech:
Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.
The SAARC nations have been more pragmatic than their peers in the ASEAN and EU, indicated an official source on the eve of the 17th SAARC Summit to be held in Male on November 10-11, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for Maldives for the SAARC Summit on Wednesday.
The fight against terrorism and extremism on Monday topped the agenda of talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai as the two leaders discussed a range of bilateral issues ahead of the SAARC summit.
The conference, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, will see participation of over 40 countries.
India even after 65 years of independence finds it bothersome to build a memorial for the Unknown Soldier in the national capital. The soldiers died so that we may live. And the least we can do is to remember them, writes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on sidelines of the SAARC Summit here and is expected to convey India's disillusionment over Pakistan not acting against the Mumbai attack suspects and its failure to take credible steps to dismantle terror infrastructure on its soil.
PM Modi telephoned Imran Khan to congratulate him on his party's victory in the general elections
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will only travel to Kathmandu when he will leave on Tuesday to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Nepal, despite his wish to visit other parts of the country including Janakpur, the revered Hindu religious site.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that developing close relations with India's neighbours is a key priority of his government, ahead of his planned visit to Kathmandu on Tuesday afternoon to attend the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Summit.
Nepal said it 'has received communications' from four member-states -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India -- in which they conveyed their inability to participate in the 19th SAARC summit.
Secretary of State Colin Powell described the meeting of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as 'historic'.
The postponement came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his inability to attend owing to situation in neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh.
India is against the pipeline passing through Pakistani territory.
Quoting diplomatic sources, The Express Tribune reported that India and Pakistan were exploring the possibility of a meeting between Swaraj and Aziz and also between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in the Nepalese tourist city of Pokhara.
In an interview to Dainik Jagran the prime minister said a 'good beginning' could be made to improve ties from next month's SAARC summit in Islamabad.
The SAARC has not lived up to its potential, the White House said.
Prime Minister Manmohon Singh with his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the 15th SAARC Summit in Colombo on Saturday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the national capital on Thursday after a successful three-day visit to Nepal capital Kathmandu, where he attended the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit.
Modi said the coming together of SAARC leaders will lead to effective outcomes and benefit citizens in the fight against coronavirus. The PM on Friday had proposed formulation of a joint strategy by the SAARC nations to fight coronavirus, a suggestion that was backed by all the member states.
She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan.
From January 2015, he has served as India's Ambassador to Poland, based in Warsaw, with concurrent accreditation to Lithuania.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, currently in Maldives attending the SAARC summit, told rediff.com on Thursday that anything between India and Pakistan is spectacular, when asked whether the two countries could expect anything impressive from the meet.
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