Curtis, who was the lead panellist at a conference at The Brookings Institution titled, The US-India Nuclear Agreement: Expectations and Consequences,' said, "During the Bush Administration, US officials broke the habit of viewing India solely through the India-Pakistan lens. Washington developed a greater appreciation for the Indian democratic miracle and viewed our shared democratic principles as the bedrock for a broader strategic partnership."
Dr Rajiv Shah, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to head the US Agency for International Development -- the country's top non-military foreign assistance programme -- has told US lawmakers that "the mission of USAID is my passion," and that "it is with enthusiasm and humility" that he seeks confirmation to lead the agency first established by President John F Kennedy in 1961
President Barack Obama has nominated Rahul 'Richard' Verma, currently a partner with the top-notch international law firm in Washington,DC -- Steptoe & Johnson LLP -- as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, and sources told Rediff India Abroad that considering that he has been a much respected Congressional staffer, his confirmation process before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the coming weeks would be a shoo-in.
The rise of BRIC countries represents a fundamental shift in global economy and the developing world needs a legitimate seat at the table so that shared challenges are better addressed, a powerful US Senator has said.
United States President-elect Barack Obama's Secretary of State designate Senator Hillary Clinton, appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of her confirmation process on Tuesday, said that the Obama administration will condition military aid to Pakistan, on its commitment to counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.
The New York Times report that Pakistan illegally modified the Harpoon anti-ship missile provided by the United States apparently to bolster its conventional weaponry against India, has embarrassed the Obama administration and Senators John F Kerry and Richard Lugarjust as Washington is poised to provide Islamabad with a massive economic and military largesse of $ 7.5 billion over five years
The US Senate has unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution introduced by Senators Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat and George Voinovich, Ohio Republican -- both members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- condemning the terrorists attacks in Mumbai and applauding India's restraint so far as it investigates the attacks.
Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "India's rhetoric was as strident as we ever heard China's, so we need to build a climate partnership with India, too; working from the same principles, but respecting the massive differences."
Software czar Bill Gates engaged in a large number of social projects in India, has told US lawmakers that the northern parts of the India face difficult challenges.
Appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tim J Roemer, a former Congressman from Indiana, told US lawmakers in response to a question that Kashmir is a 'sensitive and delicate' issue.
Manisha Singh, an erstwhile senior staffer of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a former political appointee during the George Bush Administration, has landed a top job as the executive director of the Barer Institute based at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle.
"We have been very clear with the Indians, should India test, as it has agreed not to do, or should India in any way violate the IAEA safeguards agreements to which it would be adhering, the deal, from our point of view, would, at that point, be off," Burns pointed out.
Asserting that the Pune's German Bakery blast should not derail the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan, one of the key aides of President Barack Obama, Senator John Kerry has said that Washington is ready to assist both countries, and that the long-pending Kashmir issue should not be a 'prerequisite' in the initial conversation.
The United States has asserted that it stands with India against Chinese aggression as several lawmakers slammed China for choosing a People's Liberation Army soldier.
The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan were among the various issues that came up for discussion as ranking United States Senator John Kerry on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. Kerry, Chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was on a day-long visit to India. Singh and Kerry took stock of the bilateral relations and prospects of taking these forward. In the regional context, the two discussed the situation in Afghan and Pak.
There is no doubt that the Al Qaeda has expanded its network to newer areas like Yemen and Somalia, but Pakistan remains its nerve centre, a top American Senator said on Wednesday.
The United States looks forward to enhancing strategic partnership with India and is likely to make some announcements on it 'fairly soon'. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his confirmation hearing, Robert Blake told American Senators that Obama is committed to strengthening the existing strategic partnership between the two countries. "President Obama has said that the United States sees India as a global power," he said.
The massive $7.5 billion aid legislation to Pakistan, authored by United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John F Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar, would be approved without any difficulty in the coming weeks. The massive aid to Pakistan will be approved in spite of the serious doubts raised by some members of the committee, including a senior Democrat and a few Republicans, they said.
The Pentagon does not believe that the shaky civilian government of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will be deposed by a military coup anytime soon.United States' Central Command Commander General David Petraeus assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that "as one who's been in Pakistan, and had a lot of conversations with military leaders as well as the civilian leadership, I actually don't think that the current challenges imperil civilian rule,".
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry said on Wednesday that Pakistan has become the "ground zero of terrorism" and "security threat" to the United States.
Diplomatic observers and foreign policy wonks were left perplexed trying to figure out what Senator John F Kerry meant when he said India had begun "to reinvigorate its own programme there", which he described as "absurd on both sides".
American Senator John F Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who just returned from a trip to Afghanistan after twisting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's arm to acquiesce to hold a run-off election after charges of massive fraud and corruption were uncovered in the recent election, has warned that Pakistan could become the epicenter of terrorism in the world, since it is now the headquarters of the Al Qaeda.
'Riding around in an armed personnel carrier, as I did when I was there, and seeing the faces through the window of Afghans watching that monster vehicle go by, you get a sense of the disconnect that Afghans must experience,' US Senator John F Kerry said.
Ties between Pakistan's ISI and Taliban remain troubling for the United States and this relationship should be "fixed", a top US senator has said.
This would make him the highest-ranking Indian American ever in the US Department of State. Over a month ago, Verma was appointed as one of the leads of the Agency Review Team overseeing the US Department of Defence for President-elect Barack Obama's Transition.
The nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan has figured during a Congressional hearing on the New START treaty between the United States and Russia.For the past two days, during hearings on the New START treaty held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lawmakers wanted to know from top US officials and experts about other nuclear weapon countries like India and Pakistan and how it can motivate the two countries to reduce their nuclear stockpile.
United States vice president-elect Joe Biden will lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation on a visit to Southwest Asia before he takes office alongside Barack Obama on January 20. For security reasons, details of the trip and the countries to be visited have not been released. Biden would be accompanied by Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic Presidential candidate and the incoming Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Marking a historic trip to Myanmar, a senior United States lawmaker on Saturday met pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the country's military ruler Than Shew and secured the release of an American, who had been jailed for secretly visiting the residence of the detained leader. Democrat Senator Jim Webb became the first senior US official to meet the reclusive Myanmar general in the capital Naypyidaw.
'Pakistan has received assurances that no dispensation in Afghanistan will be inimical to Pakistani interests and that Pakistan will have a say in the determination of the future of the region. India would definitely not be part of the new order if the US could help it.'
The nonproliferation lobby is not happy at all with Congressman Howard Berman's bill, which he introduced in the House of Representatives on September 25. Nonproliferation activists feel that their strongest advocate, who had been critical of the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement, has let them down by capitulating to the Bush administration with a piece of legislation, which is a clone of the measure that was approved two days earlier by the Senate Foreign Relat
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.
Pakistan has moved one step closer to receiving massive American economic and military largesse -- reminiscent of the billions of dollars it received during the Reagan and George W Bush Administrations when military dictators Mohammad Zia-ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf respectively were in charge -- to the tune of $1.5 billion annually over five years, when the Senate-Lugar aid bill steamrolled through the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a vote of 16-0.
Addressing New York-based think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Islamabad might move some troops from its border with India to the "guts of Pakistan".
Pakistan is bigger than Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea combined. There's 156 million people. They have 24 to 55 nuclear weapons. They have not only the bomb, the thermonuclear device, they have the missile that can couple with the bomb, and it can fly all the way to the Mediterranean.
"In terms of India, in terms of South Asia, you cannot find a more knowledgeable person than Joe Biden. And indeed, right now, the Biden-Lugar legislation on Pakistan is the most important piece of legislation in terms of foreign policy on the Hill. It's trying to reorient our foreign policy toward that country to make it more comprehensive -- not just one that was individual-based and transactional as it was before."
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
The Al Qaeda network is not located in Afghanistan, but clearly headquartered in Pakistan, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress Thursday, and warned that if the Taliban takes over Afghanistan again, it would mean the return of al Qaeda to Afghanistan to plan and plot attacks against the US reminiscent of 9/11.
Sending encouraging signal to the rest of the world, a bipartisan group of powerful US Senators on Friday agreed on a framework for a climate change bill.
The Kerry Lugar bill that would give a whooping US $ 7.5 billion non-military aid to Pakistan, which US President Barack Obama last week termed as a "down payment" and "investment" into America's future, would be introduced in the US Senate on Thursday.
"The recent arrests here in our own country trace back to Pakistan and trace back certainly in the case of Zazi, directly to an Al Qaeda-originated training camp and training programme. But finally and perhaps most chillingly the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear power raises the stakes enormously," she said.
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