New Delhi would be keenly watching this week's visit by China's President Hu Jintao to the United States. For, previous such visits and their joint communiqus and projects have impacted, mostly in a constricting manner, on India, writes Srikanth Kondapalli.
In an unusual gesture, United States President Barack Obama took German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a two-hour dinner at a Washington restaurant on the eve of their crucial official talks at the White House.
"As far as I know, China presently has not detained any Indian personnel," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told a media briefing in Beijing while answering questions on the tense standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley.
Indian ambassador to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri has been elected Chairman of the all important Security Council Committee on Counter-terrorism and two other key committees of this 15-member body.
Noting that the international community is united around Iran's misbehaviour, United States President Barack Obama has said it will be worth watching how China operates at the United Nations Security Council where his administration is likely to propose additional sanctions against Tehran.
Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawah, declared by the United Nations Security Council as a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba, on Friday claimed it is not a banned group and its offices across this country are operating normally as authorities have found "no evidence" linking it to terror or anti-state activities.
'Unfortunately, terrorists in one country are regarded as heroes in another,' Ujjwal Nikam told a global seminar on terrorism organised by the United Nations Security Council in New York.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who kicked off his 4-day India visit in Bengaluru on Saturday, made a strong case for India's inclusion as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.It was unthinkable that India was not yet a permanent member of the UNSC, said Sarkozy, who is visiting India with his wife Carla Bruni.
China opposed expansion of the United Nations Security Council in 2005 by prevailing on the United States not to dilute the prime position enjoyed by five veto-wielding members by adding more as it would create "trouble" for them, according to leaked US cable by WikiLeaks.
The United States has slapped fresh sanctions on dozens of Iranian firms and individuals having links with the country's nuclear and missile programme, expanding its list of penalties following the United Nations Security Council's fresh resolution.
Though India is not a member of the G7 grouping, Modi has been personally invited by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Even as the United Nations Security Council voted to impose new and punitive sanctions against Iran for its alleged clandestine nuclear weapons program, the United States and India have apparently reached a modus vivendi vis--vis each other's concerns regarding Iran.
The Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the United Nation Security Council's agenda, a UN spokesman stated on Monday, and rejected the reports that suggested it had been removed from the list of unresolved issues.
Russia and China -- the two veto wielding United Nations Security Council members -- on Monday sought "comprehensive" reforms to make the council more democratic, as they welcomed India's entry into the UNSC as a non-permanent member.
New Delhi's candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year.
Pakistan and China strongly feel that India should not become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as it would disturb the balance of power in the region, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday.
As the Indian government basked in the afterglow of the visit, with even the principal opposition party, the BJP, praising the US President, it categorical states that there would be no quid pro quo from New Delhi in terms of a positional shift on issues like Iran or democracy in Myanmar, writes Nilova Roy Chaudhury
Taken by surprise by United States President Barack Obama's endorsement of India's bid to gain permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, the Pakistan foreign office called in the US envoy to convey its concerns over the move.
India, among the few countries to actively engage with the closed military regime that governs Myanmar, will not join the chorus of western voices condemning or criticising the just concluded 'polling' process in that country, in which the main opposition National League for Democracy led by Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was barred from contesting.
Sounding positive to United States President Barack Obama's endorsement of India's bid for permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, China on Tuesday said it understands New Delhi's "aspirations" to play a bigger role in the UN and is ready for consultations with it over reform of the world body.
United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday left for Indonesia after concluding his three-day India visit.
On October 15, Rediff.com's Washington Editor AZIZ HANIFFA broke this story on how US officials wanted President Obama to support India as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, telling him it could make his India visit truly historic. On November 8, President Obama told Parliament that the US supported India's membership of the UN Security Council.
Members of Parliament from diverse parts of India -- from the Naxalite-affected regions to south India -- react to President Obama's speech.
Ahead of his visit, United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday described India as a 'cornerstone' of US' engagement in Asia, but held out no assurances on key issues -- support for India's permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and ending curbs on the export of dual-use technology.
"Kashmir was main cause of unrest in the region and India must show seriousness for resolution of the issue and honour its commitment under United Nations Security Council Resolutions," Sharif was quoted as saying by Associated Press of Pakistan.
The government has banned more than a hundred terrorist outfits linked to Al Qaeda from across the globe. Terror outfits like Jemaah Islamiyah (involved in Bali bombing) of Indonesia, Islamic Jihad Group of Libya, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad were declared as terrorist organisations by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
"I believe it would a great thing if the president were to do this during his visit," Karl Inderfurth, professor of international relations at George Washington University, told Rediff India Abroad
Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations, who had turned against Muammar Gaddafi, has called on the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution imposing a no-fly zone in the North African country within the next 10 hours.
Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the architect of India's stunning diplomatic victory this week, speaks to Aziz Haniffa.
The foreign minister said the conversation between the two leaders was held in a 'cordial environment'.
India has said that the United Nations Security Council was persistently 'encroaching' and 'undermining' the work of the General Assembly as it asked for it's revitalisation as the representative organ of the world body.
Pitching for "urgent" reforms of the United Nations Security Council, India on Friday said that the long pending expansion of the top organ of the world body is "inevitable".
The United Nations Security Council presided over by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning sexual violence against women in war zones.
Richard Fontaine, director of the Task Force convened by the Centre for New American Security, fears that India's abstentions of key votes at the United Nations Security Council and a divide on the issue of Iran when it does come up may dissipate Washington's enthusiasm to push for India's bid for a permanent seat.
A United States official is set to hold talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Lebanon this week on sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Real negotiations to reform the United Nations Security Council, for which India, Japan, Germany and Brazil have been pressing for a long time, may begin this year to meet demands to enlarge the top world body and include these countries as permanent members.
The Telegraph quoted General Hossein Moghadam, the Guard's former deputy chief, as saying that 'mass graves' are being dug close to the site of 1980-Iran-Iraq war. "The mass graves that were used for burying Saddam's soldiers have now been prepared again for US soldiers," he added.
India, regarded as a key emerging political and economic power, would be the president of the powerful United Nations Security Council in August and again later next year, most likely in November 2012, during its two-year term.
India, which has joined the United Nations Security Council after a of gap of 19 years, is most likely to be given a key responsibility by this powerful 15-membered body in fight against terrorism; thus acknowledging New Delhi's prominent role in the global war against terror.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said China will be 'pleased' to see India become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
