Amid the see-sawing developments of dialogue between India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said on Wednesday that New Delhi's priority would be action over talks in the aftermath of the deadly Pathankot terror attack.
Pakistan expressed hope on Tuesday night that the issue of an Indian woman diplomat being arrested on charges of spying for the Inter-Services-Intelligence would not overshadow the expected meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Thimphu.
The United States on Friday described as 'completely inaccurate' media reports that it had offered to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve their differences over the sharing of river water.Reports in the Pakistani media on Friday suggested that the water dispute between India and Pakistan had come up during the first meeting of the Water Working Group of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which was held on Thursday.
While India has indicated that it may restart the foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan, Islamabad maintains that it would accept nothing short of resumption of comprehensive 'composite dialogue' with New Delhi.
"How can you have a strategic dialogue without including the military," Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke told reporters at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
Top Taliban commander Mullah Baradar's arrest in a joint US-Pakistan operation does not mean that Pakistan is moving against the militants and may be seen as a key strategy of the country aimed at maintaining influence on its "western flank", a US think tank said on Monday.
Pakistan is scheduled to get 18 of the Block 52 F-16s, Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate by fall and is expected to receive Shadow Drones within a year, a Pentagon official has said.
Last year, the US assistance to Pakistan was $534 million.
"We want to work closely (with) Pakistan to create a more stable and secure Pakistan as well," he said.
"Our success will depend chiefly on reforms taken in Pakistan by Pakistanis. And I see little in this bill to provide any assurance that such changes are on the way. I fear we are again choosing to be Pakistan's patron rather than its partner," Congressman Gary Ackerman said.
Pakistan does not scare us, it worries us, Home Minister P Chidambaram said referring to the instability in the neighbouring country.
The 2019 election gives the Indian public the same choice: Between growth and oligarchs (or, in our case, dynasts and crony capitalists). If we chose wisely, well and good. If not, well, we have the Nehruvian Rate of Growth and massive corruption to fall back on. In a large sense, it is a choice between the India of the Lutyens elites and the Bharat of the real citizen, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The trilateral summit of US, Pakistan and Afghanistan this week would help in establishing a working equation between the three Presidents for better coordination and united fight against terrorism emanating from the two Asian countries.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
The opposition lawmakers said they would discuss a 10-point agenda during their "session" outside parliament, including Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's "attitude", a power tariff hike, inflation and the law and order situation in the financial hub of Karachi.
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
In its mouthpiece, Saamna, the party says, "If Pakistan considers us as its enemy, it is a matter of great pride. It is like getting a Mahavir Chakra."
It currently has between 140 and 150 nuclear weapons in its control and stockpiled around 200 to 300 kilogram of plutonium.
Amid differences with America on the issue of drone attacks against high-value terrorist targets on it soil, Pakistan on Tuesday said it would not give any "blank cheques" to the United States and not accept foreign troops in its territory in the ongoing war to root out the Al-Qaeda and Taliban.
A senior former Obama administration official said if another attack would have happened like that, it would 'quickly escalates into a regional war'.
'In a complex conflict like Kashmir, you can't just ignore the militants when you talk of a permanent solution.'
'It is for the first time in 70 years that the US has come out totally in India's favour on the Kashmir issue,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on US-Pakistan relations and had a lively debate on the issue whose transcript was released on Sunday.
'It certainly doesn't have to be accomplished at the end of the year. It will not turn into a pumpkin after some days! The next president and next Congress can take this up,' says expert K Alan Kronstadt.
'While in the past elements within the Pakistani security establishment viewed Afghanistan as an essential part of its strategic depth vis-a-vis India, the rapprochement between New Delhi and Islamabad in recent years has made such a policy obsolete.'
Senator John Cornyn, Senate Majority Whip for the 114th Congress, in a letter to Obama, has said "it is ill-advised" to pursue any civil nuclear agreement with Pakistan.
The United States will provide security assistance to Pakistan to help it build counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism capabilities under a joint five-year plan developed by the two countries.
Armitage, appearing in a Brookings Institution discussion on 'The US-Pakistan Strategic Relationship', said, "I have gone my whole career desperately wanting to tell somebody that I would bomb them into the Stone Age and I have never been able to do it because I have never been authorised to do it."
'Bolstering India's conventional military capability against China is in America's strategic interest,' says military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
"Our relationships with each state are based on US national interests in relation to that state. The US-Pakistan relationship is a long-term, broad-based partnership based on factors such as strong trade and investment, security interests, and long-standing cultural and educational ties," the US Embassy said in a statement on Thursday.
Providing military assistance in the hope that it will change Pakistan's worldview is wrong, says erstwhile ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani
The United States has said it will continue to press Pakistan to take "additional steps" to deal with terror groups seeking refuge within its borders, hours after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sought American help to resolve bilateral issues between India and Pakistan.
'She preserved national unity against great odds.'
Visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday met United States Secretary of State John Kerry and discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, the state department said.
'If push comes to shove, Pakistan does have the capability to make it difficult for the US and NATO forces to make even a withdrawal of troops out of Afghanistan in orderly fashion,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In a bid to get a civilian nuclear deal from the US, Pakistan has said it was ready to permit foreign companies to invest in atomic power plants in the country and take back the unspent fuel to allay fears over proliferation.
'Perhaps the biggest indication was its striking decision in November to delink LeT from its aid certification process.' 'The administration decided that the US, in order to send military aid to Pakistan, would not need to certify that Pakistan is cracking down on LeT.' 'Perhaps the administration was trying to offer a carrot -- in effect, we're backing off on LeT, but in return we expect you (Pakistan) to go after the Haqqanis.' 'Either way, the optics were dreadful for the US given that Hafiz Saeed was released from house arrest a few days after the US move.' 'The US reacted angrily, but eventually it moved on, and refocused on its core concern: The Afghan-focused terror groups.'
Striking a conciliatory note amid rising tension in ties, Pakistan today said it does not want to live in "perpetual hostility" with India, noting time has come for the two neighbours to decide whether status quo should continue or a new beginning be made.
'If there's one administration that would be likely to put the squeeze on Pakistan, it's the Trump administration.' 'This is an administration that views terrorists as a black and white issue (kill them all, no questions asked), and will have little patience for Pakistan's selective policy toward terrorism.'
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.
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