Free Republic

Indian Premier Manmohan Singh Friday urged the international community to "stay the course" in violence-wracked Afghanistan. ... "We appreciate the efforts of international community to stabilise Afghanistan and it is our sincere hope that the international community will stay the course."

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States and India said on Friday they have completed negotiations on a nuclear cooperation deal that would offer enormous benefits for both sides. But neither country gave details of the long-delayed, controversial accord and acknowledged critical steps must be taken before it can be implemented. The pact, approved by India's cabinet on Wednesday, would allow India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years, even though New Delhi refused to join non-proliferation pacts and tested nuclear weapons. "The conclusion of negotiations on this agreement marks a major step...

Nitin Gokhale Tuesday, April 24, 2007 (Kabul) For the first time ever a team from the Indian Army will be training the Afghan National Army (ANA). The team is heading to Kabul in the next few months. The decision, which has huge strategic implications, will certainly irritate Islamabad. A greater Indian presence in its backyard will not be taken too kindly but for India it also means making it's presence felt in other countries in central Asia. The army is shedding its traditional reluctance to get involved in India's extended neighbourhood. By the end of May an Indian military team...

NEW DELHI -- At a time when even friendly governments are quick to distance themselves from the United States and its pugnacious, embattled president, India is a strategic maverick. The former firebrand of the Non-Aligned Movement has chosen this moment to forge a close partnership with Washington and to speak up positively about American power in world affairs. "This lack of nuclear cooperation is the last remaining cobweb from our old relationship, and we can now sweep it aside," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said with an expressive wave of his hand. "There are no other barriers to a more productive,...

NEW DELHI: US President George W. Bush has in 48 hours in India won over many a hardened sceptic by pulling off a historic new deal that experts hail for giving India a strategic weight and potential and removing two 'Ps' from the relationship. "There is now no reason for the US and India not to trust each other," Lalit Mansingh, a former ambassador to the US, said, capturing the new comfort level between the hitherto 'estranged democracies'. Mansingh, who was foreign secretary when the India-US rapprochement started and bilateral ties took a turn for the better during Bill Clinton's...

Bush's journey to India Washington and New Delhi see benefits in a new relationship 3/6/06 NEW DELHI--Where, in a world rife with anti-Americanism, can you find most people owning up to warm feelings for the Bush administration? One of those few places is here, in the South Asian giant of India, where President Bush arrives this week to mark rapidly warming relations between the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest.A recent poll found that nearly 3 out of 4 Indians hold a favorable impression of the United States, solid base for the visiting president. "I like Bush," volunteers a...

The Indian and US navies have set up a Valentine’s Day tryst with aircraft carriers. The USS Ronald Reagan, named after a predecessor of US President George W. Bush who is scheduled to visit in early March, will be teaming up with the INS Viraat off the coast of Sri Lanka on February 14. The USS Ronald Reagan is steaming in from Singapore at the head of a carrier strike group that is forward deployed in the US’s “global war on terrorism”. The rendezvous for the passage exercise — or Pas Ex — was set up in quicktime because the...

US asks India to join new N-order Pramit Pal Chaudhuri Washington, February 8, 2006 Nuclear energy’s GenNext has been put on offer before India. US officials made an extended briefing on the new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) in New Delhi at the second meeting of the Indo-US Energy Dialogue steering committee on Wednesday. Officials from both countries say the Bush administration plans to formally invite India as soon as the current Indo-US nuclear deal is signed. The GNEP envisages a new worldwide nuclear system in which a core of supplier nations will provide nuclear fuel and technology to a...

In a step up of service-to-service engagement, India and the United States will conduct the biggest-ever army level exercises near Ranikhet in Uttaranchal in January, as American officials on Friday indicated that Washington was working to open doors to high-technology transfers. A company force of the US army will conduct joint exercises with a thrust towards anti-insurgency operations in the mountainous terrain near Choubhatia, US officials said adding that, in the coming year, armed forces of the two countries would participate in 'more complex, patterned war games'. "The US Pacific Command wants to expand its military-level innteraction with India over...

In a step up of service-to-service engagement, India and the United States will conduct the biggest-ever army level exercises near Ranikhet in Uttaranchal in January, as American officials on Friday indicated that Washington was working to open doors to high-technology transfers. A company force of the US army will conduct joint exercises with a thrust towards anti-insurgency operations in the mountainous terrain near Choubhatia, US officials said adding that, in the coming year, armed forces of the two countries would participate in 'more complex, patterned war games'. "The US Pacific Command wants to expand its military-level innteraction with India over...

KALAIKUNDA, NOV 17: As the Cope India 2005 Indo-US air force exercises wound down today after two weeks of feverish action in the eastern skies, the US Air Force were left with a stark, double-edged realization. One — that it is no longer the unchallenged leader in the skies, and two—for all future joint operations in South Asia, the IAF would, without doubt, be its natural partner. Vice Commander of the US Pacific Air Forces Lt Gen Dave Deptula said: ‘‘I have never seen a better executed exercise in my 29 years with the USAF. This will go a long...

Malabar 2005 Participants - USN, IN USN - USS Nimitz (Aircraft Carrier), USS Higgins (Destroyer), USS Chaffe (Destroyer), 1 X SSN (Nuclear Submarine), 1 X P3C Orion (Operating from Goa), F 18s (Embarked onboard USS Nimitz) IN - INS Viraat, INS Mumbai, INS Godavari, INS Shankul (Submarine), INS Aditya (Tanker), TU 142, Dornier Aircraft Fast Attack, Craft Special Forces (MARCOS) Details - Both groups of ships met at sea on September 25, 2005 at a location 300 nautical miles North West of Goa. The Ships carried out various intermediate level exercises (including joint exercise involving carrier borne aircraft from USS...

NEW DELHI: India might still be shy of openly jumping onto the controversial US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) bandwagon but it's certainly steaming ahead to practice mammoth operations with American forces on the high seas. India's largest-ever naval exercise with any country will kick off on Sunday when Indian and American aircraft carriers, destroyers, guided-missile frigates, fighter and surveillance aircraft undertake combat manoeuvres in the north-west Arabian Sea. The sheer scale of this 10-day Indo-US exercise, "Malabar-05", can be gauged from the fact that it will involve almost 10,000 officers and sailors from the two nations. "This will be the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Saturday hailed a resolution passed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog that required Iran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear plans and thanked India for backing Washington's bid to isolate Tehran. "This is a significant step forward in the international effort to isolate Iran and a setback for Iran's nuclear strategy," said U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns in a conference call with reporters. Earlier on Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency's board in Vienna passed a resolution requiring Iran to be reported to the U.N. Security Council at...

An Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft delivered 25 tonnes of relief supplies for the Hurricane Katrina victims at the Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, recently. The relief supplies comprised 3,000 blankets, bed sheets, tarpaulins and personal hygiene items. IAF's IL-76 took off from Palam airport, Delhi, on September 10, 2005, and reached the US via Muscat, Cairo, Lisbon, Lajes and Boston. Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen earlier presented a cheque of $5 million to the US Red Cross on behalf of the Indian government.

The North Arabian Sea would become the stage of a formidable build-up of naval armada, including 100,000-tonne displacement United States carrier Nimitz, as Indian and American flotilla cross swords in a nine-day joint manoeuvre from September 25.The eighth series of exercises, billed the most advanced so far, would not only see the pride of the US seventh fleet,  Nimitz, in action, but also bring the carrier-based E2C Hawkeye Air Early Warning aircraft, the Los Angeles class submarines and the F-18/A hornet to Indian shores. Against such formidable forces, the Indian Navy would pit its lone carrier, INS Viraat, carrier-based Sea Harriers,...

India likely to vote with U.S. on Iran in IAEA URL: http://www.india-defence.com/reports/377 Date: 17/9/2005 Agency: The Hindu India will vote with the United States, France, Britain and Germany in the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors if forced to make a choice on referring the question of Iran's nuclear intentions to the United Nations' Security Council. Highly-placed South Block sources told The Hindu that such a decision to vote with the U.S. in a crunch situation was taken even before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went into a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in New York. At...

Washington: The Bush administration came under heavy fire from the US Congress for bypassing it and negotiating a significant civilian nuclear deal with India despite its known support for Iran's nuclear ambitions and the US stand on the issue. At a three-hour hearing of the House International Relations Committee yesterday, key lawmakers visibly upset and at times angry, made no bones about their being kept in the dark over the India-US nuke deal which reverses decades of US nonproliferation policy and could require significant changes to US laws. ''You chose an initiative, which you may not be able to deliver...

BANGALORE, India - India and the United States have resolved a dispute over intellectual property, enabling them to sign an agreement on scientific collaboration next month, India's science minister said Friday. The dispute prevented the nations from signing the accord during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in July. "We have now agreed upon the language and the finer points," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said at a seminar on the future of scientific cooperation between the two countries. The agreement, covering areas like health care, biotechnology and nanotechnology, will be signed during Sibal's visit to Washington...

I have long maintained that today’s global jihad calls for a reconfiguration of American alliances. The sham friendships the United States maintains with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other jihad-exporting states may be motivated by political expediency – and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, economic necessity – but no one can maintain that in view of America’s long-term strategic and security interests that in the long run they represent sound foreign policy. [snip] A group called the US India League, of which I am proud to serve on the Advisory Board (along with, among others, Daniel Pipes, Alan Keyes, Paul...