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WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN | Naval personnel from India and the United States will participate in exercise Malabar 2011, April 3-10. Malabar is a regularly scheduled bilateral naval field training exercise and has grown in scope and complexity over the years. Malabar 2011 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises conducted to advance multinational maritime relationships and mutual security issues. The at-sea portions will be conducted in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Luzon Strait and east of Okinawa. The location coincides with the Indian Navy's western Pacific deployment. The exercise is designed to advance U.S.-Indian military-to-military coordination...

US, India forging global partnership: Burns Arun Kumar (IANS) Washington, November 29, 2006 The United States and India are forging a "natural global partnership" economically, militarily and culturally in one of the most significant shifts in US global policy in a decade, says a senior US official. While the US-India civil nuclear accord has received the most public attention, there is actually an "ambitious agenda" of cooperative efforts under way through official government channels, private businesses and non-profit organisations, said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns. In a speech to the Asia Society in New York...

Mumbai police cracks 7/11 blasts case September 30, 2006 15:52 IST Last Updated: September 30, 2006 16:40 IST Mumbai Police on Saturday claimed to have cracked the July 11 serial blasts in the city's commuter trains. Addressing media persons, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence was the 'mastermind' behind the terror attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayiba with help from Students of Islamic Movement of India activists. Out of the 15 people arrested in connection with the blasts the 'direct role' of 12 people has been established, he said, adding that out of them, 11 are...

Message from the Mumbai blasts: Don't get close to the US July 12, 2006 If ever there was a demonstration that cross-border terrorism remains a pertinent threat to freedom-loving people everywhere, it happened on 7/11 in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. A series of bomb blasts on the most crowded suburban rail system in the world has killed at least 174 people and wounded scores more. As we recently observed the one-year memorial of the 7/7 blasts in London, these attacks should not be seen as separate from them or from the wedding bombings in Jordan in 2005, or...

New Lashkar module maybe behind blasts July 12, 2006 12:42 IST The Mumbai police suspect that a new module of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba that may have penetrated Mumbai recently, could be responsible for yesterday's serial bomb blasts that killed over 190 people and left over 600 injured. Mumbai crime branch officials, who probed the blasts conducted by the Lashkar in Mumbai in 2002 and 2003, told PTI that the entire LeT module involved in those blasts had been exposed. Two to three LeT operatives from the module, who are absconding, do not seem to be involved in yesterday's blasts, they said....

PM’s Suo Motu Statement on Iran February 17, 2006 New Delhi Hindi Version Taking into account the concerns that have been raised about India’s vote on the Iran nuclear issue at the meeting of the Governing Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, on February 5, 2006, I rise to apprise this august House of the facts of this matter. Let me begin by affirming that India’s vote on the IAEA resolution does not, in any way, detract from the traditionally close and friendly relations we are privileged to enjoy with Iran. Indeed, India-Iran ties, as we have...

India-U.S. deal disturbing, says Musharraf B. Muralidhar Reddy It will upset the balance of power ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said the civilian nuclear cooperation pact between the United States and India will upset the `balance of power' in the region. Addressing jawans at Bhawalpur in the Punjab province on Friday, Gen. Musharraf termed the deal "disturbing to Pakistan." He maintained that Pakistan's nuclear arsenals were in safe hands and there was no need to worry about them. Ever since New Delhi and Washington forged the nuclear deal in July last, Pakistan has been seeking a similar package on...

Pak opposition, media slam Bush visit March 05, 2006 18:31 IST Disappointed that no major concessions were announced during US President George W Bush's visit to Pakistan, opposition parties have said it did not bring any tangible gains on Kashmir, nuclear energy and defence while the media slammed it as a "dull affair" with Washington "tilting" in favour of India. Deputy secretary-general of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Liaquat Baloch termed the Bush visit as "most disappointing" and said the American president has left Islamabad "out in the cold" on the Kashmir issue while giving a clear edge to India over Pakistan...

'Bush snatched bread from our mouth' March 05, 2006 As United States President George W Bush leaves Pakistan on Saturday night, one glaring fact will stand apart from the rest. He will be the fifth American president to visit Pakistan and on all five occasions, a democratic government was not in place. Dwight Eisenhower was the first US president to visit Pakistan in December 1959. Lyndon B Johnson visited Pakistan twice (December 1967 and December 1968). Both came when General Ayub Khan was in power. * Complete Coverage Richard Nixon visited Pakistan in August 1969 when the country was under...

Bush, Manmohan create history, seal nuclear deal Associated Press New Delhi, March 2, 2006 US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday announced their countries had reached agreement on a landmark nuclear deal. "We concluded an historic agreement today on nuclear power," Bush said during a joint press conference. Under the accord, the United States would share American nuclear know-how and fuel with India to help power its fast-growing economy, even though India won't sign the international non-proliferation treaty. It would represent a major shift in policy for the United States, which imposed temporary sanctions on...

Howdy, pardner March 1, 2006 India should welcome George W. Bush. The world's largest economic, military and cultural power, the United States, has the ability to do a great deal of harm, as well as a great deal of good to us. In the past 60 years, it has done both. America's ties with Pakistan undermined Indian security as nothing else could have. The US-sponsored jehad against the Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan left a detritus of arms and explosives, not to mention jehadis, in our region. But US aid has also left a legacy of the Green Revolution that helped...

Manmohan offered to quit over CPM protest to Indo-US exercise January 07, 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had offered to resign last November when West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya refused to provide his government's support to the India-United States joint military exercise in West Bengal. Not only did he offer to resign but he also told Bhattacharya that 'defence matters decided by the Centre can't be overruled by the states.' Dr Singh also gave the West Bengal CM the example of Kerala where Indo-China joint military exercises were conducted unhindered. According to a source in New Delhi, "The PM...

Iran assails Burns' remarks in Delhi Diplomatic Correspondent NEW DELHI: Iran on Sunday said that criticising a third country when on a foreign visit showed "scant disregard" for diplomatic norms. It was referring to Friday's remarks in New Delhi by visiting American Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, that Teheran was a "terrorist State." The remarks were made in the presence of Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. The Iranian Embassy said in a statement that it was the U.S. that had prevented the establishment of democracy and popular governments. "Regarding the claim about the support of Iran to terrorism, it should...

Chidambaram's recipe to beat China October 21, 2005 13:58 IST Last Updated: October 21, 2005 14:27 IST Warning that India would be left behind China in the absence of fast track reforms, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the government would accord top priority to financial sector reforms and asked companies to ensure that large portion of their stocks are traded in the market. "We will press on with financial sector reforms…unless financial sector is sufficient, we cannot convert savings, capital flows, tax revenues, which comes out of capital expenditure into production of goods and services leading to high...