Pakistan believes Afghanistan is developing into an Indian garrison and has been nurturing groups like the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Tayiba over the years to counter it, a key United States Senate Committee has been told. "I am not making any accusations against any given country in the region. All of them are looking out for their vital interests. But India is becoming involved in Afghanistan and Pakistanis consider Afghanistan as developing into an Indian garrison," he said.
Though the Indian caucus in the Obama administration is concerned over the recent reports concerning Pakistan's funds being used against India, it may be unable to bring any changes in the Kerry-Lugar bill that has assured Pakistan of USD 1.5 billion on an annual basis for five years.
The United States identified LeT as one of the largest and most active terrorist organisations in South Asia.
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."
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.
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.
A bi-partisan group of some of the most influential US Senators has called on the Sri Lankan government to expeditiously alleviate the suffering of thousands of Tamil refugees and return them to their homes by the end of the year.
Senior diplomatic observers and administration sources have told rediff.com that in the weeks following the formation of the new Indian government, the Obama administration will press for India to resurrect the composite dialogue with Pakistan that lie comatose after the Mumbai terror attacks.
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."
The US is set to send its diplomat A Peter Burleigh to 'temporarily' fill in for David Mulford as its ambassador to India. It has been over a month since Mulford returned to Washington after getting a one-month extension from US President Barack Obama.
On the eve of the first high-level talks between India and the new Obama Administration in Washington, with the arrival of Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior US officials later today (Monday), outgoing Ambassador Ronen Sen has dismissed concerns over the momentum of the relationship under the new dispensation in DC.
An influential American Senator has said that in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, the most important bond between the United States and India is their 'unity in the face of extremism'.Republican Senator George V Voinovich, a ranking member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also lauded India's restraint vis--vis taking action against Pakistan.But he cautioned that this should not mean that Pakistan has been 'given a free pass'.
Influential American Senator John Kerry has said that United States will monitor Pakistan's firmness in the crackdown on radical Islamic groups and asked Islamabad to do more to restore its credibility with India. There are a lot of 'unfulfilled promises' that were made by Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and Islamabad needs to do more to keep its words, Kerry said.
Prior to his departure, the prime minister attended a Congressional reception hosted jointly by Foreign Relation Committees (House and Senate) and India Caucus (House and Senate).
As tensions ratcheted up with India pointing an accusing finger at Pakistan for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, US President Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a second time to offer him all assistance in investigating this tragedy, even as he instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to go to New Delhi to offer his and the United States' condolences and to tone down India's angry rhetoric against Islamabad which could spill over to a military conflict.
Speaking at a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee, Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "There are mixed signals here that are very, very troubling and that the United States needs to be able to have alternatives for carrying out its foreign policy in that region."
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
The two leaders discussed the status of the deal and a range of issues covering Indo-US strategic partnership at the Oval Office in the White House. The meeting slated for 5.10 pm local time (2.40 am IST) started 20 minutes late as Bush was engaged in talks with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain on the financial crisis in the US.
Even as the United States Senate has scheduled a quick hearing on the India-US nuclear deal, all eyes are on the House of Representatives whose Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, a vocal critic of the pact, is yet to take a call on having a similar process."Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been lobbying furiously for the India deal, which appears to hinge on whether the White House can persuade Republican Howard Berman," said a local paper.
The administration is leaving no stone unturned as it races against time to have the US-India civilian nuclear agreement completed by the Congressional adjournment date of September 26 even if indications are there that the lawmakers may return for a Lame-Duck Session after the November 4 presidential elections.
The final draft of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform, which will be voted on during the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver, Colorado, has declared that the United States and India are 'natural strategic allies'. In the section entitled 'Renewing American Leadership', which contains a paragraph that calls for 'Lead in Asia', the platform stated, "We are committed to US engagement in Asia."
"We can and will finish that bill before we leave," a confident Senate Majority Leader Leader Bill Frist said.
As the two democracies India and the US-- come closer, increased parliamentary exchanges will help consolidate the relationship, says Rup Narayan Das.
The surprise retirement of Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who played a seminal role in finalising the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, will take "some of the focus away" from the accord but his continuation as special envoy will help in its early conclusion, experts said.
K Subrahamanyam felt India's right to conduct nuclear tests was not curbed under the agreement.
'It is also a strategic decision to line up India against China,' Senator Hagel said.
"And in this overall context," he added, "it is against India's own national security interests to have another nuclear weapons state in our region."
The United States has said that it has broadened the non-proliferation regime by bringing India inside it through the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Suresh Kumar's nomination by United States President Barack Obama, to be assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the United States and Foreign Commerce Service, sailed through two key US Senate Committees last week.Now the full Senate has to vote on his nomination, and sources said he could be in place in his job at Commerce by late February or early March.
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.
BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra expressed dissatisfaction with the prime minister's statement saying he should have instead allowed a 'sense of House' resolution on the pact.
She said that 'the legislation that emerged from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a significant improvement over the implementing legislation put forward by the Administration in March.'
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