CIA chief to persuade Pak to allow India a greater role in AfPak

October 5th, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - India has sought more representation of women in high decision-making positions at the UN saying greater participation of women in areas of conflict prevention was particularly necessary for lasting peace and security. "India attaches very high importance to ensuring concrete action in this area," said Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the UN during a Security Council debate Monday on "Women and Peace and Security".

October 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a "very intensive," three and a half hour AFPAK discussion in the secure Principals Conference Room in the Ops Center on Friday. According to Politico, among those who participated in the discussion were Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, his deputy Paul Jones, senior advisor Vali Nasr, special defense advisor Vikram Singh, deputy secretaries of state Jim Steinberg and Jack Lew, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Bob Blake, Clinton chief of staff Jake Sullivan and deputy policy planning chief Derek Chollet, plus US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson and senior embassy leadership via secure video.

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Indian Ambassador to the United States, Meera Shankar, has said it is for the US to look into the issue and respond to former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's recent disclosure regarding misuse of American military aid. Shankar said the US should respond to the issue and not India.

September 10th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday questioned the efficacy of President Barack Obama's AFPAK policy that links US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan to ending a Taliban insurgency in the region. "Afghanistan and Pakistan are distinctly different countries and cannot be lumped together for any reason," Zardari said in an interview with the Financial Times on the anniversary of his first year in office.

August 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a bid to give a sharper direction to the war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan, US President Barack Obama will next month send Congress a new plan for measuring the progress of his administration's AFPAK policy. The administration has already begun seeking feedback on the plan from lawmakers and their staffs.

July 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An influential American senator, who played a key role in getting the India-US civilian nuclear deal passed, has apologised for "mistakenly" suggesting "a rising" India posed a "graver and greater" security threat than that in Afghanistan and Iraq. Defending the need to continue the F-22 programme, shot down by the Senate at the behest of President Barack Obama, Senator John Cornyn said in a published interview that the US needed these fighter jets for protecting itself from increasing national security threats from countries such as North Korea, Iran and India.

July 22nd, 2009 PHUKET - With Russia backing the US military offensive in Afghanistan, Moscow Wednesday sought security cooperation with New Delhi to fight the growing regional threat from the Taliban and allied Islamic militants when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov here.

July 5th, 2009 ASTANA - Kazakhstan has resolved its issues with steel magnate Lakshmi N. Mittal and with India's largest oil explorer ONGC Videsh and the "situation is coming to a successful end", a top diplomat has said, adding that the country supported India's aspirations for a greater role in an expanded UN Security Council.

May 29th, 2009 LONDON - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's team must focus on infrastructure as it opens up to greater foreign investment, the international law firm Eversheds said Friday after latest figures showed India's GDP beat forecasts. Election 2009 has delivered a new outlook for India and its economy, Gauri Advani, head of India Group at the London-based firm said after official data showed India registered an impressive 6.7 percent growth in fiscal 2008-09, despite the global economic downturn.

May 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States considers the next 12 to 18 months as critical to the success of its revamped AFPAK policy. Addressing an off the record briefing, in which the briefer is not identified, a top US military official said the next year and half would crucial for the US led 'war on terror' against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

April 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A US Congressional delegation led by House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Howard Berman met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday and discussed terrorism and the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Berman is leading a seven-member delegation, including Congressmen Gary Ackerman, Ted Royce and Jim Costa to India.

April 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said that India was yet to decide on joining a regional framework proposed by US President Barack Obama in its Afghanistan-Pakistan policy. 'The US is making efforts to involve more and more countries like China, Russia, Iran and India.

March 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani Tuesday said US President Barack Obama was being 'unfair' in comparing Pakistan with Afghanistan in the war against terror. 'Comparing Pakistan with Afghanistan would be unfair,' the official APP news agency quoted him as saying when asked to comment on Obama's new AfPak policy unveiled last week.

March 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With American President Barack Obama's new strategy envisaging a bigger role for India in stabilising Afghanistan, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke comes here next week to explore ways in which New Delhi could help in defeating the Taliban - a common enemy. Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is likely to be in India April 7, official sources told IANS.

March 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The US' new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan has revived cautious hopes in India that Washington will be vigilant against the misuse of aid and exert greater pressure on Islamabad to dismantle the Taliban and Al Qaeda, sections of whom are linked to anti-India terror activities. Broadly supportive of the regional approach towards stabilising Afghanistan and linking aid to Pakistan with its performance against terrorism, New Delhi is, however, cautious about other aspects of the Afghanistan-Pakistan policy (AfPak, as it is called in strategic circles) that includes persuading New Delhi and Islamabad to resume talks amid the unfinished business of bringing those behind the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice.