No nation has suffered more from terrorism than India: Kerry

October 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While the Pakistan Army has been raising questions over some of the conditionalities attached with the Kerry-Lugar Bill, saying it is against nation's sovereignty and integrity, a top US Diplomat has said that the outline of the bill was in fact prepared in consultation with Pakistan's Armed Forces. Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman said the Pakistani military was familiar with provisions made in the bill while it was tabled in the US House and Senate.

October 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Worried by the wide scale criticism of the Kerry Lugar Bill in Pakistan, US Vice President Joe Biden has said that Washington is considering Islamabad's reservations on the aid Bill. Biden met Pakistani ambassador-at-large Raffat Mahmood in Washington and told him that the Obama Administration is aware of Pakistan's concerns and is examining them, The News reports.

October 8th, 2009 Washington, Oct.8: US Senator John Kerry, the main sponsor of the controversial Kerry Lugar Bill, has said that there are no conditions in respect to the civilian and economic assistance attached to the Bill, rather it contains accountability measures to ensure that the amount is spent in exactly in the way it is being provided for. "There are measures of financial accountability in place to ensure the money is spent in a way that the American people want it to be spent," Kerry said.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Senator John Kerry, the main sponsor of the controversial Kerry Lugar Bill, has said Washington has no intention to harm Pakistan's sovereignty through the Bill. Addressing a press conference after meeting Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi here, Kerry said the Obama Administration wants to work for the better of the Pakistanis and stressed that the aid Bill is a clear sign of US' direct relations with the people of Pakistan.

October 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Defending the Kerry Lugar Bill, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has termed the controversial aid package as a 'big success' of his government. Addressing a meeting of government coalition partners, Gilani said the United States has assured all help to Pakistan.

October 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Obama Administration might be hoping to reduce the anti-US sentiments in Pakistan and help the troubled nation to come out of the crises it is facing currently through the tripled non-military aid of 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years, but a senior American lawmaker has said that the aid would rather prove to be a recipe for 'disappointment' and 'disillusionment'. Congressman Gary Ackerman expressed apprehension over Islamabad's intentions and the success of the Kerry Lugar bill, saying Pakistan would remain the same country no matter how much assistance is provided to it to bail itself out of the current precarious condition.

September 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Amid the growing discontent over the conditions attached with the Kerry-Lugar aid bill in the country, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani has said that the US' policies could not be altered. "The US was the sole super power of the contemporary world and it was not possible for any country to influence its polices.

August 26th, 2009 Kerry lauds Kennedy as 'best senator'WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry says Edward Kennedy was "the best senator, the best advocate you could hope for." In a statement issued hours after Kennedy's death late Tuesday, Kerry called the late senator an "irrepressible, larger than life presence who was simply the best." The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee was Kennedy's Massachusetts colleague in the Senate.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Noting that no nation has suffered more from terrorism than India, an influential US lawmaker wants Washington to help it break with the perilous politics of South Asia's past for the long-term safety of the US, Pakistan and India. "First, we have to help India break with the perilous politics of South Asia's past," said Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday at the confirmation hearing of Tim Roemer as the new US ambassador to India.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry, expressing concerns over the deteriorating environmental conditions in South Asia, has said that the changing climate of the region could adversely affect the relationship between India and Pakistan. Kerry, in his speech titled 'Climate change and American foreign policy: security challenges, diplomatic opportunities, said the problems of climatic change were acute in South Asia, which could have a serious impact on the relations of the two nuclear powers of the region.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has passed the enhanced aid bill for Pakistan offering 1.5 billion dollars annually over the next five years. The bill named the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, commonly known as the Kerry-Lugar bill, is primarily aimed to counter terrorism.

April 24th, 2009 WARSAW - India and Poland have renewed their commitment and determination to fight the menace of terrorism. In a statement issued here on the second day of her three-day visit to Poland, India's President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said that during her meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczyuski, both agreed that their countries had suffered at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

April 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Senator John Kerry has said that the Obama Administration's plan for Pakistan "is not a real strategy." "Pakistan is in a moment of peril. And I believe there is not in place yet an adequate policy or plan to deal with it," Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.

March 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry has said the United States may seek cooperation from India, China, and Iran to stabilize Afghanistan. "We also need to reach out to Afghanistan's other neighbours, including India, China, and Iran," the Dawn quoted Kerry, as saying at the confirmation hearing for the new US ambassador to Afghanistan.

January 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Even as Pakistan has become 'ground zero for the terrorist threat', an influential US senator has advocated support for Islamabad and helping it and India to return to bilateral peace talks disrupted by the Mumbai attacks. 'As America's second post-9/11 President takes office, a single country has become ground zero for the terrorist threat we face,' said John Kerry, the new Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman in an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Times Friday.