Diplomacy

A sense of renewal in India-US ties: Lalit Mansingh

- by India Writes Network

India and the United states will hold their fifth strategic dialogue and the first one since the installation of the new Narendra Modi government in India. The first substantive diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Washington under the new dispensation in Delhi July 31 will be watched closely not just in the two countries, but also in key capitals of the world.
In this conversation with Manish Chand, Editor-in-Chief, India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org), Lalit Mansingh, a former ambassador of India to the US and a former foreign secretary, speaks about the importance of the India-US strategic dialogue, the cluster of bilateral, regional and global issues on the agenda for the strategic dialogue and the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington in September.

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India-Nepal ties: Mapping New Horizons

- by Manish Chand

It’s a journey that could prove to be path-breaking in mapping new horizons in the age-old India-Nepal relations. In her second stand-alone visit to a neighbouring country in South Asia, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj travels to Kathmandu July 25-27, an important trip that promises to usher in a new chapter between the two fraternal neigbours bound by deep ties of geography, nature, history and culture. The visit underscores yet again the primacy of South Asia in the foreign policy calculus of the new government in New Delhi and comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the leaders of SAARC countries for his swearing-in ceremony and a month after Mrs Sushma Swaraj visited Dhaka.

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Gaza violence: India backs Palestine in UNHRC vote

- by India Writes Network

Amid the festering violence and mounting casualties in Gaza, India has voted in support of a UN Human Rights Council resolution to probe Israel’s offensive in the region. In the 47-member council, 29 countries voted in support of the resolution while 17 nations abstained. Israel’s long term ally, the US, was the only nation to vote against the resolution. “We remain hopeful that a sustainable ceasefire will be reached between the two sides, linked to the resumption of the peace process, for a comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue,” said India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji.

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