Global Indian News
It could not have been better. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s maiden overseas visit, to India, was a very positive one. Not only did he have reportedly good meetings with …
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In a triumph of persistence and diplomacy, India has managed to rescue an Indian aid worker who was abducted by the brutal Taliban militia from Afghanistan’s Herat province. Father Alexis Prem Kumar, a Jesuit priest from Tamil Nadu, returned home on February 22, after months in captivity.
“Delighted at securing the release of Indian Jesuit priest Father Alexis Prem Kumar from captivity in Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
The Jesuit priest’s release was the culmination of intense negotiations by India through National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The priest’s kidnapping is not the first time an Indian has been targeted in Afghanistan. In the past few years, the Indian embassy and consulates have been attacked many a time in the past. India has pledged over $2 billion for a host of reconstruction activities in Afghanistan ranging from building roads, bridges and roads to dozens of grassroot projects which have spawned enormous goodwill for India in that country.
In an ironic twist and a symbol of changed times, Mahatma Gandhi, the man who liberated India from the imperial rule, will have his statue installed at Parliament Square in London.
Moving beyond historical wrongs and in a gesture that underscores robust India-Britain ties, India’s Finance minister Arun Jaitley will be inaugurating the statue in Parliament Square in London on March 12, the 85th anniversary of the day Gandhi launched the Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in 1930.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has justified the decision to install a Gandhi statue alongside Britain’s war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill and South Africa apartheid leader Nelson Mandela saying, “the initiative would lead to Britain cementing its historical connection with India.”
The installation of the statue was announced during British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s visit to India in 2014.
There is something touchingly beautiful about youth, with all its high hopes, impossible yearnings and the desire to make and remake your own world. Bliss was in that dawn to …
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India’s South Asian diplomacy is set to acquire a renewed momentum during Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar’s planned visit to all SAARC nations in March. Mr Jaishankar, who took charge as …
Read MorePitching for the transformation of India’s defence industry, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enlisted the support of foreign investors for the success of ‘Make in India’ campaign for modernising the country’s military and industrial complex.
Inaugurating the 10th edition of the South Asia’s biggest air show ‘Aero India 2015’ at the Air Force Station Yelahanka near Bengaluri on February 18, the prime minister said it was important to modernise India’s defence forces and increase preparedness and voiced confidence that the country can emerge as a global centre for defence industry.
India is one of the largest importers of defence equipment. Mr Modi stressed that this is one area where he would not like India to be number one and made a robust pitch for cutting down on defence imports to make the country empowered and self-sufficient in cutting-edge defence technologies.
Breaking his months-long silence on a slew of attacks on churches and the shimmering controversy over attempts at religious conversions by Hindu fundamentalists, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined that his government will not allow any religious group belonging to the majority or minority to spread hatred against any group.
“My government will ensure that there is complete freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice without coercion or undue influence. My government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly,” he said at a function in India’s capital Delhi on February 17 to celebrate the elevation of two members of the church to sainthood.
Shedding the veil of secrecy that has tended to envelop India-Israel relations, the Modi government is rolling out the red carpet for Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a landmark trip that is set to impart a renewed momentum to the burgeoning defence relations between the two countries.
The importance of the trip is clear from the fact that it is the first trip by an Israeli defence minister to India since the two countries established full diplomatic ties in 1992.
Mr Ya’alon will hold meetings with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi and also participate in Aero India 2015 in Bengaluru to inaugurate the Israeli Pavilion at Aero India.
The India-Israel relations have acquired a new momentum under the new government in New Delhi, which looks at Tel Aviv as an important partner in a host of areas, including defence, counter-terrorism, and water conservation. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met in New York in September 2014 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. With a host of terror groups active in the region, India is looking to step up counter-terror cooperation with Israel.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s first official visit to China earlier this month (February 1-3) came on the heels of US President Barack Obama’s sojourn to India that saw …
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Ending a prolonged period of drift in India-Sri Lanka relations, the leaders of India and Sri Lanka upgraded bilateral ties with the two sides signing four agreements, including a landmark pact for civil nuclear cooperation.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lanka’s newly-elected President Maithripala Sirisena held wide-ranging talks to bolster strategic ties, increase trade and resolve long-standing issues between the two nations.
“The bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation is another demonstration of our mutual trust. We discussed expansion of cooperation in energy sector both conventional and renewable,” Mr Modi said in a joint media interaction with the Sri Lankan president.
The two leaders also spent some time discussing the festering issue of fishermen straying into the other country’s territorial waters and underline the importance of resolving this issue.
The four-day visit to India from February 15 to 18 by the Lankan president is aimed at ushering a new chapter in bilateral ties that had suffered and languished during the last few years of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is Sirisena’s first foreign visit since winning national elections held in January.