Free Republic

In a sensational disclosure, a government source has reported that many Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured following a clash at Naku La in North Sikkim three days ago. However, the situation is said to be under control as of now. Incidentally, Naku La was one of the original face-off sites, along with Pangong Tso, Galwan, Gogra, Hot Springs, in early May last year. The clash took place when the governments and militaries both the countries were readying for another round of talks to resolve border dispute along the 3,488 kilometre-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), said the government sources....

India’s army chief said on Wednesday the country should be prepared for a potential two-front war given China is flexing its muscles and there is little hope for reconciliation with Pakistan. General Bipin Rawat referred to a recent 10-week standoff with the Chinese army in the Himalayas that ended last week. He said the situation could gradually snowball into a larger conflict on India’s northern border. Rawat said Pakistan on the western front could take advantage of such a situation. ...India fought a war with China in 1962 and three wars with Pakistan, two of them over control of Kashmir,...

A new GPS study of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar (Burma) has found startling evidence that the northeastern corner of the Indian subcontinent is actively colliding with Asia, potentially posing a major earthquake risk to one of the world’s most densely populated regions. A new GPS study of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar (Burma) has found startling evidence that the northeastern corner of the Indian subcontinent is actively colliding with Asia, potentially posing a major earthquake risk to one of the world’s most densely populated regions. The years-long analysis is the first to incorporate GPS data from Bangladeshi tracking stations. It is...

This week, the Globe and Mail asked General Lewis McKenzie (Retired) to write the obituary of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. It was a good idea. The two men had crossed paths more than once on the global stage of the Great Game. McKenzie declined. Holbrooke had just died and the general knew that what he had to say would hardly produce the standard panegyric. When I caught up with McKenzie, he was shoveling snow after a spell away from home. I asked for an interview and to my surprise, he agreed. “I’m just going to tell you what I thought...

A veteran State Department diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation as part of a counterintelligence probe and has had her security clearances withdrawn, according to U.S. officials. The FBI searched the Northwest Washington home of Robin L. Raphel last month, and her State Department office was also examined and sealed, officials said. Raphel, a fixture in Washington’s diplomatic and think-tank circles, was placed on administrative leave last month, and her contract with the State Department was allowed to expire this week. Two U.S. officials described the investigation as a counterintelligence matter, which typically involves allegations of spying...

Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI MANY functionaries of the United States State Department, who handled South Asia under the Clinton Administration, may have to face embarrassment when the Bush regime gets down to locating the factors that made it easier for terrorists to carry out the September 11 carnage. These functionaries, it is reliably learnt, ignored the warnings about the activities and intentions of the terrorist groups operating out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of such reports had come from Michael Sheehan, the head of counter-terrorism wing of the State Department. Sheehan’s report also listed the measures that the ...

Islamic State pamphlets and flags have appeared in parts of Pakistan and India, alongside signs that the ultra-radical group is inspiring militants even in the strongholds of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A splinter group of Pakistan's Taliban insurgents, Jamat-ul Ahrar, has already declared its support for the well-funded and ruthless Islamic State fighters, who have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in a drive to set up a self-declared caliphate. "IS (Islamic State) is an Islamic Jihadi organization working for the implementation of the Islamic system and creation of the Caliphate," Jamat-ul Ahrar's leader and a...

Many people in India know that, according to their narrative, Jews have lived in their country for two thousand years. They are very proud of the fact that Jews have lived there for so long without experiencing indigenous anti-Semitism. It supports their self-perception as an extremely tolerant and welcoming society to foreign religious minorities. "The fact that Jews lived in India without experiencing persecution is part and parcel of contemporary Hindu identity. This is especially significant for Indians as tensions with Muslims become stronger and friction with Christian missionaries is highlighted in the world press. Indians want to be able...

Pakistan recently demanded, again, that the United States halt the use of CIA UAVs to attack Islamic terrorists in the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border. Pakistan, however, offered a compromise this time. If the Americans would tell Pakistan where U.S. intelligence had located terrorists, Pakistan would send one of its F-16s and use a smart bomb to do the deed. The U.S. turned this down for several reasons, the main one being that the Pakistanis would "miss" (or simply not be able to find) terrorists who were working for the Pakistani Army. The Pakistanis could also sell protection...

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is threatening to impose sanctions on India over its continued economic ties with Iran amid disagreements between Washington and New Delhi over how much and how soon the latter is reducing oil imports from the (in US eyes) pariah nation. India has "failed" to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be "forced" to impose sanction, unnamed administration officials were cited as telling Bloomberg wire service. A decision in this regard could come as early as June 28, they added, implicitly offering New Delhi a ten- week...

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s current prime minister and future president, has shown a strong interest in Asian affairs. In his second term, Putin would undoubtedly like to maintain good ties with China, consolidate Moscow’s first-among-equals status in Central Asia, manage the regional repercussions of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, prevent a war or major crisis in the Koreas, and deepen Russia’s integration into East Asia’s more dynamic and prosperous economic networks. At the same time, Putin is eager to strengthen Russia’s position in Europe. It’s a big to-do list, but Russia has already succeeded in raising its profile in Asia...

One of the early calls that Vladimir Putin took following his expected victory in the Russian presidential election last weekend was from Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. He congratulated Putin on his success and invited him to visit Islamabad in September which the Russian leader accepted, according to newspaper reports citing an official statement. It would be the first visit by a Russian head of state to Pakistan which stood on the other side of the Cold War, peaking in its emergence as the staging ground for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. It’s...

India has denied as "factually incorrect" a report that US special forces were stationed in the country as part of counter-terrorism cooperation. Media reports quoted top Pentagon commander Admiral Robert Willard as telling a Congressional hearing on Thursday that US special forces teams were stationed in five South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka. "The report is factually incorrect in so far as the reference to India is concerned," Indian defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said in a statement late on Friday. "US special forces teams have never been stationed in India in the past, nor are such teams...

India has now come full circle — from a nation that was under a high-tech embargo for its nuclear weapons program to one receiving an invitation to join a group of nations that regulate export controls. President Barak Obama says the United States is ending its export restrictions on technology that could be used by India's defense and space industries, according to an article in the AFP. "These actions will open important new opportunities for our companies and governments on cooperating in the defense and space areas," said Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia. These are...

At a recent event on Pakistan co-sponsored by Brookings and the U.S. Institute of Peace, several panelists cogently stressed the need for greater transparency on the parts of Washington and Islamabad as a necessary step in forging better relations. Inevitably, the sad story of Pakistan's F-16s emerged during a panel discussion. In the early 1980s, the United States agreed to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter jets. This decision was taken when the United States worked closely with Pakistan to repel the Soviets from Afghanistan. The F-16 was the most important air platform in Pakistan's air force and it was the most...

Goodrich has won a $72 million contract to provide Pakistan with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance pods and related items for its Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters. The main component of the deal comprises five dual-band DB-110 pods, says the US Department of Defense. According to Goodrich, the DB-110 reconnaissance sensor provides three independent optical fields of view, allowing it to perform the following ISR missions: long-range stand-off, medium-range oblique and overflight, and low-altitude direct overflight. The deal also includes two datalink upgrades to existing pods, plus ground stations, spares, manuals, in-country installation and engineering support. "This supports a Foreign Military Sale...

In the second such incident within 30 days to possibly probe India's air defence network along the J&K border, Pakistani military aircraft virtually violated Indian airspace in the R S Pura sector near Jammu on Wednesday. Sources said BSF ground-based mobile observation posts spotted two Pakistani ''light military aircraft'' cruising along the border on Wednesday, with some reports even holding the planes actually crossed over into Indian airspace for some time to fly over four Indian border posts. Even if the aircraft did not actually enter Indian airspace, the incident clearly violates the two decade-old agreement between India and Pakistan,...

India on Thursday said it will continue to take up the issue of Pakistan diverting American military aid against it with the US till the time there is a "final solution" to the problem. Defence Minister A K Antony said the past experience and track-record shows that instead of using the American military aid in the fight against Taliban, Pakistan is diverting it against India. "This is a matter of serious concern. We have already conveyed it to them (US) and continue to do so until and unless we find a final solution," he said when asked if India had...

Security Pact Remains U.S.-India Sticking Point The Indian air force is exploring upgrade options for U.S. military aircraft that will be handed over without key capabilities in the absence of an agreement governing those systems. The U.S. is withholding several subsystems until India ratifies the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement, which governs current and future transfers of intelligence systems to India. India is not ready to commit to the security pact and instead is willing to take slightly less capable U.S. systems initially, expecting to backfill the missing features later. The strategy will be tested when the Indian...

India is co-developing and building missiles and military aircraft with Russia; it is co-developing missiles with Israel. But targeted American sanctions, and a Washington licence raj that stifles the outflow of military technology, has ensured that India's Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) has never co-developed weaponry with the world's most evolved and high-tech defence industry - that of the United States. The US, in turn - even while selling billions of dollars worth of military aircraft to India - has failed to mine the richest lode of the Ministry of Defence (MoD): Joint development contracts like the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter...