New Delhi: In the backdrop of NATO troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is keen to enhance defence cooperation with India and get supply of 'lethal and non-lethal' weapons. Karzai held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night and gave him a wishlist for military supplies.
Karzai's other problem is Pakistan which has influence over elements of the Afghan Taliba, that is where Delhi's support for an Afghan-led process is critical for the country's stability.
Meanwhile, Karzai made it clear that Afghanistan doesn't need Indian troops for peacekeeping, however, asked Delhi to continue to train Afghan police and military in India.
Karzai also invites Indian officers to train at soon-to-be ready Military academy in Kabul. Apart from extensive developmental assistance programme, which now stands at around $2 billion, India also provides training in capacity building to 2,000 Afghans every year....
more
02:10 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: The US on Monday welcomed India's generous bilateral assistance to Afghanistan but remained non-committal on reports about Kabul seeking supply of military equipment from New Delhi. "We welcome efforts by Afghanistan's neighbours and other regional actors to promote Afghanistan's stability and economic development," State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell told reporters. He was responding to questions on the India visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai during which according to media...
09:56 AM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who arrived in country on Monday on a three-day visit, is set to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later on Tuesday. Karzai is expected to seek increased military aid for his country. Karzai on Monday was conferred an honorary degree at a professional university in Phagwara in Chandigarh. "We will ask for assistance for the strengthening of our security forces," Karzai's spokesman had said...
07:15 AM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai arrived in the country on Monday on a three-day visit during which he will seek increased military aid from India and discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan. "We will ask for assistance for the strengthening of our security forces," Karzai's spokesman had said in a briefing on Saturday in Kabul ahead of the trip. Karzai, who arrived in Punjab on the first leg of...
10:49 PM, May 20, 2013
Buenos Aires: Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, died on Friday at age 87. Videla was the first president to head the military junta that "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983, and he spent his final years behind bars for human rights...
11:57 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: The Pentagon said on Monday that China is using espionage to acquire technology to fuel its military modernization. The Pentagon for the first time accused the Chinese of trying to break into US defence computer networks, though China on Tuesday firmly desmised the allegations. In its 83-page annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments, the Pentagon also cited progress in Beijing's effort to develop advanced-technology stealth aircraft and...
08:25 PM, May 07, 2013
New Delhi: Compulsory military training to all youths is against democratic ethos of the country and is highly undesirable as some of the trained men could join the ranks of radical forces, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday. In a written reply to the House, he also said the government is not in favour of making military training compulsory as under the democratic set up of...
12:03 PM, May 07, 2013
Dera Ismail Khan: Military operations and insurgent attacks in lawless districts of Pakistan on Sunday left eight members of the security forces and around 30 militants and criminal suspects dead, officials said. Two soldiers and 16 militants were killed in clashes in the Tirah Valley area of the Khyber tribal region in the northwest, the military said in a statement. Another three soldiers were wounded in the remote mountainous district...
01:50 AM, May 06, 2013
The Chinese intrusion into Depsang Bulge in East Ladakh, approximately 19 km inside our perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on April 15, has raised temperatures both militarily and politically on either side. A series of border personnel meetings between the militaries of the two sides have not been able to resolve the issue so far and the standoff continues till date. It would not be incorrect to...
05:50 PM, May 02, 2013
Brussels: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged NATO on Tuesday to prepare for the possible use of chemical weapons by Syria on the same day that a senior Israeli military intelligence official said Syrian President Bashar Assad had used such weapons in March 2013 in his battle against insurgents. It was the first time Israel had accused the embattled Syrian leader of using his stockpile of nonconventional weapons. The...
07:28 AM, Apr 24, 2013
Baga: Fighting between Nigeria's military and Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in a fishing community in the nation's far northeast, officials said on Sunday, an attack that saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians. The fighting in Baga began on Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community on Lake Chad. By Sunday,...
06:40 AM, Apr 22, 2013
Jerusalem: US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel held out hope on Sunday for a nonmilitary way to ending the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, but he also emphasized Washington's willingness to let Israel decide whether and when it might strike Tehran in self-defense. Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, seemed intent on burying the image that Republican critics painted of him as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish...
01:25 AM, Apr 22, 2013
New Delhi: A US military helicopter crashed near the North Korean border during a joint military exercise with South Korea on Tuesday. All twelve service personnel on board the helicopter have reportedly survived the crash. The cause of the crash is still unknown. Meanwhile, North Korea has condemned the joint exercises as a rehearsal for invasion and made a series of dire threats of military retaliation. There are 28,500 US...
12:01 PM, Apr 16, 2013
Stockholm: Global military spending dropped in 2012 for the first time in more than a decade thanks to deep cuts in the United States and Europe which made up for increases in countries such as China and Russia, a leading think-tank said on Monday. Big powers the United States and its European allies face tight budgets in an economic downturn and have scaled back involvement in conflicts in Iraq and...
01:52 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Seoul: North Korea may test a new missile to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of state founder Kim il Sung on Monday. The isolated and impoverished state celebrates the former leader's birth anniversary on Monday amidst growing tensions in the east, after weeks of war threats from Pyongyang. Speculation has mounted of an impending medium-range missile test launch in North Korea after reports in South Korea and the United States...
07:12 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Washington: Rebalancing its security posture in the Asia-Pacific region, the US says it is investing in a long-term strategic partnership with India to support its ability to serve as a regional economic anchor and security provider. The US defence department's "commitment to the Asia-Pacific region is part of a broader US Government focus", the Pentagon said Wednesday as it rolled out a $527 billion budget for fiscal 2014 starting October...
04:07 AM, Apr 12, 2013
Beijing/Seoul: China's leaders issued thinly veiled rebukes to North Korea for raising regional tensions, with the president saying no country should throw the world into chaos and the foreign minister warning that Beijing would not allow mischief on its doorstep. The weekend comments were the strongest yet by China in response to more than a month of North Korean rhetoric that has included threats to launch a nuclear attack on...
10:29 AM, Apr 08, 2013
Seoul: A top South Korean national security official said on Sunday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul. North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other...
06:40 AM, Apr 08, 2013
Seoul: Staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite an appeal by authorities in Pyongyang for diplomats to consider leaving because of heightened tension after weeks of bellicose exchanges. North Korean authorities told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday - after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint US-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end...
12:30 AM, Apr 07, 2013
Amidst escalating tension in the Korean peninsula, the US Navy is moving a warship and a sea-based radar platform closer to the North Korean coast as a shield against any missile attack by North Korea and in order to monitor Pyongyang's military moves. ...
12:20 PM, Apr 02, 2013
