India has described the first official visit of the Bangladeshi prime minister as a ‘path-breaking and historic opporutnity’.
The two nations are striving to build bridges after years of mistrust.
India has often blamed Bangladesh for sheltering separatist rebels while Dhaka has accused New Delhi of harbouring its criminal fugitives.
Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from New Delhi, India’s capital.
Jan 11, 2010
Much of northern India has been paralysed by freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall.
Media reports say at least 60 peopel have died due to the cold weather.
Thick fog has also blanketed the capital New Delhi, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded.
Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from New Delhi.
In Pakistan three is increasing suspicion that India will use its influence in Afghanistan to further destabilise its troubled border region.
India has dismissed that suggestion, saying it is only involved in reconstruction and humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
John Kerry, US President Barack Obama’s key adviser on foregni policy, while acknowledging the fact that the situation along the India-Pakistan border has ipmroved in the recent past, has said that suspicion between the two countries continues to "run deeper".
"The situation along the Indo-Pak border has improved in the last few months. The tensions over Mumbai have been deep. And the suspicions run even deeper," Kerry told the US PBS news channel on Saturday.
Kerry said Pakistan believes that Indina influence in Afghanistan is too great, that it is trying to alienate Pakistan on the international stage.
‘Exaggerations’
Robert Wirsing, a professor at Georgetown University in Doha, told Al Jazeera: "There is no question that Pakistanis are inclined to exaggerate a lot of things and no doubt the allegations made about India are from time to time exaggerated – it plays into their overall strategy.
"Nevertheless, both Pakistan and India are not above a variety of covert or clandestine activities. They do what they feel they must in order to protcet their national interests and strategic interests in this region.
"Afghanistan is certainly an important strategic arena in which they engage in these kinds of activities … its tit-for-tat," he said.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan reports from Islamabad.
Four days after the deadly November 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, Shivraj Patil, India’s home minister, stepped down.
Now, on the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks, Patil spoke for the first time about the violence.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri, he said he feels partly responsible.
India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has begun a visit to the US for talks that are expected to focus on nuclear energy cooperation, Afghanistan and climate change.
The visit comes amid gorwing cocnern in New Delhi over US policy towards China and Pakistan.
As Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from New Delhi, many in the Indian capital are worried that a US-China joint declaration earlier this month seemed to hint at a greater Chinese role in South Asia.