The Pentagon has stepped up airstrikes and special operations raids in Afghanistan to the highest levels since 2014 in what Defense Department officials described as a coordinated series of attacks on Taliban leaders and fighters.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who just returned to Washington after a series of stops in the Middle East and Europe, is journeying out again to several key countries as part of efforts to push a U.S. peace initiative for the war-torn country.

China has condemned a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a disputed border region which triggered a war between the nuclear-armed neighbors in 1962.

Pakistan, long at odds with the United States over the war in Afghanistan, has begun to play a behind-the-scenes but central role in supporting U.S. peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, including by facilitating travel to negotiations, U.S. officials and Taliban sources told Reuters.

A top Russian diplomat has met with Taliban representatives and expressed Moscow’s support for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The meeting came after two days of talks between prominent Afghan figures and Taliban representatives in Moscow and contradictory statements about an immediate US forces pullout from the country.

When Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani laid out the red carpet in 2017 for controversial Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – once known as “the Butcher of Kabul” for his role in the bloody conflict for the control of the capital in the 1990s – many thought he was trying to isolate the central Taliban leadership by luring factions to break away […]

The United States and the Taliban made progress in peace talks in late January after coming to a basic understanding about withdrawing American troops in return for Taliban commitments to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for transnational terrorists. An agreement between the United States and the Taliban has been long overdue — as part of a broader settlement […]

It had the semblance of a play lacking key actors. They were deemed the difficult ones, and a decision was made to go through with the performance. The Taliban were willing to talk with their adversaries, but they were keen on doing so with opposition politicians rather than the stick-in-the-mud types in government led by the current President Ashraf Ghani. […]

The Indian government has failed to conclude a deal with foreign manufacturers to acquire mine countermeasure vessels since 2005. In the meantime, the last batch of minesweepers retired last year, rendering the Indian Navy devoid of the crucial asset.

The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to India of two (2) 777 Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) Self-Protection Suites (SPS) for an estimated cost of $190 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.