Foreign Relations

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a missile defense deal with Poland on Wednesday and predicted that future presidents would not undo the controversial program. Speaking to reporters, Rice said that though legally the pact could be voided by a future White House, it has a rationale and diplomatic momentum that make that unlikely. "I believe that the administrations of the future will recognize both the threat that we face and the substantial commitment that our allies have now taken for missile defense," she told a Polish journalist.

International aid groups say they're under siege in Pakistan, demonized by hard-line Islamists, viewed as spies by suspicious Pakistanis and, now, increasingly sidelined by the government. The groups report that in the last year, they began to feel unwanted in the country, and in some cases persecuted. Nongovernmental organization visa requests languished or were outright rejected. New travel restrictions hampered aid workers' movement. Some workers were arrested and harassed. Western aid officials believe that the Pakistani government's suspicions about the groups rose dramatically last year after the U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May in the military city of Abbottabad.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used strong language to decry what he calls British neocolonialism, which he says is behind daily rumors that he will be nudged into retirement. But now he finds himself fiercely defending his role as host of one of the British Empire's most enduring legacies: cricket. The cricket World Cup is coming to South Africa next month, and neighboring Zimbabwe is to host six of the 54 matches.

To U.S. officials, a new pact announced this week with Vietnam, allowing the government to deport illegal immigrants, was almost routine -- a straightforward matter of treating Vietnam like other nations. But for many among the tens of thousands of immigrants in Orange County, the nation's largest Vietnamese population center, nothing about their homeland is routine.

Airline flights. Phone service. Money transfers. Those are among enticing new or expanded business opportunities seen ahead for U.S. companies with Monday's loosening of the U.S. embargo with Cuba. "This is a big deal; it's a significant change in U.S. policy," said former Ambassador David A. Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy and a partner at law firm Wiley Rein.

Senior American officials on Sunday sought to smooth over a sharply quarrelsome interlude in U.S.-Afghan relations, with the special U.S. envoy to the region describing President Hamid Karzai's administration as "a government we can work with." Speaking to reporters in Kabul, Richard Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, pointed to Karzai's participation in a major planning conference with Afghan, American and coalition officials. "We have a good relationship with this government," said Holbrooke, who has verbally clashed with Karzai in the past.

Cuban Americans' travel to the communist island nation just got easier under guidelines issued last week by the Obama administration. The Treasury Department confirmed that Cuban Americans may visit extended relatives as well as close family members once a year and spend as much as $179 a day without fear of prosecution, effective immediately. The guidelines signal a trend toward looser enforcement of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

After years of worldwide outrage over suffering in Darfur, the Obama administration will soon launch a new policy that could soften some longtime U.S. sanctions against the Sudanese government implicated in the large-scale killings and displacement of African tribespeople. White House officials say that specific conditions would have to be met before sanctions would be lifted, and that Sudan could face even tougher sanctions if its leaders act in bad faith.

U.S.-China trade tensions are starting to heat up, an especially ominous development as global export growth is slowing and both countries face a significant political showdown at home next year. China fired the latest salvo this week by imposing duties as high as 22% on imports of large cars and sport utility vehicles from the U.S. for the next two years. Beijing alleged dumping and improper U.S. government subsidies, the same charges that Washington has made about Chinese exports of solar panels to the U.S. The practical effect of the Chinese tariffs is minor: U.S. shipments of motor vehicles to China last year totaled just $3.5 billion -- nearly 4% of American exports to China and less than 0.3% of all U.S. exports.

President Obama told his Chinese counterpart in a private meeting Saturday that the American public and business community are growing increasingly "frustrated" with China's economic policies, stepping up his bid to force changes that might in turn boost job growth in the U.S. With complaints about China's currency policy spilling into the Republican presidential contest and onto the floor of the Senate, Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao that...

The embattled regime in Yemen has boosted its cooperation with U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism efforts in recent months as it tries to push back Al Qaeda militants and other insurgents who have captured towns and other territory in the impoverished nation, according to U.S. Defense officials. The U.S. officials said Al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, may have "overreached" by deploying its fighters to overwhelm local security forces in the southern province of Abyan.

Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and top Pakistani officials on Monday agreed that Washington and Islamabad would work together against "high-value targets," a move to ease intensely strained relations following this month's killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. commandos. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a stern message that Washington would not tolerate Pakistan providing sanctuary to Al Qaeda and allied militant groups that target Western interests.

In the latest salvo aimed at his Western backers, Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared Tuesday that reconstruction and development units supported by the NATO force should be phased out. The president's assertion appeared to catch NATO's International Security Assistance Force by surprise. A military spokesman said no timetable had been set for the shutdown of provincial reconstruction teams, known in military parlance as PRTs. The teams, based at Western military installations, operate in 27 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, providing services such as community healthcare and educational support.

The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Sunday applauded the Egyptian vice president's potentially breakthrough meetings with demonstration leaders. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said he was heartened by the dialogue and reports that the ruling Cairo government had agreed to a number of the protesters' demands, including the lifting of a decades-old emergency law that had been used to repress opposition forces. It's "frankly quite extraordinary," Kerry said as he described some of the unexpectedly rapid developments over the weekend.

Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who defied skeptics by lasting far longer in Japan's highest office than anyone expected--in part by turning his lack of natural charm into a public asset--died Sunday, six weeks after suffering a massive stroke and subsequent brain damage. He was 62 and had been in a coma. "Together with the Japanese people, I express my deepest condolences," Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori told reporters.

U.S. senators exhorted the Bush administration Tuesday to change how it deals with Iraq, arguing that officials must do more to internationalize the occupation and should consider moving up elections and the hand-over of sovereignty. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, members of both parties said the United States needed to consider bolder actions to build confidence among Iraqis, Americans and people of other nations.

A U.S. Marine shot and killed an Afghan policeman who pointed a weapon at him Saturday, Western military officials said. The incident took place at an outpost in the Sangin district of Helmand province, one of the most troubled enclaves in Afghanistan. Marines from Camp Pendleton took over command of the violent district from British forces last fall, as part of a drive to expel Taliban fighters from their traditional heartland in Afghanistan's south. The shooting pointed up tensions between the Western military and Afghan counterparts in a crucial phase of their partnership.

The Obama administration on Tuesday delivered what might be its toughest warning yet to President Hamid Karzai over corruption in his government through a messenger who in the past has managed to forge a rapport with the mercurial Afghan leader in times of tension. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, flew in for a one-day visit to the Afghan capital that included two sessions with Karzai, whose relations with the United States have plunged to a low not seen since last summer's fraud-riddled presidential election.