On July 23, in the United States Capitol’s historic Mansfield Room, AFPC organized a reception and dinner in honor of Mr. Rajnath Singh, the head of India’s largest opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). India will be holding general elections next year, and the BJP has a good chance of returning to power. Mr. Singh, formerly the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (population 200 million), was joined by Mr. Ananth Kumar, a member of the Indian Parliament and the head of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs; Amb. Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian Foreign Secretary, and; Mr. Ajit Doval, the former head of India’s Intelligence Bureau.
Participating in the dinner on the American side were Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS); Senator Charles “Chuck” Grassley (R-IA); Congresswoman Ileana Ross-Lehtinen (R-FL); Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY); former Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky; former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Dr. James Clad; former Director of South Asia Affairs at the Pentagon Claudio Lilienfeld; Professional Staffer on the House Select Committee on Intelligence Andy Keiser, and many others. Topics for dinner discussion included U.S.-India relations, China’s rise, and instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Earlier in the day, Jeff M. Smith was a featured speaker in a conference on Capitol Hill titled Afghanistan and the Region: Security, Stability and Prosperity. Mr. Rajnath Singh, delivered the keynote address at the conference, which also featured Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation, and Congressmen Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Joe Crowley (D-NY). AFPC co-sponsored the event with the U.S.-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), and the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDDS). Smith’s comments focused on the role Pakistan has played in supporting the Taliban, and the challenges that has posed to the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan
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