NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she
was encouraged by recent efforts by India and Pakistan to get their
stop-start peace process back on track.
India suspended a
four-year peace process with Pakistan after attacks in its financial
capital Mumbai in November 2008, but the two countries have recently
held a number of meetings and agreed to resume talks.
Talking
to the media, the US Secretary of State said they were encouraged by
the dialogue occurring between India and Pakistan. They thought it was
the most promising approach to encourage the two neighboring countries
to build more confidence between them and work to implement the kinds
of steps that will demonstrate the improved atmosphere that is so
necessary for us to deal with the underlying problem of terrorism.” The
Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers are to meet in New Delhi next
week, the latest in a string of high-level contacts that both sides are
eager to present as confidence and trust-building exercises.
India
urges caution over US pullout in Afghanistan. India urged the United
States to consider the “ground realities” in Afghanistan and ensure its
troop pull down does not provide space for the re-emergence of
Taliban-sponsored “terrorism.”
“We have impressed on the United
States and other countries who have a major presence in Afghanistan
that it is necessary for them to continue in Afghanistan,” Foreign
Minister SM Krishna told a joint press briefing with visiting US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It is necessary for the United
States to factor in Afghanistan’s ground realities so that… Afghanistan
will be in a position to defend itself against terrorism sponsored by
the Taliban,” Krishna said.
Krishna said it was crucial for the
United States to work closely with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and
his government “to create conditions where terrorism will not make any
more advances.” Online
