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| UPDATE:India has emerged as a strategic partner for US: Mullen |
| Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Jun 10, 2009, 13:05 IST |
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India has emerged as an important strategic partner for the US and the Obama Administration seeks to "mature" this partnership to address common security challenges, a top American military official said today.
"India has emerged as an increasingly important strategic partner," Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said in his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Sub-committee on Defence.
"We seek to mature this partnership and address common security challenges globally as well as within the region," he said, echoing Obama Administration, which has been strongly arguing the case for deepening its strategic ties with India.
In his testimony, Mullen said Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central fronts in the fight against al-Qaeda and militant global extremism. But different strategy is being adopted for the two countries, he said.
Stressing that Pakistan is crucial to US success in Afghanistan, Mullen said in his nine trips to that country he has developed a deeper understanding of how important it is that the United States make and demonstrate a long term commitment to sustaining this partnership.
"We are taking multiple approaches to rebuild and strengthen relationships and address threats common to both of our nations," he said, adding one key approach in the near term is to help Pakistan's military to improve its overall and specifically its counterinsurgency - capabilities.
"Beyond the trainers we will continue to provide, the Pakistani Counterinsurgency Capability Fund and Coalition Support Funds provide us the means to address this issue directly, and I ask the Congress to support these initiatives and provide the flexibility to accelerate their implementation," he said.
"We are committed to comprehensive accountability measures to ensure that these funds go exactly where they are intended to go and do not compromise other USG humanitarian assistance objectives.
"These programs will help the Pakistanis take continued action to combat extremist threats in western Pakistani territories which will complement the reinforcement of troops and special operations efforts in Afghanistan to maintain pressure on al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership,"he said. "In addition to these initiatives, steady support of the Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Financing programs will help us to address the needs expressed by Pakistan's leaders and validated by our civil-military leadership," Mullen said.
"We will also be well served by the substantially larger request for International Military Education and Training exchanges with Pakistan, to help reconnect our institutions and forge lasting relationships. Military programs must also be supplemented by non-military investment and continued engagement, which further confirm our Nation's long term commitment," he said.
"Our aim in Afghanistan is to check the momentum of the insurgency, train additional forces, and ensure security for the Afghan national elections in August, while in Pakistan we will work with the Pakistani military to further develop their counterinsurgency skills and build stronger relationships with Pakistani leaders at all levels," he said.
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