Obama's India visit important for peace in S Asia: Holbrooke
Obama Administration's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan has said that the next week's India visit of the US president is not only important for strengthening the bilateral ties but also for the peace in South Asia.
"When President (Bareck) Obama goes to New Delhi, in what will be a very important trip to strengthen US-Indian ties, that is not at the expense of Pakistan or Afghanistan. "We work with all three countries for peace and stability in South Asia," Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke told reporters here ahead of the visit.
"So you have a picture here of continuous engagement by the United States in these three countries, so different in culture and economic development and history, but living in a common strategic area, where actions in any one of the three affect the other two," he said.
"The United States has good bilateral relations with Kabul, with Islamabad, and with New Delhi. And we want to be sure that everyone understands that when we pay attention to one country we're not diminishing our support for the others.
When we have a Strategic Dialogue with Pakistan, that is not diminishing our relationships with its neighbours," said Holbrooke.
"I can assure you that Afghanistan, India, Pakistan being three countries with all of which we have good relations, all of which we want to improve relations with and which we fully take into account the effect of our actions on one on the other’s is the underlying principle with which our government approaches our policy," Holbrooke said in response to a question.
The top US official said the Indians were fully informed on this.
"I went to New Delhi, I talked to my friends in the foreign ministry and in the prime minister’s office, and again, just to repeat, I’m very grateful to the Indians for not interjecting any concerns on this," Holbrooke said.
"The agreement was announced on July 19th in Islamabad during the trip that Secretary (of State, Hillary) Clinton made to lead the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue. And now both governments had ratified it, and the ceremony was held to coincide with the ROC Drill, partially in recognition of the fact that the US had played such a leadership role," he said.
"The decision to negotiate to completion the trade agreement was announced at the White House by President Obama on May 7th of last year. The negotiation had been going on for 44 years without success.
With American intermediation, support to both sides, an agreement was reached and initialed on July 19th, and yesterday it was signed in Kabul," Holbrooke said.