'Indo-Pak ties will improve Afghan situation': US envoy

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Dobbins, on Thursday said that improvement in relations between India and Pakistan will automatically improve the situation in Afghanistan.

"I think any improvement in India-Pakistan ties will automatically improve Afghanistan situation. I have met twice now in little more than two weeks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And my sense is that improvement in relations with India is very high on his list of priorities," he told the media here.

Dobbins, who met Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai on his arrival here and discussed the peace talks process with the Taliban, said that Indian officials were anxious about the peace talks.

 

"Nobody knows how this is going to progress and certainly not a sure thing that it will result in a diminishing of violence and a successful evolution towards peace. But I didn't get a sense that they thought it wasn't worth trying. I don't really want to speak for the Indians right now," said Dobbins.

"However, I think they are perfectly capable of doing that themselves. From our standpoint, we are going into this process with open eyes and without naive of excessive expectations of rapid progress or even a certainty that their will be any progress at all," he added.

Dobbins maintained that India has an important stake in Afghanistan.

"I have come to Delhi and hope to be able to come back regularly because India has an important stake in Afghanistan and has important influence in Afghanistan. And it's important that we understand Indian views and obviously that India understands our views and then we collaborate as closely as possible, which I certainly did 10 years go, 11 years ago," he said.

Dobbins further said he has come back to India at an interesting and pivotal time when NATO and United States are transitioning from a combat to an advisory and assistance role in Afghanistan.

"And may be, more importantly a time when Afghanistan will be going through its first peaceful democratic transition in its national history," he added.