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| India, Pak should work together on Mumbai blasts, says US | | |
WASHINGTON, Oct 23
The United States has refused to be publicly drawn into the war of words between India and Pakistan on the "evidence of involvement" in the Mumbai blasts but said that it is in touch with New Delhi over the “sensitive" issue”.
Speaking on the challenges of terrorism and the threats faced by the US and its friends, top state department official Nicholas Burns also said that Washington wants to augment counter-terrorism cooperation with New Delhi and has an obligation to help India in preventing terror attacks.
On the Mumbai blasts, Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said, "I don't think it would be proper for me to share publicly any information coming from us on such a sensitive issue.”
"Secondly, the US has a self interest and obligation to help India to prevent terrorist attacks if it can do that, and also to be a partner with India in the fight against terrorism, just as we are a partner with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism," he said.
Burns, who will lead a high-level delegation to India next month, said, "When I go to Delhi, I want to talk to people who are experts on counter-terrorism because we want to upgrade our conversations with the Indian government.”
"But I think in the cases of these new charges going back and forth, I don't think its appropriate for the US to get involved publicly because we have two friends in the regions, different relationships but two friends, and our counter-terrorism agenda with Pakistan is fundamentally important to us and we appreciate the support President Pervez Musharraf gives us and our new cooperation with India is also fundamentally important.”
"So I don't think that it's right for us to somehow take sides or be involved in a public debate so it's better to work quietly, behind the scenes," Burns said.
Emphasising that the great challenges to the US is the terrorist threat against it and its friends, he said "the distinguishing feature of this challenge is that it is global in its orientation and the US understands India has been unfortunately and tragically the victims of a series of terrorist attacks over the past year."
"We have great sympathy for the Indian families who have lost loved ones. All of them are innocent victims of the terrible terrorist onslaught. And we intend to try to augment and build our counter terrorism cooperation with India,” the top administration official remarked.
"So when I go to India we will be taking with me some senior officials who will be focused and responsible for counter-terrorism here in the US so that we might build a greater level of counter-terrorism cooperation between our countries. We owe this to India because we are friends and strategic partners," he added.
On relations with Islamabad, he said Pakistan is a friend of the US, a close partner with the US. "While we had a major disagreement over the AQ Khan network, we believe Pakistan is doing everything it can do now to help us stem the proliferation of nuclear materials in the world."
"I think we should keep the focus on North Korea; that's where it should lie, a week after they have conducted this nuclear test which has shocked countries of the world," the senior official said. |
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