Iran likely to approve pipeline deal this week

Dawn, 7 June 2010,

TEHRAN: Iran hopes to finalise a deal this week for a much-delayed pipeline to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, an energy official said on Sunday.

“The $7 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline contract will be finalised this week, and based on the approved time framework the export of gas to Pakistan will be launched by the end of 2015,” said Hojjatollah Qanimifard, deputy director in charge of investment at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

“In a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, the final approval on pipeline by the NIOC board of directors will be delivered to Pakistani officials and their letter of guarantee will be received,” he said in comments carried by semi-official news agency Ilna.

The project is crucial for Pakistan to avert a growing energy crisis already causing severe electricity shortages in the country. The pipeline will connect Iran’s giant South Fars gas field with Balochistan and Sindh.

Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions by the West and construction delays have slowed its development as an exporter.

Dubbed the “peace pipeline,” the project has been planned since the 1990s and originally would have extended from Pakistan to India. India decided not to join the project because of disagreement over price of gas. Under a deal signed in March, Pakistan will be allowed to charge a transit fee if the proposed pipeline is eventually extended to India.

The United States has tried to discourage India and Pakistan from any deal with Iran because of Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities and suspicions it wants to build nuclear weapons.

Iran denies any such ambitions.

Iranian media reported on Sunday that the oil minister had ordered an end to talks with Anglo-Dutch Shell and Spain’s Repsol over the development of South Pars after the majors failed to meet ultimatums on their involvement.

Iran, which has struggled for years to develop its oil and gas reserves, says it makes $18 billion annually from production at 10 phases of South Pars but that income can leap to at least $96 billion a year when all phases are completed.

China’s National Petroleum Corporation is developing part of it. Tehran says it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment.—Reuters

Pakistan, EU firm on addressing security issues

The News, 5 May 2010,
BRUSSLES: Pakistan and the European Union (EU) on Friday reaffirmed their determination to jointly address the regional and global security issues to promote economic and trade cooperation and respect for human rights as well as provision of humanitarian assistance.

The EU also assured Pakistan of its cooperation for further strengthening the Pak democratic government and institutions. The EU agreed to provide 75 million euro for the development of Malakand and other areas of the Fata.

The EU also reiterated its commitment to support Pakistan’s economic and social development consistent with Pakistan’s development strategy and in this regard funding under the Development Cooperation Instrument for the period 2011-2013 is expected to be increased by 50 per cent to euro 50 million per annum.

However, at the same time, the EU has expressed its concern over issues relating to women and minorities in Pakistan. “We are convinced that strengthening of our institutional capacity will promote regional integration, and build a more peaceful and prosperous South Asia,” said Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in a joint press conference with President European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President European Commission Jose Manual Barroso here at the European Parliament on Friday at the conclusion of 2nd Pak-EU Summit.

“The EU will continue to help Pakistan for stable and viable economy, which is vital for the stability of the region,” said President European Council Herman Van Rompuy in a joint press conference with the prime minister.

The EU also said it would boost its reconstruction aid for war-torn areas of Pakistan from Ä50 to Ä75 million a year. Pakistan currently enjoys preferential treatment for 80 per cent of its exports to the EU, and plans to abolish all the Customs duties would be enforced soon.

The prime minister said the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in energy, security, nuclear non-proliferation, strategic stability, environment and trade and economic cooperation. He hoped the exchange of views would promote greater understanding of Pakistan’s position and the difficulties it was facing and the need to deal with the situation. As a bloc, the EU was Pakistan’s largest economic partner with over $8 billion bilateral annual trade.

Answering a question regarding the minorities in Pakistan, the prime minister said his democratically-elected government looked after the minorities and it was first time that a federal minister for the minorities was appointed for the Ministry of Minority Affairs and even in the 18th Amendment, first time representation was given to minorities in the Upper House of parliament.

“I always say that women and minorities are my constituencies,” he added. Answering another question regarding the non-granting of the GSP-Plus to Pakistan, President European Commission Jose Manual Barroso said it could not be granted to a specific country as under the new law all the states of the European Union must agree to grant the status. He also expressed the EU concern on non-trade relation in the region, saying: “We have also a concern that Pakistan has no trade relations within the region.”

India vows to engage Pakistan despite concerns

The News, 5 June 2010,

WASHINGTON: India pledged on Friday to go “more than half the way” to repair testy relations with Pakistan but said it has won support from the United States to keep a careful eye on its neighbour.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna has accepted an invitation to visit Islamabad next month despite continued Indian concerns about Pakistan-based Islamic militants blamed for the deadly 2008 siege of Mumbai.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “has always been saying that you tackle those who are responsible for the Mumbai attack and I’m willing to go more than half the way,” Krishna told a news conference on a visit to Washington. “Things have not exactly gone as per our estimates, but nonetheless we cannot give up. We will have to keep engaging Pakistan,” he said.

Krishna said his visit to Islamabad was meant to overcome a “trust deficit” between India and Pakistan. But he said he shared India’s concerns about Pakistan to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a “strategic dialogue” on Thursday.

“The message that I get from the US administration is that they are aware of our concerns and that they are not going to do anything which would adversely affect India’s interests,” Krishna said. Krishna said India has also spoken to the United States about China’s plans to build two civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan.

India can thrust war on Pakistan, PM tells Nato

The News, 5 June 2010,

BRUSSELS: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, while pointing towards the Pakistan-specific Indian military doctrines such as the Cold Start, has urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) to take active interest in South Asian security perspective.

“We remain concerned over Pakistan-specific Indian military doctrines such as the Cold Start envisaging a limited conventional war under the nuclear overhang, huge increase in Indian military budget and massive weapon acquisitions,” he said.

“These together with discriminatory policies especially in the nuclear and technological arena have accentuated the regional imbalance in South Asia,” he said while addressing the North Atlantic Council (NAC) here on Friday. Gilani said it was a nuclearised region and issues of peace, strategic stability and security pose formidable challenges to Pakistan and impinge on global peace and security.

He said Pakistan-India relations had a significant bearing on South Asian security, adding, unfortunately, outstanding disputes such as Kashmir, Siachen, and Sir Creek continue to fester and require a just and peaceful resolution.

“Our region is also water stressed. As a lower riparian, these water issues have started to impact Pakistan’s agriculture and the wellbeing of our people,” he added. Prime Minister Gilani said issues of peace and security, in particular, strategic stability needed to be addressed in a forthright manner.

Gilani said Pakistan believed that all these and other issues between Pakistan and India must be resolved peacefully through dialogue. Prime Minister Gilani said regrettably since the past two years, the composite dialogue process was stalled, adding the ostensible reason given by India was the Mumbai terror attack.

He, however, pointed out that Pakistan acted swiftly to get the suspects arrested. “We have done our utmost to bring the perpetrators to justice. We have indicated to India that only serious, sustained and pragmatic cooperation is the sure way of addressing each others concerns on terrorism.”

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan had suggested that the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism be reactivated, adding: “We desire good neighbourly and cooperative relations with India”. He said Pakistan and India had no option, but to resolve peacefully all outstanding disputes including Kashmir, Siachen and water.

“We must also work closely on eliminating terrorism and forging closer economic and trade relations,” he added. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani while vowing not to allow any space to terrorists in Pakistan said the country had done and accomplished more in Afghanistan than the international forces. He focused on Pakistan relations with Nato, Afghanistan and India and said it knew fully well how to plan its strategy to cope with all challenges it was confronting. “We know better than most outsiders how best to prosecute our counter-terror efforts,” he said and added Pakistan had not only proven its ability to do so but also managed the internally dislocated people by terrorism in a short span of time.

“We would never allow terrorism and violent extremism to overtake our way of life, our culture, our traditions and disrupt our societal harmony,” he said. The prime minister said Pakistan had utilised its own national capacity to effectively deal with militancy and terror imposed from across the border from Afghanistan.

He said the turbulence in Pakistan’s adjoining regions had continued to have a serious detrimental effect on realising the full development potential.The Pakistani nation, Gilani said, was fully united in eliminating the menace of terrorism and mentioned that his government had given political ownership to the counterterrorism campaign that was being brilliantly executed by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the security agencies.

“It is our national resolve not to allow terrorists any space on our territory. Equally, we will not permit the use of territory of our neighbours for sponsoring, supporting or abetting acts of terror against Pakistan.”

Gilani said Pakistan had done more and accomplished more than the international forces in adjoining Afghanistan. “All this has been at a considerable cost. Over 30,000 casualties, $50 billion worth of losses in property and infrastructure and thousands of disabilities. The economic costs are astounding. Yet we will press ahead and will not relent.”

Gilani said he was here at the Nato headquarters to seek understanding, and neither acknowledgement nor gratitude. “Pakistan has done its utmost. We will continue to do what is right and just. We do it for our own sake.”

He said Pakistan was happy to partner with Nato on the anti-terrorism front. “We only want you to understand that we are fully capable of determining how best to proceed in the prevailing environment given our national capacities,” he stressed.

“Pakistan and Nato share a common objective of making the regional and global pace possible and the close practical cooperation between the Nato and Pakistan, which we have been able to foster in recent years, is crucial for achieving the cherished goal,” said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at a joint press conference with Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen here at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

“We agreed that Pakistan and Nato will jointly cooperate to defeat terrorism,” said Nato Secretary General Rasmussen. In a reply to a question, the Nato secretary general said the organisation would consider the option, if Pakistan requested for the training of its civil law enforcement agencies. “We have already military to military cooperation and agree that the cooperation should expand,” he added.

EU shelves textile relief proposal

Dawn, 5 June 2010,

BRUSSELS: The European Union will host a ministerial meeting of the “Friends of Democratic Pakistan” on October 14-15 as part of a renewed commitment to bolster the country’s economy, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, said on Friday after talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

“We have a common enemy: poverty and terrorism,” said Mr Van Rompuy.

However, despite repeated Pakistani demands – and arguments that fighting extremism was a burden on the national economy – EU leaders failed to deliver on last year’s quasi-commitment to give Pakistani textile exports tariff-free entry under the so-called “GSP Plus” scheme.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters at the joint press conference following the summit that under World Trade Organisation rules, the EU could not give Pakistan special treatment.

“We need the agreement of all WTO members,” he said, adding that any move to bring Pakistan into the GSP Plus scheme in 2012 as initially indicated, would require the consent of all 27 EU states and the European Parliament. Progress on the issue could be expected in “1-2 years…not too long,” said Mr Barroso.

The European Commission, under pressure from several EU member states, including Portugal, Spain, Greece, Poland and France, has said the current GSP Plus scheme will be rolled over unchanged until 2011, effectively dashing Islamabad’s hopes that it will be able to secure badly-needed tariff reductions within the next two years. Instead Pakistan may have to wait until 2014 to become eligible for the GSP Plus scheme.

The joint statement did, however, underline that the two sides were discussing “ways to enhance the bilateral trade relationship, including through a possible free trade agreement.”

Pakistan’s combat against terrorism and efforts at improving protection for human rights were appreciated, Mr Van Rompuy told reporters but, there were still concerns about discrimination against religious minorities.

Mr Gilani told reporters “our democratic government totally supports human rights and is looking after minorities.”

“We are making constitutional amendments giving responsibility to minorities in the upper house,” he said, adding: “Minorities and ladies are my constituency.”

In a move which caused unease and embarrassment in both camps, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was conspicuously absent from the meeting although her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi attended.

Ms Ashton, who took over as the EU “high representative” for foreign policy earlier this year, did not give any reason for her decision to stay away. One EU insider said: “Ashton does not attend EU summits”.

However, she did participate in recent EU meetings with both Russia and Japan and her predecessor Javier Solana traditionally took an active interest in all meetings with Pakistan.

Both sides agreed to draw up a “5-year engagement plan” to outline specific targets for joint actions. As part of this dialogue, Pakistan said it would welcome EU support in areas which are central to Pakistan’s future development, including regional security, stability and prosperity, human rights, democracy, economy and trade, science and technology, disarmament and non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, counter narcotics, energy, education and cultural cooperation.

Leaders agreed that both sides would focus their common agenda on implementation of the Malakand Development Strategy. They also decided to strengthen practical arrangements for a more regular counter-terrorism dialogue.

EU officials said the bloc had launched a “Civilian Capacity Building for Law Enforcement” programme to support the government’s counter-terrorism efforts and help the National Counter-Terrorism Authority to become “a fully operational and effective agency.”

The two sides agreed that it was essential to create the administrative and security conditions which would allow investment to develop and reverse the declining trends rapidly.

EU aid to Pakistan for the period 2011-13 is expected to rise by 50 per cent to Euro 75 million annually.

Officials said this was in line with the EU Action Plan for Pakistan, which sets out priorities such as capacity support to the rule of law sector, support of the Malakand Development Strategy and support to Pakistan’s energy sector.

European officials also assured Pakistan that they would continue to provide assistance to those affected by terrorism by supporting the Malakand Development Strategy, also through the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa/Fata/Balochistan Multi-Donor Trust Fund, managed by the World Bank.

Nato and Pakistan seek to boost non-military ties

Dawn, 5 June 2010,

BRUSSELS: Nato and Pakistani leaders agreed on Friday on the need to strengthen their political ties.

Measures could include high-level exchanges and parliamentary visits, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said after meeting Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters.

“Cooperation should not remain confined to only terrorism and extremism,” Mr Gilani told a joint press conference, referring to the fight against militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.

“We have to look beyond that so that we can work together in future as well… there should be more cooperation with the parliamentarians.. and with high-level exchange of visits,” he added.

“It has to be a process that is demand driven,” said Mr Rasmussen, adding: “We have already started military-to-military cooperation and we stand ready to further develop that.”

But “we should expand the political dialogue, personally I attach a lot of importance to dialogue with the parliaments,” he added, echoing his Pakistani guest.

Mr Rasmussen said Pakistan should define the area where the Nato alliance could offer its support.

Nato and Pakistan have been fighting militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. Both said they were ready to continue the military efforts.

Mr Rasmussen underlined that “Nato will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job. There should be no misunderstanding about that.

“We count on Pakistan as a partner and we will be a partner to Pakistan as well.”

Address to council: Mr Gilani addressed the North Atlantic Council and raised Indias Pakistan-specific military doctrines such as the Cold Start. He urged Nato to take active interest in South Asian security.

“We remain concerned over Pakistan-specific Indian military doctrines such as the Cold Start envisaging a limited conventional war under the nuclear over-hang; huge increase in Indian military budget and massive weapon acquisitions.—Agencies

“India believes in need for dialogue with Pakistan”

Dawn, 5 June 2010,

WASHINGTON: India has assured the United States that it has consistently believed in the need for dialogue to seek a future of peace and cooperation with Pakistan.

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna used a Thursday evening reception, also attended by US President Barack Obama, to convey this message, which emphasised the need for improving relations with Pakistan after more than 60 years of war, tensions and mutual suspicions.

President Obama used this opportunity to announce that he was looking forward to making ‘history’ by visiting India in November.

Although Mr Obama spoke after the Indian foreign minister, he chose not to comment on Mr Krishna’s remarks about Pakistan, which included a promise to build a better future and also a strong warning against “the continuing threat of terrorism”, which he said was “a cause of great concern for us in India”.

Mr Krishna’s remarks about Pakistan, however, were not hostile. Instead, they reflected a new desire to seek a negotiated settlement of New Delhi’s differences with Islamabad.

Mr Krishna noted that “the trust deficit in relations between India and Pakistan needs to be specifically addressed”.

Although the Obama administration is quietly encouraging India and Pakistan to continue the dialogue process, the US president chose not to address this issue in his speech.

Instead, he focussed on India and on its importance in America’s future global strategy. “India is indispensable to the future that we seek, a future of security and prosperity for all nations,” he said.

Confirming his plan to visit India in November, President Obama said he was “looking forward to the history that we will make together” during and after the visit and “progress that will be treasured not just by this generation but by generations to come”.Mr Obama said he firmly believed that the relationship between the US and India would be a defining partnership in the 21st century.

“The new National Security Strategy that I released last week makes this absolutely clear: A fundamental pillar of America’s comprehensive engagement with the world involves deepening our cooperation with 21st century centres of influence — and that includes India,” he added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted the reception for the Indian delegation, was equally eloquent in stressing India’s importance for her country and the international community.

She noted that renowned American writer Mark Twain once wrote, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition.”

Earlier, at a joint press conference with Mr Krishna after the inaugural session of the strategic dialogue, Secretary Clinton said the United States was “definitely committed” to consider India for a permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council and pitched for its greater role in meeting challenges in South Asia, such as securing Afghanistan. “We don’t have any way forward yet on the United Nations Security Council reforms but we are obviously very committed to considering India,” she said.

During the dialogue, the two sides discussed situation in the Pak-Afghan region and decided to step up cooperation in a wide range of areas, including defence and nuclear energy.

India-US talks also focused on Pakistan

Dawn, 5 June 2010,

WASHINGTON: Although titled US-India Strategic Dialogue, the talks held in Washington this week also focused on New Delhi’s relations with Pakistan, said a senior US official.

“It’s a part of the dialogue in the sense that we’re always interested in seeing if peace can be enhanced between these two very important partners of the United States,” said Assistant Secretary Robert Blake.

Mr Blake, who looks after South Asian affairs at the State Department, however, noted that the US had always believed it was up to India and Pakistan themselves to resolve their differences.

Determining “the pace, scope and character of their dialogue” was also ‘completely’ up to the two countries. “We are more in the mode of just encouraging peace on both sides and encouraging both sides to address each other’s concerns as much as possible.”

Mr Blake’s statement, included in a transcript the State Department released on Friday, reflected the traditional US policy on this issue, which actively encourages both countries to settle their disputes through negotiations but refuses to take a public position.

The US reluctance is linked to India’s stance as well, which rejects any outside mediation in its dealings with Pakistan. But this makes it difficult for friendly states to help reduce tensions between South Asia’s two neighbouring nuclear states.

In deference to New Delhi’s desire, the US also refuses to take a public position on the Kashmir dispute, which has plagued relations between India and Pakistan for more than 60 years.

“I don’t think Kashmir is really the question that’s on the table now,” said Mr Blake when asked what the US could do to help the two sides resolve the Kashmir dispute.

“The real question right now is to first get some progress on the trial of the Mumbai suspects, those who are already in custody in Pakistan,” he said.

“And also from the Indian perspective to see progress by Pakistan on stopping actions by Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Punjab-based terrorist groups against India.”

These two, he said, were “really the redlines” for re-establishing the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.

And since this also endorsed the Indian policy on this particular issue, Mr Blake was not reluctant in offering US assistance for realising the two objectives.

“Those are areas where I think we can help and encourage our Pakistani friends to move forward, and indeed we have,” he said.

The US official also rejected the suggestion that India was worried Washington might sacrifice New Delhi’s interests as it sought Pakistan’s help in Afghanistan.

“I don’t think India really is worried about that,” he said. “We’ve had extensive talks with our Indian friends, not only during the course of this strategic dialogue but previously.

US says Pakistan indispensable in Afghanistan

Dawn, 4 June 2010,

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is indispensable for US success in Afghanistan, although India also has a very important role in that country, says a senior State Department official.

“Because we understood we will not be able to succeed without the active support of our friends in Pakistan,” said the official while explaining why President Barack Obama formulated an ‘integrated strategy’ for dealing with terrorism in the Pak-Afghan region.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, however, noted that the United States had “strongly welcomed the important role that India has played through its various reconstruction and development projects” in Afghanistan.

In a web-chat from Washington with journalists in India, Mr Blake had to face a number of very hostile questions on what Indians saw as a pro-Pakistan tilt in America’s new policy for Afghanistan.

The journalists pointed out that there was a big concern in India over the Afghan exit strategy of the Obama administration, which would also figure prominently in the US-India Strategic Dialogue in Washington.

They claimed that Pakistani intelligence agents were harming not only Indian but also US interests in Afghanistan and wanted to know if the US administration was convinced that sidelining India and appeasing Pakistan would help stabilise the situation in Afghanistan.

“It’s easy to forget that Pakistan is the country that has suffered most from terrorism and therefore it is in their interests” as well to fight the terrorists, said Mr Blake while explaining why the United States was convinced that Pakistan was serious in combating the extremists.

“It remains a very high priority for Pakistan, itself, because all of these groups that are based in Pakistan pose a threat not only to India and Afghanistan but also to Pakistan itself,” he added.

Mr Blake noted that the United States and India closely cooperated with each other in the fight against terrorists.

“The attack that took place in Mumbai in November of 2008… was really a turning point in many ways for what became much closer counter-terrorism and intelligence cooperation between our two countries to help counter this threat,” he observed.

The threat to US and Indian interests, he said, came not only from Lashkar-e-Taiba but also from many other groups that were targeting both India and the United States.

Mr Blake noted that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller was also participating in the US-India Strategic Dialogue which, he hoped, would lead to greater cooperation between the two countries in the fight against extremists.

The US official rejected a suggestion that the Pakistan Army regulars, and particularly the ISI, were involved in terror attacks against India. “I don’t think it’s so much that the Pakistan Army is involved in terror attacks; it’s more that it is terrorist organisations inside Pakistan who have been involved in attacks, not only against India, but against the United States,” said Mr Blake.

He said the growing global scope and ambition of groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba had increased need for the United States, India and Pakistan to cooperate to address this growing threat. “And we are encouraged that the Pakistani government has said that it will not allow Pakistani soil to be used by extremist groups like LeT to attack India or the United States.”

The US military aid to Pakistan was another subject over which Indian journalists had serious concerns and urged Washington to reconsider its decision to sell military equipment to Islamabad.

“Whatever military assistance we are providing to Pakistan is to be used in its fight against terrorism — particularly in its border areas with Afghanistan,” said Mr Blake. “That is really the primary mission in front of the Pakistani army and the Pakistani military” too, he added.

“We are very encouraged that the Pakistani army has redeployed troops away from the Indian border. We do not see India as a threat to Pakistan and so we would encourage that process to continue.”

The US, he said, would also ensure through end-use monitoring that weapons transferred to Pakistan were used for the purposes they were sold for.

This caused another journalist to say that the real problem was the transfer of high-tech US weapons to Pakistan.

Mr Blake said the US was providing a range of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency platforms to Pakistan for use against the militants.

“They are not to be used against India in any way,” he said, adding that the overall character of US assistance programme to Pakistan was changing very rapidly, and the emphasis was no more on the military side.

Indian role key to future success in Afghanistan: US

Dawn, 3 June 2010,

WASHINGTON: “We refuse to accept the notion that somehow we can have strong relations with only one country in South Asia at a time,” says a senior US official while defining the Obama administration’s policy towards India and Pakistan.

Speaking at a seminar on the start of US-India Strategic Dialogue this week, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns also hinted that the US was not against India’s inclusion in the UN Security Council as a permanent member.

“India’s expanding global role will naturally make it an important part of any future consideration of reform of the United Nations Security Council,” he said.

“Of course the United States attaches considerable importance to relations with Pakistan, but those relations do not come at the expense of India,” said the State Department’s No. 2 diplomat while explaining how the Obama administration planed to balance its ties with the two neighbouring nations.

He also delineated how the US sought to balance Indian and Pakistani interests in Afghanistan but made it clear that Washington would not ask India to reduce its high-profile role in that country.

“We also highly value India’s role in building economic and social opportunities in Afghanistan, and see India’s continued involvement there as a key part of that country’s future success, not part of its present problems,” said Mr Burns.

The US diplomat also described how it was in the US interests to help evolve better relations between India and Pakistan. He was also very clear in underlining the need for Pakistan to act against the terrorist groups that targeted India or the United States.

“We will continue to urge Pakistan to take decisive action against the violent extremists who threaten its own interests as much as they do the security of India and America,” said the senior US diplomat.

“None of us, least of all Indians and Pakistanis, can afford a resurgence of tensions between two nuclear-armed states,” he said.

“And none of us, least of all Indians and Pakistanis, can afford to see groups with global terrorist ambitions like Lashkar-e-Taiba continue unchecked.”

Mr Burns sought to answer several key questions that are often raised in India, admitting, “We can’t afford to gloss over such questions, or pretend that they don’t exist.”

The questions that, according to him, are often asked in India are:

— The US seeks to “re-hyphenate” relations with India and sees India mainly through the prism of preoccupations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

— The US does not push Pakistan hard enough on terrorists who kill and threaten Indians.

— The US will hurry towards the exit in Afghanistan and leave India holding the strategic pieces.

— The Obama administration is tempted by visions of a “G-2” world that “downgraded” India because it sees Asia exclusively through the lens of an emerging China, with India’s role secondary.

Under-Secretary Burns also highlighted the questions that trouble US policy makers:

Some Americans worry that it is India which “self-hyphenates” … that India sometimes has a hard time realising how far its influence and its interests have taken it beyond its immediate neighbourhood … that India doesn’t always see as clearly as others do how vital its own role in Asia is becoming.

Some Americans worry that India is ambivalent about its own rise in the world, still torn between its G-77 and G-20 identities. And some Americans wonder if India has the drive to overcome obstacles to its own ambitious development efforts.