September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

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NEW DELHI, Sept 11: The United States forcefully urged India on Thursday to patch up with Pakistan and to be good to it, saying Islamabad needed all the support it could get to stabilize as a moderate Islamic state.

While Ms Christina Rocca, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, stopped short of telling New Delhi not to resent Washington’s close ties with Islamabad, the thrust of her policy speech, covering US interests in South Asia, hardly left room to miss the point.

“I believe we are at a particularly privileged moment in history because of the fact that the US enjoys good relations with India and Pakistan simultaneously,” Ms Rocca told a meeting organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

“Having good ties with both countries affords us the rare opportunity to pursue deepened engagement with both sides, even though this engagement will naturally take different forms and be oriented to different goals in each case,” she said.

Ms Rocca said India-Pakistan relationship “is often viewed in zero-sum terms. However, the United States firmly believes that a successful US-Pakistan relationship will also serve India’s interests.

“Pakistan is a country in the midst of a major political, economic and ideological transformation. It has not yet safely escaped the dangers of serious crisis on multiple fronts.

“It must be assisted to achieve a soft-landing that corrects disturbing internal trends, realigns its direction as a moderate Muslim state, and defeats definitively all terrorism emanating from its soil. We believe Indians should welcome such assistance, and I know that many do.”

TIES WITH INDIA: Ms Rocca recalled the Sept 11 attacks on the United States two years ago, and read out a statement from President George W. Bush to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in which he had condoled the death of Indian citizens in New York.

But even as Washington saw India as a strategic ally, differences remained, including over the development of India’s nuclear and missile programmes, and the pace of India’s economic reforms, she said.

“But while in the past these concerns may have dominated our thinking about India, today we start with a view of India as a growing world power with which we have common strategic interests. Through a strong partnership with India, we can best address any differences and shape a dynamic future,” she said.

Saying that the US would stand by India in its battle against terrorism, Ms Rocca said: “I can also reassure you that the issue of cross-border infiltration remains a very important issue on our agenda with Pakistan.”

Anti-terrorism collaboration with India has registered a few notable achievements, she said. From joint patrols in the straits of Malacca, to the inclusion of terrorist groups operating against India on the US Foreign Terrorist Organization List, to the prosecution in Virginia and Pennsylvania of eight alleged Lashkar-i-Taiba terrorists for engaging in a conspiracy to “prepare for and engage in violent jihad” against foreign targets in Kashmir.

“The attacks of 9/11 have literally turned India and the United States into neighbours,” Ms Rocca said. “US forces are on the ground inside and on the borders of Afghanistan, cooperating with Afghan and Pakistani forces against the remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban.

“At the same time, the US has increased its diplomatic engagement with, and assistance to, Nepal and Sri Lanka. We also continue to maintain our good relationship with Bangladesh.”

TOUGH STANCE: Ms Rocca spelt out a tough stance towards some of the issues on India’s borders.

Asked if she would help restore the transit of Indian goods to Afghanistan via Pakistan, she said the US was looking into it.

But no discussion on South Asia could be complete without bringing Pakistan into the frame, she said, adding that the US regretted the suspicions that persisted between the two countries.

She further said: “It is a tragedy that the encouraging progress in South Asia toward prosperity and democracy is often overshadowed by these tensions, preventing the creative energies of millions of individuals on both sides of the border from being unleashed upon the grand march of development.

“Although there are no magic solutions to these cross-border tensions, we remain hopeful that your recent decisions to exchange high commissioners, resume the bus service, and discuss other outstanding issues offers much more than a temporary detente.”