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NEW DELHI, May 3: US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Friday asked India to hold talks with Pakistan for reducing months of border tension.
In an interview with The Hindu newspaper, Rice said: “The important thing is that everybody stay away from brinkmanship, that nobody use force here and that we give diplomacy and the anti-terror campaign a chance.”
The senior US official said the United States wanted to work closely with India on the “anti-terrorism campaign”, just as it was doing with Pakistan.
At the same time, she said, Washington expected Islamabad to address the “legitimate concerns of New Delhi”.
About India’s allegations that Pakistan had not done enough to address India’s concerns, Condoleezza Rice said “we have urged the Indian government to give diplomacy the primacy here and to give us all time to dismantle the terrorist networks, to begin dialogue”.
Rice praised Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for showing restraint after the Dec 13 parliament attack.
GUJARAT KILLINGS: The US national security adviser called for a “clear investigation” into the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. She said: “There needs to be a clear investigation of those events and the right thing needs to be done.
“We believe the Vajpayee government will do the right thing and we’ll encourage them to do the right thing,” she said.
Asked why the United States has been largely reticent over the riots while the European Union has expressed concern, Rice said: “Because we believe that India is a great democracy, that the Vajpayee government is leading India well and that it will do the right thing when it comes to investigating the violence and the acts of violence.”
She added that the United States believed India was “a good partner”. —AFP
