‘India,Pak can’t afford resurgence of tension’

Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations – a Washington-based think-tank,the top State Department official said the US President Barack Obama has welcomed Prime Minister Singh’s willingness to take political risks in order to lessen tensions with Pakistan and has promised that the United States will continue to support those efforts.

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

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

As Secretary Clinton has emphasised to the Pakistani leadership,”we have no time to waste in going after that common enemy as hard and as fast as we can,” Burns said.

It is similarly vital the two countries make common cause in supporting a stable future for Afghanistan,he said.

“During (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai’s recent visit to Washington,President Obama reinforced the long-term American commitment to an Afghanistan that can defend itself and provide for its own people,and that cannot again become a platform for violent extremists,” he noted.

“That is a hugely complicated task,and one that will not come to an end in July 2011. It will require strong contributions from many countries – including India,whose important development assistance to Afghanistan already totals over USD 1.3 billion,” Burns said.

He said that India’s role in its immediate neighbourhood remained crucial.

“We have complementary interests on the Subcontinent,and the United States supports India’s leadership in encouraging the emergence of a stable democratic government in Bangladesh,easing tensions in Nepal and promoting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka,” burns said.

“Neither of us intends to outsource South Asia policy to the other,but more often than not our policy prescriptions converge,” he added.