US president Barack Obama's administration on Friday appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan,a job which is likely to involve the former Assistant Secretary of State in frequent interactions with the authorities in India as well. Holbrooke a two-time Assistant Secretary of State and known for his role in bringing peace to Bosnia in 1995 has often made a point that the success of the US policy in Afghanistan lay in bringing stability the warring tribal areas in western Pakistan. He has also argued for involving other major countries in the region,including India,in finding a solution that ensures long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan. In a recent article in Foreign Affairs,Holbrooke,who was the foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton when she was running for presidency,had said that the Bush administrations policy in Afghanistan was a failure and the new President needed a make a significant shift in policy. Nothing,not even Iraq,represents a greater policy failure for the outgoing administration, he had written. In the same article,published in October last year,Holbrooke had argued for a role for India,China and Russia in stabilising Afghanistan. Afghanistans future cannot be secured by a counter-insurgency effort alone; it will also require regional agreements that give Afghanistan's neighbours a stake in the settlement. That includes Iran - as well as China,India and Russia, he had said. But the most important neighbour is,of course Pakistan,which can destabilise Afghanistan at will and has. Getting policy toward Islamabad right will be absolutely critical for the next administration and very difficult. Diplomats in India agreed that Holbrooke was likely to hold regular consultations with New Delhi on Afghanistan. But as India's former permanent representative to the UN,Arundhati Ghose,pointed out it would be important for Holbrooke to ignore Pakistan's noises on Kashmir when he discussed Afghanistan with New Delhi. When you are discussing Afghanistan,you have to discuss it with Afghanistan's neighbours as well. It is only fair,therefore,that Holbrooke tries to take India along. But he will have to be careful to confine his discussions to Afghanistan and not venture into Kashmir,as Pakistan would definitely want him to do, Ghose said. Holbrooke,who predicted that the conflict in Afghanistan was likely to last much more than the Vietnam War that went on for 14 years,said in his acceptance speech on Friday that he was planning a visit to the region soon.Known to be a tough negotiator,Holbrooke was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981 and the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs from 1994 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. He has also been US Ambassador to the UN from 1999 to 2001. New US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday made a telephone call to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and expressed her desire to work together with him to take the relationship between the two countries to a new level. Mukherjee congratulated Hillary on assuming her new office and invited her to visit India at a mutually convenient date,a Government statement said.
