President Bush's three-nation trip to South Asia "marked the growing strategic and economic importance" of the region "and opened up fresh opportunities" for political and economic agreements for all the countries in the region.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher, who accompanied President Bush on his South Asia trip, was speaking at a recent roundtable with journalists from India and Pakistan at the State Department. He cited the example of Presidents Musharraf and Karzai "discussing the possibilities of north-south co-operation in the region."
"Those are possibilities that strategically have opened up because Afghanistan is no longer an obstacle but rather it's a place that can unite," Boucher said. "So whether it's trade goods or electricity or pipelines or ideas or education, there's a lot of things that can flow back and forth between South and Central Asia."
Attempts to equate the nuclear situations in India and Pakistan are mistaken, Boucher said, and the United States sees the history and circumstances of the nuclear issue in each country as quite different.
However, the United States wants to help Pakistan meet its energy needs, through coal development and other untapped resources, according to Boucher.
The civilian nuclear agreement with India that was reached during the trip is only one element in a growing US-India bilateral partnership, according to Boucher, as well as a net gain for non-proliferation.
"It is an important example where countries can take on new obligations and support the international (non-proliferation) regime," he said.
Boucher expressed confidence that the US Congress would support the nuclear agreement, and in the administration's ability to address congressional concerns that India's civilian nuclear activities are safeguarded from its military programme.
He said the United States is working with both Pakistan and Afghanistan on "reconstruction opportunity zones" to provide employment and development opportunities.
Education was another priority rising from President Bush's trip, he added. "We want to help Pakistan succeed as a moderate society, a modern nation and a prosperous people," he said.
In response to a question about the effect of corruption, Boucher said that studies show that countries can lose one percent to two percent of growth per year to corruption. There is no simple way to solve the corruption problem, he warned, but countries can fight it with "open information, accountability in the press, (and) transparency of government decisions."
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