A top American official for South Asia, underscoring Washington's stakes in Pakistan-India détente, has said the United States can offer ideas towards improvement in ties between its two key friends in the region.
Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said Washington has a very significant multi-dimensional relationship with India but Pakistan is also 'equally important'. "My piece of this is to help on India-Pakistan side where we have a great interest in promoting better ties between our two friends," Blake told WRVO Radio during a visit to upstate New York.
"We have always said that it's important for them to determine the pace and the scope and the character of how they will improve their relations, but again, we can always offer ideas," he added, without elaborating on these ideas.
Blake's comments came as Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries prepared to meet on the margins of a Saarc moot in Thimphu, Bhutan from February 6-7. The meeting is expected to explore ways to revive the Pakistan-India peace process that broke down in the aftermath of 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Islamabad wants talks on all outstanding issues including Kashmir, the cause of several wars and conflicts between the two countries. The two countries have also reportedly exchanged some proposals in the run-up to the Bhutan meeting.
In the interview, the US official remarked that encouraging better ties between neighbouring Pakistan and India has become particularly important in the post-9/11 world, and referred to the escalation of tensions between the two regional powers in the wake of November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Were such an incident to take place again, he feared, the subsequent situation would be "very damaging" to US interests, he warned.
Blake explained his point by highlighting Pakistan's vital anti-terror role along the Afghan border and said any movement of its troops back to the eastern border with India would be a setback counter-terrorism effort.
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