South Asia is part of a world of difficult challenges, but great opportunities as well, says a senior US diplomat. The region is confronted with poverty, disease, terrorism, drug trafficking, weak governance, corruption and natural disasters, says Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
But there are also great opportunities, he added, "with a population of over a billion people, most of them young and increasingly connected to each other and the rest of the world."
The "capabilities, resources and ideals of the United States uniquely position us to help transform the region into one rooted in democratic stability and committed to fighting extremism," Boucher said in congressional testimony May 14. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South Asia was conducting a hearing to determine if the funding for the region is focused on an effective US strategy with well-developed goals. Boucher testified that policymaking was strategic in scope and funding is precisely targeted.
President Bush's fiscal year 2009 budget request for South Asian states - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - is slightly more than $2 billion, Boucher said. "Much of our request remains concentrated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are key to regional stability," he testified.
The United States, Boucher said, has a consistent policy throughout the region of promoting democratic stability as the base from which to counter extremism and terrorism, which undermine governments and destroy societies. "We do this by supporting the opportunities all people want, in education, health care and the economy," he said.
And the United States supports those institutions that provide security and fight terrorism and drug trafficking, he said. "While these efforts manifest themselves in different ways through different programmes in different countries, what we pursue is not haphazard and it is not coincidence," he said.
Boucher said US assistance across the region is targeted towards increasing the capacity of governments to deliver basic services, security, rule of law and economic opportunity.
"When governments deliver in a transparent and effective manner, the space for extremists and insurgents to operate with impunity closes," Boucher said. Ensuring security and reconstruction in Afghanistan remains the top US priority, he told the panel. It is not just a theatre in which to battle enemies, he says, but a place to develop a close, democratic ally in the heart of a continent with considerable political and economic potential.-PR