Share this story!            

US can’t resolve India-Pakistan issues: Obama

* US president says Pakistan has made progress in fight against terrorism
* India indispensable US partner in range of issues

WASHINGTON: The United States cannot play a role in resolving the outstanding issues between India and Pakistan, US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

The US president, who had extensive discussions with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the situation in South Asia, said, “Obviously there are historic conflicts between India and Pakistan. It is not the place of the US to try, from the outside, to resolve all those conflicts.”

Obama, however, said Washington wanted to “be encouraging ways in which both India and Pakistan can feel secure and focus on the development of their own countries and their own people”.

Pakistani efforts: Obama noted that Pakistan had made progress in fighting terrorists and hoped for anti-terrorism cooperation between all regional parties for the benefit of the people of Pakistan and India, and the world as a whole.

“We have seen some progress, the work the Pakistani military is doing in Swat, in South Waziristan, all indicate the degree to which they are beginning to recognise that extremism can have an adverse impact on their security internally,” he said. “With respect to security issues in the region, the prime minister and I had extensive discussions about that. I think our core goal is to recognise that our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all the peoples in the region, not just one country or the other,” he said at a joint White House appearance with Singh.

Indispensable: The US president hailed India as an “indispensable” partner, as he pledged to work on a range of issues with Manmohan Singh, AFP reported.

Obama assured India that the world’s largest democracy was a true partner in his top priorities from counter-terrorism to climate change. “The US welcomes and encourages India’s leadership role in helping to shape the rise of a stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia,” he said.

Obama said Pak-US relations in the past focused more on military assistance, but said his administration was now expanding bilateral cooperation to other areas that will help bring economic development to the people of Pakistan.

He praised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for an “excellent job” in trying to move forward and helping the State Department to refocus US energies on expanding cooperation to other areas.

“Pakistan has an enormously important role in the security of the region by making sure that the extremists organisations are dealt with effectively.” app/afp

Home | National

Share this story!