By IANS,
New Delhi : With American President Barack Obama’s new strategy envisaging a bigger role for India in stabilising Afghanistan, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke comes here next week to explore ways in which New Delhi could help in defeating the Taliban – a common enemy.
Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is likely to be in India April 7, official sources told IANS.
The US envoy will meet Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and discuss with them India’s role in a broad regional context in dismantling and defeating the Taliban that is widely perceived to be a common regional threat.
India is broadly supportive of the Obama plan for stabilising Afghanistan, unveiled Friday, but is waiting for specifics before deciding on its future role vis-�-vis the US-led efforts in the region.
The two sides are also expected to discuss the progress in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan’s response to it. India has made it clear that it is not interested in resuming dialogue with Pakistan unless Islamabad shows concrete action to punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.
This will be Holbrooke’s second visit to India and the region in nearly two months after he was named special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The new AfPak policy US President Barack Obama announced Friday envisages $1.5 billion non-military aid per year to Pakistan, bolstering American troops and the Afghan National Army, and setting up a contact group for Afghanistan that also includes key regional players like Iran, Russia, India and China besides the Central Asian states and the Gulf nations.
Linking aid to Pakistan with its performance against terrorism has raised hopes in India of greater US pressure on Islamabad to dismantle infrastructure of terrorism in its territory.