By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao followed up her warning to Islamabad to stop terrorism by holding a string of meetings with top US officials where she discussed last month’s meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir and the unravelling situation in Afghanistan.
Rao met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and National Security Advisor General James Jones.
She briefed US officials about talks with Pakistan in the context of discussions “focused on regional issues including India’s neighbourhood”, Indian officials said.
Rao and Bashir had held talks in New Delhi Feb 25 during which the Indian side gave three dossiers linking elements in Pakistan to various terror attacks in India and asked Pakistan to create a climate of trust by addressing Indian concerns over cross-border terror.
The meeting ended without a breakthrough, with India making it clear that the time was not yet ripe for resuming the composite dialogue. But the two sides agreed to remain in touch.
Rao stressed that Afghanistan presented the foremost security challenge in the region and she “reiterated India’s long held position that it was important for the international community to stay the present course in Afghanistan for as long as it is necessary”.
“The US interlocutors conveyed their appreciation of the important developmental work being done by India in Afghanistan,” Indian officials said.
Rao’s bilateral meetings “with US interlocutors provided an opportunity to review the progress on various pillars of India-US Strategic Dialogue agenda including cooperation in defence, nuclear energy, counter-terrorism, agriculture, education, energy, space, cyber-security”, the Indian embassy said Tuesday.
The two sides had instituted the Strategic Dialogue in July 2009 when Clinton visited India. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is expected to visit Washington soon for the first round of the Strategic Dialogue with Clinton.
State Department spokesperson Philip J. Crowley told reporters Tuesday that the Clinton-Rao meeting “is part of the ongoing dialogue that we have with India on our strategic dialogue”.
Rao in an address Monday at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, a renowned Washington think tank, said: “Despite the provocations we have faced constantly from terrorists whose linkages we have traced back to Pakistani soil, we have not abandoned the path of dialogue.”
She said that like the US administration, “India, too, is concerned at the terror infrastructure that has been allowed to be established, take root and be used as an instrument of state policy in our immediate neighbourhood”.
“Our heartland, our cities and our people are exposed to the threat of terrorism in a constant and almost unremitting way in a manner the US well understands, given the similar threats directed against the American people,” she said.
Rao has also met Under Secretary for Policy in the Department of Defence Michelle Flournoy, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats and Under Secretary of State for Democracy Global Affairs Maria Otero.
Besides, she met House of Representatives’ Democrat member Gary Ackerman and Independent senator Joseph Lieberman. She attended a separate breakfast meeting to interact with experts from prominent Washington think tanks.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])