India 'pleased' with Obama's AfPak focus on Taliban, Al Qaeda

A day after US President Barack Obama announced a troop surge in Afghanistan, India Wednesday said it was “pleased” that military pressure on the Al Qaeda and Taliban will not be eased in the region.

India was "very pleased that pressure on Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan and on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will not be eased," Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told reporters when asked about his response to Obama's announcement of the deployment of extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.

"It (Af-Pak policy) is the overall approach of continued engagement and focus is on dealing with the very real security dangers faced by Afghanistan," he said.

Tharoor, however, sought to downplay the absence of any mention of India in the revised Afghanistan-Pakistan policy Obama announced Tuesday night. It included deployment of additional 30,000 US troops to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan by May 2010, and a July 2011 deadline for an exit of American troops from the violence-torn country.

"India is not complaining at all," Tharoor said when asked if India was feeling “left out” at not being mentioned in Obama's speech.

"What you are overlooking is that our prime minister has just been there. He received a pretty thorough exposition of the US' views on the issue and President Obama called him up in Delhi yesterday to brief him further before his public speech in the US," he added.

Tharoor pointed out India's policy of assisting in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and a well-calibrated decision to stay away from any direct military involvement in the country.

"American abbreviation for their policy is Af-Pak and I see India in neither of those two abbreviations. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the focus of this policy and focus of President Obama's speech," he said.

Tharoor stressed that the entire international community has a stake in peace and stability of Afghanistan and success of the Hamid Karzai government in establishing his authority throughout the country.

India has pledged $1.2 billion for multifarious reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, ranging from building roads and bridges to power stations and a parliament building.

Taking note of India's contribution, US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer Wednesday described India as "a key global partner" of Washington and underlined that the two countries share the "core goal" of disrupting terrorist networks in the region.

"India is a key, global partner of the United States and we value the positive role India continues to play in the region, including its significant humanitarian contributions to Afghanistan," Roemer said here.

"Our nations share a common goal -- to see a world free of the global terrorism that threatens our people, where they worship, live, work, and study. We are committed to working steadfastly together to accomplish this goal," he said.

The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan figured prominently in discussions between Obama and Manmohan Singh in Washington Tuesday and reflected a growing congruence of views between the two countries on tackling terrorist safe havens in these countries. The convergence of approach was reflected in the Nov 24 India-US joint statement.

Last updated on Dec 2^nd, 2009 at 22:44 pm IST--IANS