The Hindu : `U.S. supportive of India-Pakistan dialogue'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

International

International - India & World

`U.S. supportive of India-Pakistan dialogue'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB.18. The Bush administration has said that it has been very supportive of the steps taken by India and Pakistan as far as the bilateral dialogue is concerned; and while this direction has much to do with the leadership of the two South Asian nations there is also the supportive role of the United States.

"... The effort that the U.S. has made to be supportive of the steps that India and Pakistan are starting to take with each other, the dialogue that they have started now with a comprehensive dialogue in Islamabad between their Foreign Secretaries. So we have been supportive of that," the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said.

"If you remember where we were a couple of years ago when everybody looked at the region and said this place is falling into the horrors of nuclear holocaust, to look at where we are now through the efforts of the two... Leaders of the two nations, but also I think through the supportive role that the United States has tried to play in encouraging this kind of progress and bringing it out of the depths of those — the springtime — into a new springtime now to look at the possibilities of cooperation," Mr. Boucher said.

Asked what role the new American Ambassador, David Mulford, would be playing or if he was carrying any message from the Secretary of State, the spokesman said the new U.S. envoy was not carrying any "particular message" from the Secretary of State.

What he (Mr. Mulford) certainly knows clearly is the importance the Secretary attaches to the U.S.-India relationship...We have developed a series of approaches to our relationship with India that I think have led to any number of new projects and areas where we are now working together whether be it on regional issues, economics, science and technology issues where several years ago we had not much to speak of," Mr. Boucher said.

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`U.S. supportive of India-Pakistan dialogue'