The Hindu : Terrorism: U.S. reminds Pak. of `commitments'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 02, 2003

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International

Terrorism: U.S. reminds Pak. of `commitments'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Oct. 1 . On the eve of the Pakistan Prime Minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali's visit to the United States, the Bush administration has said that it was in touch with Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism pertaining to India and had reminded Islamabad that it had made "commitments" to end that kind of activity.

"The issue of cross-border terrorism remains very important to us. The Pakistan President, Musharraf, has made commitments to end the cross border activity and that remains very important to us. It is a subject of continuing discussions with the Pakistan Government as they try to achieve that goal," the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said on Tuesday.

Mr. Boucher was responding to queries on Pakistan and India especially on the visit of the Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, to Pakistan and central Asia starting today. Mr. Armitage would meet Gen. Musharraf to talk about a number of issues, including Afghanistan, the security situation in the region, the coming Security Council Resolution on Iraq and the situation in that country itself, Mr. Boucher said.

"A whole lot of work with our friends and allies...first, on a relationship with Pakistan that's very important to us, that we want to continue to work and develop," Mr. Boucher remarked of Mr. Armitage's trip.

There was a whole lot of work with Pakistan and Afghanistan as well on the security situation in that region "and making sure we are all doing everything we can to track down and eliminate the remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives that may be in the area."

The spokesman argued that the United States "is working with both India and Pakistan to look at some of the issues between them and to encourage them to start engaging in discussions themselves to resolve these issues. And, that is a continuing issue that we work with the parties and raise with the parties."

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