India's role will be highlighted

[ComradePashtun]

Announcement likely on India’s role in Afghanistan

Narayan Lakshman

U.S. keen on “level playing field” for civil nuclear agreement

The Obama administration was “keen to see a level playing field,” regarding the civil nuclear agreement with India and there will “definitely” be an announcement on India’s role in Afghanistan and regional counter-terrorism issues, a senior State Department official said hours before the U.S. President embarked on his India visit.

Speaking to The Hindu from Washington the official said that the parties concerned had continued working on the civil nuclear agreement as a “priority” in the aftermath of the passage of the nuclear liability Bill in Parliament.

Responding to a question on whether India could expect any assurances about its future role in Afghanistan, in particular the safety of its workers there, the official said “You will definitely see things highlighted on strategic issues like Afghanistan.”

The official also rejected suggestions that the weakening of Democrats’ control over Congress might alter the course of the U.S.’ India policy, specifically the Obama administration’s anti-outsourcing stance.

Explaining that unlike the parliamentary system a loss of power in one house of the U.S. Congress did not imply a dramatic change, the official added that “there really is a bipartisan consensus on U.S.-India relations.”
When asked whether the Republicans’ willingness to permit outsourcing of jobs would clash with President Obama’s stated preference to keep jobs on U.S. soil the official said that there was “not going to be any significant change” in the official position.

The reason for this was that to create any bill the House of Representatives, the Senate and the President would have to approve and “the President still remains the President” even if he hoped to have the cooperation of Congress.

Besides these two critical issues the State Department expects that during Mr. Obama’s time in India significant announcements will be made in the areas of clean energy, science and technology cooperation, and agricultural cooperation. Education-sector partnerships also “surely will come up in the course of the trip.”

In particular the senior official said to The Hindu that initiatives on agricultural cooperation and science and technology would be taken forward, respectively by Indian-Americans Raj Shah of the USAID aid agency and Anish Chopra, Mr. Obama’s Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Chopra is in India already.

Reinforcing comments by the President this week, the official said that the State Department viewed the India leg of Mr. Obama’s trip as kicking off a four-country visit in Asia, and that was “actually quite important… because what it means is that India is the cornerstone of our approach to our engagement with Asia.”

[ComradePashtun]

Afghanistan withdrawal could imperil US-India relations, McCain warns
By Laurie Ure, CNN National Security Producer

Washington (CNN) -- If the United States leaves Afghanistan prematurely, the subsequent destabilization in the region would have a "huge bearing" on relations between the United States and India, Sen. John McCain warned Friday.

"Afghanistan has become a major source of tension between the United States and India, for the primary reason that India does not believe we will stay until the job is done," McCain said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Arizona senator, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's plan to begin drawing down troops in July 2011, saying it is a signal to the Taliban of U.S. departure.

McCain warned that if the United States leaves Afghanistan before positive conditions can be reached and maintained on the ground, the consequences will not only be troublesome for the United States, but even worse for India, "which will have a terrorist safe haven on its periphery."

Such a move would deepen India's reliance on Russia and Iran, McCain said, and would demonstrate to India that the United States is both a declining power and an unreliable partner.

The U.S. policy toward Pakistan has huge implications for the region, McCain said.

He warned that some members of Pakistan's army and intelligence service continue to support terrorist groups, largely because their belief that America will withdraw prematurely from Afghanistan pushes them to hedge their bets.

McCain credited "good luck and extraordinary restraint, especially on India's part" as the reasons that the Pakistani military's behavior has not proven catastrophic for the country.

"But if, God forbid, our luck runs out, I don't know if restraint will be an option, either for India or for us," he said.
State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said he agrees with McCain, but insisted no one is taking about premature withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I don't think anybody's arguing about whether we're going to pull up stakes and head back home," Toner said.
The goal now, he said, is to build up Afghanistan's institutions and security forces. A judgment will be made next summer about how to draw down troop levels after discussions with military leaders, he said.

[ComradePashtun]

McCain: India fears U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

Fears about a premature U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan have created tension in the United States' relationship with India and reinforced the Pakistani military's strategy of supporting terrorist groups in the region, Sen. John McCain said on Friday.

"Afghanistan has become a major source of tension between the U.S. and India for the primary reason that India does not believe that we will stay until the job is done," Mr. McCain said in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Arizona Republican said it was important for the U.S. to address this concern head-on.

Mr. McCain spoke just before leaving for a trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Describing the U.S. relationship with Pakistan as one in which broader strategic interests are not entirely aligned, Mr. McCain said nothing the United States has done since Sept. 11, 2001, has changed the basic strategic calculus of the Pakistani army.

"When compelled, it is willing to fight terrorist groups that threaten Pakistan, but not related groups that threaten Afghanistan, India and increasingly America as well," he said.

The senator said some in Pakistan's army and intelligence service continue to support these terrorist groups as a tool of influence. "A belief that America will withdraw prematurely from Afghanistan has only reinforced the Pakistani military's inclination to hedge its bets," he added.
The Obama administration will conduct a review of its policies in Afghanistan in December.

Mr. McCain said if the U.S. quits Afghanistan "before positive conditions can be shaped and sustained on the ground, the consequences will certainly be terrible for us but they will be even worse for India, which will have a terrorist safe haven on its periphery."
He said such a situation would deepen India's reliance on Russia and Iran, which would damage the U.S.-India relationship.

"I can think of few more immediate ways to damage the U.S.-India relationship and to convince India that the U.S. is both a declining power and unreliable partner than for us to pull out of Afghanistan before achieving our goals," Mr. McCain said.

In a conference call with reporters this week, Robert D. Blackwill, who served as ambassador to India in the George W. Bush administration, said India is extremely anxious that the U.S. will forge a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials say reconciliation and reintegration efforts with the Taliban in Afghanistan are an Afghan-led process and to qualify terrorists must lay down their arms, cut ties to al Qaeda and abide by the Afghan Constitution.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, recently told reporters that no "high-level" talks were taking place with the Taliban.

But, he added, "there has been an increase in the number of people who have fought with the Taliban who have been reaching out, picking up the phone metaphorically or literally and calling up people and saying, 'I've had enough of this war. I'd like to talk to you.' "

Mr. McCain described the emergence of a strategic partnership with India as "one of the most consequential, bipartisan successes of recent U.S. foreign policy."

President Obama traveled to India on Friday for a trip that includes visits to Mumbai and New Delhi.

Expectations have been high in New Delhi that the president will endorse India's bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.

Mr. McCain said the U.S. should support India's bid. "If we want India to join us in sharing the responsibilities for international peace and security, then the world's largest democracy needs to have a seat at the high table of international politics," he said.

While Britain, France and Russia have supported India's bid for a permanent seat, the U.S. and China are the two permanent members of the Security Council that have not.

India's relationship with China has been fraught with tension.
China is building deepwater ports suitable for military purposes in countries surrounding India and India's neighbors are some of the largest recipients of Chinese arms. China and India also have a long-running dispute over borders.

Mr. McCain echoed growing concern in New Delhi about encirclement of India by China.

"It is not difficult to understand why many Indian strategists and leaders, including [Indian] Prime Minister [Manmohan] Singh, see in these actions a Chinese effort to surround India and weigh down its rise to global power with persistent local problems," Mr. McCain said.

The U.S. and India, too, have their share of differences, specifically on Iran and Burma.

Mr. McCain said India should do more to ensure democracy flourishes in both countries.

"Ultimately, Iranians and Burmese will reclaim their countries and when they do they will remember who was on the right side of history," he said.

Burma will hold its first election in 20 years on Sunday in which the ruling military is expected to consolidate its grip on power. The opposition National League for Democracy is boycotting the vote and its charismatic leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.

[Nokia_Apridy]

AWo Comrade Ta ya Jor Kray Zma da WEna pa SAWDA banday

[Michin Khel]

The more involvement of India will equal to the less involvement of ISI which is a good thing.

No
More india is involved in afghanistan more will be pakistan there in response. India is using afghanistan soil for proxy wars (pakistan as well).

Not only balochistan but KP is also subject to india's involvement in the form of terrorist activists.

[drona]

^
Kindly ask your beloved fauj to give specific evidence -more substantive than uncircumcised penises - to International community in order to expose terrorist India .

Everybody knows that ISI "assets" are the ones who are busy killing/bombing/butchering unarmed doctors and construction workers assisting Afghan people in their country's reconstruction.

[Michin Khel]

I admit ISI is involved in terrorism in india. So is RAA in pakistan.

[drona]

^
Yep, maybe RAA (?) but definitely not RAW

[ComradePashtun]

Nokia,

Your idiotic posting of pictures wont work with me, and typical of you disgraceful Laa-nati Paki to emotionally blackmail or make a political point by posting those graphic pictures of little child in pain. Beghairata! Aw hagha joomat de washarma aw sta beghirata ISI hum and their running pups Khyber Rifles dawoosan and their creation Taliban and TTP.

THIS IS NOTHING BUT BLOW-BLACK OF PAKISTANI POLICY OF STATE SUPPORTED MASS TERROSIM. You cannot fully control that.

There is no India involved in here; if you have evidence then present it. Funny enough your lying government is not even mentioning it anymore. It was a failed strategy and it will remain to be one.

[ComradePashtun]

Pa weeno kho ta joor swee, da 30 kaloo da weeno tweedo bandi aw nan wraz hum da NATO tool convoys na hum ta paisee joorawee. Da Allah pa ghazab greftara see.

[ComradePashtun]

Pakistan outweighs any terrorist entitiy.

[ComradePashtun]

Pakistan as first step to absolve itself from the terrorist blame should get rid of terrorist sanctuaries before pointing out fingers. WTF has east Pakistan's secession which happend 30 years ago has to do with today?

[ComradePashtun]

^ That was funny, Shadow Dancer (Bangra). I must admit you made me laugh there.

Shakal na kho sta kaliwalan (Kabaddi playes) da Hinduwanoo imaaman shkari. Kheeraney murdari kheetai ye zhyarr zhyarra rangoona aw agyle postures ye dassee laka che garda/toola kalay moo panditaan weee! Shadow khpala DNA check ka!

[ComradePashtun]

Man Indian, Panjabi, Bingali are the same to me. Come and I will show you your Pakis sisters who have married all type. Good luck to her, she is not my sister and nor related to me and nor does she represent us all. Panjabi and Pathan inter-marriage is a common place. Come up with something smart, Shadow Dancera.

[ComradePashtun]

What the heck is "tash pano".

No che zai mo ra karray imaan kho mo na dai der khartskarray and nor did we agree to be a colony of Pakistan che da Pakistan pa kuna teez wacho aw India sara dushmanee wokrro. You blame them for terrorism, but you don't blame ISI for its part. Nokia posts some random pic of TTP terrorism which they have admited and you Patriotic Pakis product of Pakistani History Studies just charge up like retards.

This is a political debate and argue and fight your concer with reason and logic, it has nothing to do with namak harami or namak halali. Go and ask your government to kick our all Afghans, don't come here throw it on me as if you have done me any favour Mr Kabaddi.