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U.S. To Send Envoy To India, Pakistan
WASHINGTON, May 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. State Department will dispatch a senior official to Pakistan and India next week, as it presses ahead with efforts to ease tensions between the two nuclear rivals over Kashmir, officials said Friday.
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Christina Rocca will travel to both countries for the latest of a series of meetings, which have taken place amid U.S. concerns that India and Pakistan's conflict could hamper its anti-terror efforts.
Her visit coincides with increasing U.S. anxiety over terrorism in Pakistan, following the murders of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, the wife and stepdaughter of a U.S. diplomat in a church bombing, and Wednesday's bombing which targeted French nationals in Karachi.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the talks would focus on a wide range of issues, and that the flashpoint issue of Kashmir would come up.
There were no immediate details of exactly when she would visit the two countries.
Ahead of Rocca's trip, Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday spoke to both Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh about the conflict over disputed Kashmir, Boucher said.
"The Secretary called President Musharraf yesterday and Foreign Minister Singh yesterday to talk about India-Pakistan issues, tensions along the Line of Control and what we might be able to do, what they might do, what we might help them do to defuse those tensions," said Boucher.
Powell mounted a personal mission late last year to defuse tensions between the two South Asian rivals. Tensions skyrocketed after an attack on India's parliament in December, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
India accuses Pakistan of funding and arming a Muslim insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir, but Pakistan denies the charge and says it only extends moral and diplomatic support.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the region since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.
Up until the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the United States had been leaning closer towards India than its former Cold War ally Pakistan.
But after the assaults President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan emerged as a key U.S. ally, as Washington targeted Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and their Taliban protectors.
Since Musharraf chose to side with the United States, relations between the two nations have evolved considerably, as Washington has sweetened its pressure for action against Muslim activists, with loan guarantees and economic aid.
This week saw the first meeting of the Joint Working Group On Counter-terrorism and Law Enforcement in Washington and on Friday Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider met Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Pakistani officials said the Interior Minister's visit would focus on Pakistan's efforts to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban activists escaping from Afghanistan across its rugged frontier.
The United States has promised assistance for extra vigilance along the border, where small numbers of U.S. troops are already helping Pakistani forces track down suspected terrorist leaders.
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