United States encourages dialogue between India and Pakistan in order to ensure stability in South Asia, the White House has said.
“The President (Obama) recognises that India is an important partner and certainly critical in the region, and that in order to ensure stability in South Asia, we wanted to encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan,” Mike Hammer, spokesperson of the National Security Council, told foreign journalists in New York and Washington, at a news conference.
“That’s something that we continue to support when there are efforts there.
“Because the more confidence and trust that can be built between those two nations, the more able everyone else is to focus on really the challenges of extremism and terrorism that are a threat to us all,” Hammer said in response to a question.
He said Mr. Obama’s visit to India in November reflected all elements of Indo-U.S. relationship.
“It’s not only a question of the security interests of both countries, but the economic interests of both countries, the cultural ties between both countries. And we’re very encouraged.
“I think what you’ve seen is an evolving deep, personal relationship between the President and Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh. This is something that we’re very optimistic and positive about, I think you’re going to see increasing cooperation between both our countries, including recently some decisions by India with regards to Iran and financing,” Mr. Hammer said.
The White House official said the U.S. President through his visit, recognised that there are emerging powers around the globe that are increasingly important, India being among them.
“We saw the very important and successful visit the president made last November to India. We’ve had a state visit with Prime Minister Singh. And that’s a strategic partnership that continues to grow and is, I think, in the interest of both countries and the world to try to continue on that path,” he said.
