Washington, September 10: Ahead of a crucial meeting between Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Obama Administration came out in support of India’s stand on pre-conditions for talks with Pakistan.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said the progress made by Pakistan in bringing the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice and stopping cross border infiltration would lay the basis of resumption of talks between the two south Asian neighbours.
“The progress is needed first to bring the Mumbai suspects, who are already in custody to trial, to prosecute them and also to stop cross border infiltration so that there is not another attack such as what happened in Mumbai,” he said.
“And I think that kind of progress would lay the basis of resumption of these confidence building measures that you talked about,” Blake said in response to a question at the prestigious Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University after a speech on Obama Administration’s South Asia policy.
Hoping that the two countries would be able to make progress in their bilateral peace talks, signals of which have come from the recent meetings between India and Pakistan beginning with that of the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Blake said it is for India and Pakistan to resolve the issues between them.
–Agencies