Clinton ‘encouraged’ by restarted Indo-Pak talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for nuclear deals and deeper security cooperation with India on Tuesday as she visited the key US ally in the shadow of triple bomb blasts in Mumbai.
Clinton is on a three-day trip to India, lobbying for US commercial interests while seeking to balance the delicate relationships Washington maintains with violence-wracked South Asian countries. She said she was “encouraged” by India and Pakistan’s decision to restart their stop-start peace process, but she also heard Indian worries that a planned US troop drawdown in Afghanistan could lead to instability, AFP reported.
The top American diplomat stressed the US-India relationship, which President Barack Obama described as the “defining partnership of the 21st century”, had made great progress in recent years, but was yet to fulfil its potential.She singled out civil nuclear energy as an area where the countries “can and must do more” amid frustrations that private US nuclear energy firms were losing out in India to their state-owned French and Russian competitors. Despite the diplomatic efforts of Washington to push through the deal, privately run US firms such as Westinghouse and General Electric have been unable to land contracts to build new reactors.
“Many of us worked very hard for that agreement, but we do expect it to be enforceable and actionable in all regards,” Clinton said, voicing frustration that US firms still faced regulatory difficulties. After triple blasts in Mumbai last week that left 19 dead, security was foremost among the subjects discussed in talks between Clinton, India’s Foreign Minister SM Krishna and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“We are deepening and expanding our efforts and making great strides together on behalf of counter-terrorism but also in respect of maritime security,” she said at a news conference. Key to security and stability in nuclear-armed South Asia is the relationship between India and Pakistan. Clinton said she was “encouraged” by the renewal of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad which was “so necessary for us to deal with the underlying problem of terrorism”. “We do not believe that there are any terrorists that should be given a safe haven or free-pass by any government,” she said.
Krishna meanwhile reminded Clinton that India, which has spent billions of dollars on aid to Afghanistan, had much to lose by instability in the country as a result of the planned US troop withdrawal. “It is necessary for the United States to factor in Afghanistan’s ground realities so that… Afghanistan will be in a position to defend itself against terrorism sponsored by the Taliban,” Krishna said.
Clinton’s two-day trip follows Obama’s visit in November – a courtship of India that reflects the rapid growth in the country’s economy and a shift in power to emerging nations as a result of the global financial crisis.
Clinton also met Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to press him on promises to open domestic financial and insurance markets, as well as to give greater access to retail companies such as US sales giant Wal-Mart, Reuters reported.
Clinton made clear that arms sales, too, were part of the equation, saying India, seen as one of the world’s biggest defence buyers in coming years, could further improve US military cooperation by buying more US weaponry.