Clinton pledges US support for India counterterror effort, says won’t ease pressure Pakistan

 

 

NEW DELHI — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday pledged robust counterterrorism cooperation with India while assuring Indian officials that the Obama administration won’t ease pressure on Pakistan to combat extremists or allow the Taliban to regain power in Afghanistan with a precipitous withdrawal of American troops.

While hailing improved U.S.-Indian ties, Clinton also called on New Delhi to ease trade restrictions keeping American firms out of India’s massive market and urged the government to quickly resolve a dispute over investments in the nuclear energy.

But her meetings with top Indian officials focused largely on fighting terror, improving ties between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Her second visit to India as America’s top diplomat came less than a week after a triple bombing killed 20 people in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, the country’s worst terror strike since Pakistan-based gunmen rampaged through the city in 2008.

S.M. Krishna, India’s foreign minister, expressed concerns that the planned U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan that began this month could lead to a resurgence in Islamic extremism.

“It is in the larger interests of the region that it is necessary for the United States to work very closely with (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai and the government of Afghanistan and thereby create conditions where terrorists do not take any more advantage in Afghanistan,” Krishna told a joint news conference after 2 1/2 hours of talks with Clinton.

Clinton said she had outlined the drawdown strategy and stressed that the United States will not support Afghan reconciliation with insurgents unless it is inclusive and protects the rights of minority groups, religions and women.

Clinton also assured India of U.S. support in the fight against terror.

“We are allies in the fight against violent extremist networks. And homeland security is a high priority and a source of increasing partnership,” Clinton said.

While the U.S. and India have already signed agreements to cooperate in counterterrorism efforts, “the events in Mumbai have driven home how important it is that we get results,” she said.

Though India has not blamed Pakistan for last week’s attack, it has accused its neighbor of harboring violent extremist groups responsible for other attacks in India and of not doing enough to crack down on those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai siege.

For its part, U.S. officials fear Pakistan is not fully committed to combatting radical plots, such as the Mumbai attacks and the failed 2010 Times Square bombing in New York.

“In the aftermath of the attacks of 2008 in Mumbai, we made it very clear that there was an absolute international responsibility to cooperate to bring the perpetrators to justice. We have made that equally forcefully clear to Pakistan that it has a special obligation to do so transparently, fully and urgently,” she said. “We have made it clear to the Pakistani government that confronting violent extremists of all sorts is in its interest.”