Terrorism in Neighbourhood Pivotal Security Challenge: India
Original Post: Terrorism in Neighbourhood Pivotal Security Challenge: India
Type: News Article
Date: 01/14/2010
India on Thursday said terrorism in its immediate neighbourhood and cross-border terrorism was a pivotal security challenge to India. Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said speaking at India Initiative of the Centre for a New American Security and the ASPEN Institute India on The United States and India: Chartering the Future Course. The Foreign Secretary was of the view that phenomenon of cross border terrorism had also illustrated the difficulties that India faced in dealing with Pakistan.
"We face hostile forces across our border with Pakistan, although we have consistently stressed our support for the advancement of democracy, the growth of civil society, and economic development in an atmosphere of peace, in Pakistan" goals that the United States also identifies with,"Nirupama said. She alleged the groups, who directed such attacks against India, had received the "patronage of powerful forces and institutions" in Pakistan."It is vital that this support must stop forthwith. Any viable process of normalization of our relations with Pakistan is essentially dependent on this requirement since it is unrealistic to think otherwise," she said. Referring to the regional situation, she said India appreciated the commitment of the United States to the stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan and to intensify efforts to eradicate terrorism so that the terrorist groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan could not have field days in future. India's cooperation with the United States in counter-terrorism was an important dimension of our bilateral relationship and had come into sharper focus in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. Terrorism in our immediate neighbourhood and cross-border terrorism faced by India was a pivotal security challenge, she said and alleged there was a growing consensus that the increase in terrorist activities in Afghanistan was linked to the support and sanctuaries available in the contiguous areas of Pakistan. "It is equally critical for the United States and the international community to pay adequate attention to and realize that the situation both in Afghanistan-Pakistan and the cross-border terrorism that emanates from Pakistan against India are manifestations of the use of terrorist ideologies to promote unscrupulous political or institutional agendas," she alleged. Nirupama Rao said Pakistan's concerns of the perceived threat in the East and on Indian activities in Afghanistan need to be unequivocally rebutted. She said it was also essential to ensure that international aid that Pakistan received including that from the United States was not diverted for anti-India purposes as had happened in the past. "We have reiterated a number of times that we harbor no aggressive designs on Pakistan, she said. Referring to Afghanistan, she said it was an important neighbour and India's focus there was on development activity with the aim to build indigenous Afghan capacities and institutions for an effective state system to improve delivery of goods and services to Afghan people.
Related:Topic(s): Regional Security Challenges
Project(s): Asia-Pacific Security , U.S.-India Initiative
People: Nathaniel C. Fick, Robert Kaplan, The Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig, Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, Richard Fontaine
