MUMBAI : U.S. President Barack Obama called on India on Sunday to bolster peace efforts with Pakistan, a country that he said was not acting quickly enough to deal with militancy within its borders and added that his host India had the biggest stake in its rival’s success.According to Indian Media Reports, “India’s investment in development in Afghanistan is appreciated. Pakistan has to be a partner in this process,” he told students in Mumbai.The US President said Sunday that Pakistan was making progress against the “cancer” of extremism, but not quickly enough, and added that his host India had the biggest stake in its rival’s success.Obama said in Mumbai that Pakistan realised it had a “profound” problem with extremism, and was taking steps to address it, but that progress was “not as quick as we would like.”
He also stressed the stable Pakistan is inevitable for India’s progress and in the interest of the entire world including US.”My hope is that over time, trust develops between the two countries, that dialogue begins, perhaps on less controversial issues, building up to more controversial issues,” Obama told a meeting of students at a college in Mumbai.Obama also said India and rival Pakistan needed to begin dialogue on less controversial issues, adding, “There are more Pakistanis who’ve been killed by terrorists inside Pakistan than probably anywhere else.”He also acknowledged the “incredibly complex” history between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars against each other, but said that his host nation had the biggest stake in Pakistan’s stability and success.
The United States sees Pakistan as key to stabilizing Afghanistan, but managing the complex U.S. relationship with Islamabad is one of Washington’s most difficult foreign policy challenges.While Obama’s visit is mainly about boosting trade with India, the issue of regional stability in South Asia dominated the meeting on Sunday that Obama held with students at a college in Mumbai.On Saturday, Obama announced the United States would relax export controls over sensitive technology, a demand of India’s that will help deepen U.S. ties with the emerging global power and its trillion dollar economy.Obama is scheduled later on Sunday to fly to New Delhi for a tour of a Mughal-era tomb and dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Obama will also visit Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on an Asian tour that will see Washington push to prevent countries unilaterally devaluing currencies to protect their exports, a top theme at the Group of 20 heads of state meet in Seoul next week – Onlinenews
