Holbrooke on a consultative trip to South Asia: Hillary

The visit of special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke to South Asia including India is for consultative purposes, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said here. Holbrooke left for London Wednesday on a trip, which will end with his visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Before going to South Asia, he will be attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany. "These will be for consultative purposes," Clinton told reporters about Holbrooke's trip to South Asia next week. "He has a very vigorous schedule of meetings and he's attempting to cover as much ground as possible. He's already done an enormous amount of work here in the United States in preparation," the former first lady said yesterday. The Secretary of State said, she will wait for a report from Holbrooke, before deciding on the next course of action. "There is an ongoing policy review process that he is co-chairing out of the White House, and we're in the beginning of a very in-depth but expeditious consideration of the way forward," Clinton said. During his London-stopover, Holbrooke met the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the British Foreign Minister David Miliband. Tonight he will have dinner with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Munich. The exact dates of Holbrook's trip to South Asia have not been officially revealed yet, mainly because of security considerations. Holbrooke was appointed as the Special US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan soon after Clinton became the Secretary of State. His mandate is to co-ordinate between Afghanistan and Pakistan along with other major players and stakeholders in the region not only to defeat the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but also aim at bringing lasting peace in the troubled Afghanistan.

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