No US role in settling Indo-Pak disputes, says Obama

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Tuesday the United States would not intervene to resolve the Indo-Pakistan disputes, while declaring that that US ties with India will be “one of the defining relationships” of the 21st century.
In a joint Press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after two-hour talks at the White House, Obama said, “With respect to security issues in the region, the prime minister and I had extensive discussions about that. I think our core goal is to recognise that our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all the people in the region, not just one country or the other.
“Obviously there are historic conflicts between India and Pakistan. It is not the place of the US to try to from the outside resolve all those conflicts”, the US leader said.
He said he believed Pakistan was making progress in fighting extremism as he tried to assuage India’s concerns about its historic rival.
“On the other hand”, he added, “We want to be encouraging ways in which both India and Pakistan can feel secure and focus on the development of their own countries and their own people.”
Obama observed that the US and Pakistan in the past focused more on military assistance but added his administration is now expanding bilateral cooperation to other areas that will help bring economic development to the people of Pakistan.
He praised US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for an excellent job in trying to move forward and helping the State Department to refocus US energies on expanding cooperation to other areas.
Obama, who is to announce an upgraded Afghan strategy next week, said Pakistan has an “enormously important role in the security of the region by making sure that the extremists organisations that often operate out of its territories are dealt with effectively.”
“And we have seen some progress, the work the Pakistani military is doing in the Swat Valley, in South Waziristan, all indicate the degree to which they are beginning to recognise that extremism, even if initially directed to outside, can also ultimately have an adverse impact on their security internally.
“So my hope is that overtime that we are going to see is further clarity and further cooperation between all the parties and all people of goodwill in the region to eradicate terrorist activity, to eradicate the kind of violent extremism that we have seen. I think that will benefit the people of Pakistan and India and the world community as well.”
On security, Obama said the US and India are natural allies.
“We both recognise that our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all people in the region, not just one country or the other,” he said.
The two leaders glossed over a dispute about commitments to reduce greenhouse gases in advance of the next month’s climate change summit in Copenhagen, but Obama said they had moved a “step closer” to a successful outcome.
Noting that the US was India’s largest trading partner, Obama said broadening trade ties would help create much needed jobs in both countries as governments continue trying to stimulate recession-hit economies.