Holbrooke to Delhi: Pak is vital in Kabul

Jul 23, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

US AfPak special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who met foreign secretary Nirupama Rao here Thursday, said clearly the situation in Afghanistan cannot be stabilised without Pakistan’s involvement.

What he did not spell out as clearly is that India will need to craft its Afghan policy around that reality, even if this meant being left out of the Afghan matrix “for the time being”.
Mr Holbrooke also said, before meeting Ms Rao, that improved US-Pakistan relations are not bad for India. “[It is] not a zero-sum game,” he said.
He told reporters the US had “watched with some disappointment the last round of talks” between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers.

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