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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Thursday that Al Qaida would try to provoke a war between India and Pakistan with the aim to destabilising Pakistan and gaining access to its nuclear arsenal.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed the US defence chief, saying that Al Qaida and like-minded terrorist groups were determined to seek nuclear weapons.
The two senior officials told a hearing on President Obama’s new Afghan policy at the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that they had taken such threats very seriously.
Secretary Gates said that Al Qaida was also supporting Lashkar-i-Taiba, the group responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
‘Al Qaida is providing them with targeting information and helping them in their plotting in India — clearly with the idea of provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan that would destabilise Pakistan,’ he said.
‘And whether or not the terrorists are home-grown, when we trace their roots, they almost all end up back in this border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, whether they’re from the United States or Somalia or the United Kingdom or elsewhere,’ he added.
Senator Richard Lugar, a ranking Republican on the panel, warned that ‘the future direction of governance in Pakistan will have consequences for non-proliferation efforts, global economic stability, our relationships with India and China.’
Describing Pakistan-India relationship as critical in the regional security context, Chairman US Joint Chiefs Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said stability on their border would be a great step forward in stabilising the region.
Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the US military chief said the US regional strategy included all countries of the region.
He said that while President Obama’s strategy focussed greatly on Afghanistan and Pakistan, it covered the entire South Asian region ‘and India is a big player in that region as well.’
The remarks are likely to irk India which does not want to be bracketed with Pakistan and Afghanistan but does want to play a role in resolving the Afghan dispute.
Admiral Mullen noted that the relationship between Pakistan and India would play a critical role in stabilising the region.
‘Leadership there must … step forward, to stabilise that border more than anything else. And I think that would be a great step forward in stabilising the region,’ he said.
He was responding to Congressman Donald Payne who wanted to know what was the US doing to make Pakistan feel comfortable on the Indian border so that it could focus more effectively on its western border with Afghanistan.
Appearing at the same hearing, Secretary Clinton replied affirmatively when asked if Washington talked to India about reducing Islamabad’s concerns on this issue.
‘Yes,’ she replied when Congressman Bill Delahunt questioned if the US had ‘consulted with the Indians in terms of their relationship with Pakistan in reducing the concern that the Pakistanis have relative to India.’
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