John Kerry urges bigger Afghan role for India; hyphenates India & Pakistan

NEW DELHI: At a time when India has been fuming over the US’s talks offer to the Taliban, secretary of state John Kerry on Sunday tried to allay New Delhi’s apprehensions, saying there can’t be any compromise with the ‘red lines’ or the internationally recognized guidelines for engagement with the insurgent group. Stating that the US would remain committed to lasting peace in Afghanistan and work “through diplomacy” even after the end of Nato missions by December 2014, Kerry said the country could not again become a safe haven for terrorism.

Kerry called for New Delhi to play a central role in the next Afghan elections and “improve its electoral system and create a credible and independent framework for resolving disputes’’ . Kerry landed in Delhi — on his first visit to India as secretary of state — on Sunday for the fourth round of the India-US strategic dialogue.

While Kerry circumvented all recent hiccups in ties to deliver what experts called a very positive policy speech on the state of the strategic partnership , he may have ruffled a few feathers when he sought to draw parity between India and Pakistan by saying the international community will invest in them “if they can confidently invest in each other’’. This was as he exhorted India to acknowledge that “a new dynamic has emerged in Pakistan’’ after the victory of Nawaz Sharif.

Kerry reached out to India saying Washington and Delhi were committed and related “more than ever before’’ in handling all three important issues before the two countries — economic, climate change and security.



India key ally in US rebalance in Asia

Visiting US secretary of state John Kerry on Sunday described India as a “key partner’’ of the US “rebalance’’ in Asia. He said the US remained committed to its rebalance policy in Asia and valued India’s role in ensuring a stable Asia even as he maintained India and the US should come together as partners and not as a threat to any country.

Experts were unanimous that this signalled there wasn’t any change in the US Asia-Pacific focus as announced earlier. “The only change is that he has replaced the word pivot with rebalance,’’ said Lalit Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to the US.

“The US too has major concerns about some of our trade policies and the nuclear issue but he kept those at length and delivered a very positive speech,’’ he added.

In his speech, Kerry invoked the writings of American writer Mark Twain on several occasions and used the Hindi proverb “ek aur ek gyarah hote hain” as he sought support from India to shore up the economy and deal with issues related to climate change.