Afghanisthan, Pak focus for Obama, Manmohan

Pakistan’s volatility and the threat it poses to the region will figure prominently in talks between prime minister Manmohan Singh and president Barack Obama when they meet for the first time next Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London.

Obama will seek India’s cooperation in tackling the Afghanistan and Pakistan, or AfPak challenge. Obama will not press Singh to draw down troops from the western border because requests to the effect have already been rebuffed.

But Obama will underscore the fact that India needs to make less demands on President Zardari as he has his back to the wall.

Special envoy Shyam Saran prepared the ground this week for Singh’s first meeting with Obama by communicating New Delhi’s misgivings about an Obama plan to foster possible reconciliation between America and so-called moderate elements of the Taliban.

In a series of meetings this week with US officials in Washington, Saran underscored India’s opposition to involving a section of the Taliban in any power-sharing arrangement.

New Delhi believes there are no “good Taliban” or “bad Taliban” and thinks such distinctions will only provide more ammunition to the Pakistan-backed militants to regroup and target India.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 India moved quickly to regain its strategic depth in Afghanistan.