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ShareWASHINGTON: On the eve of the first anniversary of the Mumbai attacks, India and the US aligned their views on terrorism by jointly stressing on Tuesday that they had a shared interest in the defeat of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The India-US joint statement, issued in the afternoon, left Pakistan no wiggle room as it clearly stated that India and America wanted Islamabad to take "resolute and credible" steps to smash the terrorist "safe havens and sanctuaries" in Pakistan.
The strong message went out after prime minister Manmohan Singh and president Barack Obama held discussions on Tuesday. The Obama-Manmohan joint statement echoes the Indian charge about Pakistani doublespeak on terrorism. It expressed "grave concern" about a continuing terrorist threat "emanating from India's neighbourhood" and agreed that "resolute and credible steps must be taken to eliminate safe havens and sanctuaries that provide shelter to terrorists and their activities... [which] undermine security and stability in the region and around the world".
Analysts weighed in on the joint statement to pronounce Manmohan's visit a creditable success. India and the US also launched a wide-ranging counter-terrorism cooperation initiative and agreed on the "absolute imperative" to bring to justice perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist strikes.
At a joint press conference on Tuesday, Obama said: "The work that the Pakistani army is doing in Swat valley and in south Waziristan indicates the degree to which they are beginning to recognise that extremism, even if initially directed outside, can ultimately also have an adverse impact on security internally."
Again, much to India's pleasure the US "appreciated" India's role in Afghanistan and "agreed to enhance their respective efforts", whereas Pakistan clamours for a rollback of Indian presence in Afghanistan.
Ironically, while Obama kept harping on the special importance of according to Manmohan the honour of being the first foreign dignitary to Washington on a "state visit", Obama's AfPak aide Richard Holbrooke took the opposite direction to plead with the Pakistanis not to take it to heart.
Holbrooke held a two-hour press briefing to massage Pakistan's ego. He said: "No one in Pakistan and no one in any other country should read this [Manmohan's state visit] as a diminution of the importance we attach to them. It's entirely appropriate that someone has to have the first trip. And it usually used to be in the past a European ally, but they come over on informal trips... This visit in no way should be read as a diminution."
Indian officials in Washington were pleased that a Pakistani anti-terror court on Wednesday framed charges against LeT's operations commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi and six others for involvement in the Mumbai attacks and declared 16 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, as proclaimed offenders.
India had felt disheartened that after president Bush had installed it on a tall pedestal as an Asian counterbalance to China, Obama was bringing it down as a sub-regional power. But on Tuesday, Obama said in answer to a question from an Indian correspondent that India and the US were "natural allies".
