Site Presented By
Monday, Oct 13, 2008
May 13, 2002 | The United States is working to reduce tensions and avert war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, a Defense Department official said Monday.
"There is a risk of war" that is "very large," said Douglas Feith, the Defense Department's policy chief. "The governments of India and Pakistan have an enormous interest in bringing tensions down and the risks of war down."
The United States is "focused on defusing those tensions," he said at a U.S.-India Defense Industry seminar.
India is due to issue a report soon on whether it believes Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has ended support for Kashmiri militants, even as the spring thaw makes it more likely that militants will enter the mountainous region contested by the two countries.
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since a Dec. 13 attack on India's parliament by suspected Pakistan-based militants. The two countries have banned overflights by their respective national airlines and India recalled its ambassador in the wake of the attack.
Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca will make a quick trip to the region this week to try to defuse the border standoff.
Last week Secretary of State Colin Powell called Musharraf and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to discuss how the United States might help reduce tensions between the two countries.
Musharraf knows reining in the Kashmiri militants is in his interest and India's, Feith said.
"He has enormous interest in ensuring that those attacks do not continue and do not risk war, do not risk undermining everything he is trying to accomplish for Pakistan," he said.
Musharraf, who has worked closely with the United States in the war on terrorism, is trying to remake Pakistan and point it in new directions, Feith said.
"Islamist extremism and terrorism are a threat not only to India and the United States but also to President Musharraf and the success of his grand political project," he said. "We all have a stake in his success."
Feith welcomed the increasing cooperation between the United States and India on defense projects. He mentioned joint naval operations to protect shipping in the Straits of Malacca, near Malaysia, one of the world's busiest maritime lanes.
Get Salon in your mailbox!