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The Bush administration considers South Asia vital to the future of the United States," according to senior administration officials, who gave a background briefing to reporters at the State Department recently.
According to one official, "You have a region that ... is going to be critical both in the world's future demographically and economically .... with China on one side, Iran and the Middle East on the other, and as we can see a somewhat turbulent Central Asian region to the north."
The official noted that India, already the most populous democracy in the world, will soon pass China as the most populous country on earth, along with Pakistan, second most populous Muslim country in the world and the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons. Finally, Afghanistan remains "a fragile but emerging democracy."
Acknowledging past tensions between India and Pakistan, the official warned that "if those two governments don't feel secure, then all the thaw we're seeing in Indo-Pakistani relations is going to vanish. That's what we're trying to avoid here. We're trying to move forward in a way where both countries are able to sustain the sense of security they're going to need to build on the diplomatic openings that you're seeing on the subcontinent."
The briefing came almost immediately after the announcement that President Bush had authorised the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. When asked about reported objections by Indian officials to the announcement, the official responded that the issue needed to be seen in a larger context.
"The challenge is how to embed the question of whether you sell F-16s to Pakistan in a broader conception of what do we want to do with Pakistan, but also what do we want to do with India."
The official cautioned "not to over-interpret" the initial round of news reports. "As the days unfold, we'll see the Indian Government making decisions on how it assesses the opportunities that are being offered to them in this new framework of cooperation," the official said, such as possible sales of advanced equipment to assist them with their own defense transformation.
Another official at the briefing contrasted past tensions between India and Pakistan with the present: "Over the past three years both India and Pakistan have demonstrated some very impressive economic growth and a focus on what really matters in the long run to them, which is the prosperity of their people, peace and stability in the region."
According to this official, the reason for the progress of relations between India and Pakistan is "prosperity, economic growth, improving the lives of people.... I think that context should not be lost in talking about all of this."
Source: News Release by the US Embassy in Dhaka
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