US urges India, Pakistan to avoid public disputes
Wednesday, 27 Jan, 2010

WASHINGTON: In a gathering that included senior Pakistani and Indian military officials, the US military chief urged all senior officers in attendance to avoid the kind of public disputes that have hurt regional relations in the past.


“I think it’s really important that we work as hard as we can with each other, and that any kind of public accusations or public finger pointing, quite frankly, that does not serve any of us well,” said Admiral Mike Mullen. “That doesn’t mean we won’t have disagreements. But I hope that we can do that privately, and not publicly.”

Although the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff did not mention any particular dispute or country, it seemed an obvious reference to an altercation between India and Pakistan earlier this month over a statement by Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor.

In that statement, Gen. Kapoor warned that “a limited war under a nuclear overhang is still very much a reality at least in the Indian sub-continent” and said that India was capable of defeating both Pakistan and China.

Pakistan termed the Indian army chief’s remarks as reflection of an offensive nuclear doctrine while US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson said the statement was “silly”.

Addressing the 3rd annual US Central Command chiefs of defence conference in Washington on Monday, Admiral Mullen also urged the armed forces of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to work together more closely because the terrorist groups were already cooperating with each other in their efforts to hurt those countries.

“I would almost call it the harmonisation of the terrorists, the collaboration of the terrorists,” he said. “These groups that didn’t work with each other at all now are more and more collaborative. And that requires us to be much more harmonious.”

Admiral Mullen also called for more exchanges among the militaries represented at the meeting. He particularly praised the Indian representative, Vice Army Chief Lieutenant General P.C. Bhardwaj, for attending the event.

The US military chief told senior military officials from South and Central Asian regions that the United States and Pakistan were working together more closely to fight terrorist groups whose operations span the Pak-Afghan border.

Admiral Mullen said the US and Pakistani militaries were also working to avoid misunderstanding about troop movements and activities in the border zone, and to ensure that their operations complement each other, rather than just push the terrorists back and forth across the Afghan border.

“We are now reviewing campaign plans together, so we can see what those plans are and how we can best make them work together,” he said.

Admiral Mullen stressed the US intention to develop long-term relations with the countries of Central and South Asia — a theme also stressed by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates during his visit to the region last week.

The admiral said countries in the region were understandably waiting to see the United States demonstrate that commitment over time, and to see the outcome of its effort to defeat the Taliban and help establish an effective government in Afghanistan. “We are in this for the long haul,” he said, emphasising that the United States had “no designs on the region” or interest in occupying another country.

Additional US forces were moving into Afghanistan to support the strategy, with the rest of the 30,000 troops to follow as quickly as possible, he said.