Obama wants to engage with India; sends PM letter

Holbrooke has just returned from a trip to Pakistan after reviewing the Pakistani military's offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley and to assess the refugee situation in the wake of the heavy fighting in that area.

Briefing reporters at the State Department, Holbrooke said at midnight on Tuesday he had spoken with US Under Secretary of State William Burns, who is currently in New Delhi in discussion with senior Indian officials, and disclosed that Burns is "carrying a presidential letter to the Indian government."

"He is carrying the messages that I would have carried if I had had time to go to New Delhi on this trip, but I couldn't do it," he said, but pointed out, "On my first two trips to the region, I went to New Delhi."

Next week Holbrooke will meet again with India's Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar, who is also currently in New Delhi for consultations and to participate in the discussion between Burns, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and other senior Indian officials.

"I've already met her twice," Holbrooke said, and reiterated that "we consider India an absolutely critical country in the region. They're not part of the problem, but they are vitally affected, and we want to work closely with them."

When asked what President Barack Obama had said in the letter that Burns was carrying, he said, "It's a private letter," but in virtually giving more than a hint in what was contained in this presidential letter, noted, "The important thing is that the number three person in the Department of State has gone to India to reaffirm immediately after the election -- the Indians were very frank with us. They wanted to keep in touch with us during the election period, but they had to wait through the election, just like we do. It's the world's two greatest democracies."

"But Bill Burns is now beginning the dialogue with the newly elected government in an atmosphere of great positive feelings. And without getting into Indian politics, all I can say is that all of us -- Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton, Bill Burns, myself, President Obama -- everyone looks forward to working with the newly elected Indian government."

Holbrooke said he believed that this time the Pakistani army seemed capable of holding Swat and unlike in previous

"The previous experiences were quite different in scope," he argued, and noted, that "the Pakistan army has moved a great deal of troops to the west this time, a very large number, and it's made a difference."

When it was contended that India has stated that actually the number of troops that have been moved to the west is "simply back to the pre-Mumbai bombing levels," and consequently seemed that "it's a status quo, as opposed to significant change," and asked to give some details on exactly how many troops Pakistan has on the western front, Holbrooke refused to provide any such information.

"I'm not going to give you figures for the simplest of reasons," he said. "It's for the Pakistan government to announce their own force deployments, not for me to make a headline here. But I will say that the number of troops that have been moved west is clearly larger than the number that were moved east after the Mumbai bombing. And, I don't believe there would be any question on that."

In his opening remarks, Holbrooke said that "what I saw in Pakistan on this trip was the slow emergence of a consensus behind the government's action."

He said he had spent "a good deal of time" with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and now leader of the Opposition, "just after he had his political rights restored. Also, a lot of time with President Asif Ali Zardari, "time with General (Ashraf) Kayani and his top team, including (Lieutenant) General (Shuja) Pasha, the head of the ISI, and with members of civic society. And everywhere, there was a dramatic change in attitudes from my previous trips because of the outrages of the Taliban and their supporters, and this was widely recognised."

Holbrooke said, "All of us are impressed by the military's initiatives in recent weeks. But the military themselves will say that they fully understand that the test is still to come -- the second test."

"But I want to underline, because so much of what we say here bounces out in Islamabad in a different context, that we are very supportive of what the government is doing, and we look for every way we can to support them. And while we are all focused on the relief effort now, it is the reconstruct -- it is the return and reconstruction phase and security to be provided them that will be the basic test."