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Journalism of Courage
India should initiate quiet bilateral discussions with Pakistan on Afghanistan and hold trilateral discussions with Afghanistan,suggests a joint report produced by two top Indian and American think-tanks released on Saturday.
Titled as the United States and India: A Shared Strategic Future and co-produced by the Aspen Institute India and Council on Foreign Relations,the report underlines that the US and India should endorse a residual military presence over the long-term in Afghanistan beyond 2014 if such a presence is acceptable to Kabul.
The report,released under the stewardship of former Indian Ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra and former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill,comes days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits the US to attend the UN General Assembly.
Chandra,after releasing the report,said: There is an impression that the India-US relations is drifting…both government are pre-occupied with their own distractions,But,we should not allow this to bog us down and get the best of the potential.
Dr C Raja Mohan,senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,New Delhi,and Consulting Editor of The Indian Express,who was member of the joint study group,told reporters,We have not had an open,transparent exchange with the US on Pakistan. We need a shared way of looking at it,and we need to work together.
The report says New Delhi and Washington should hold classified exchanges on multiple Pakistan contingencies,including the collapse of the Pakistan state and the specter of the Pakistan military losing control of its nuclear arsenal.
It also says that the US should heavily condition all military aid to Pakistan on sustained concrete anti-terrorist measures by the Pakistan military against groups targeting India and the US,including in Afghanistan.
The US should continue to provide technical assistance to Pakistan to protect its nuclear arsenal,and to prevent the transfer of the technology to third parties,the report adds.
It recommends that US and India should determine whether large-scale Indian training of Afghanistan security forces,either in Afghanistan or in India,would be beneficial.
