US urges India, Pakistan to resume dialogue

Washington, July 18: The United States would encourage India and Pakistan to resume their two-year old peace dialogue which New Delhi suspended in the wake of July 11 Mumbai bomb blasts in which 182 people were killed.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said yesterday that the United States considers India-Pakistan cooperation as very important for the stability of the region and expressed hope that the peace process would not get derailed in the aftermath of the bombings.

He said both countries should avoid the 'discord of the past' by working together to ''really get to the group behind the Mumbai blasts.'' ''We should look at these horrible events not as a reason to fall back into the discord of the past but as a reason to move forward together. We have seen a lot of progress in India-Pakistan relations and I hope that progress is maintained and when it comes to issues of terrorism they can find that they need to work together,'' he added.

Boucher said for both India and Pakistan, ''co-operation over the long-term was very important'' for peace and prosperity in South Asia.

''We certainly hope that the progress in India-Pakistan relations is not lost, and that they find opportunities to cooperate against terrorist groups, to cooperate in stabilising the region. And that's something we will continue to encourage. It's up to them to decide how to proceed,'' Boucher told reporters here at the Foreign Press Center.

The Secretary-level talks were slated for this week in New Delhi to review the progress that the two countries had made in the composite dialogue which began in 2004. India suspended the talks saying that blasts were carried out with the help from across the border.

Boucher said ''We realise that they felt it wasn't possible to have the foreign secretaries meetings this week. But I think our outlook remains that India-Pakistan cooperation is important for the region, and we hope they will find ways to continue it in the future.'' Describing the Mumbai bombings as a ''horrible tragedy'' Boucher said they were obviously well-prepared by somebody with evil intent, by somebody with local knowledge, by somebody with -- or some group, some individuals, some people with a lot of planning and malice, so forth, you know, and a lot of knowledge.

Without seeking to blame anyone, any nation or any organisation for the blasts, Boucher said ''But I think our message to everybody is let's find the evidence, let's find out who was responsible, and then let's look together at what we can do to stop any groups or organisations or support that organisations might be getting to make sure that people can't carry out such actions in the future. And that's something we want to do with all the governments in the region,'' he added.

The July 11 bombings that tore through Mumbai's commuter railway, left 182 dead and nearly 900 wounded in the worst such attack in India in 13 years.

Boucher's remarks came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush held talks on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in St Petersburg and discussed a wide range of issues, including the Mumbai blasts and the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

UNI