India to figure in US Pak Strategic Dialogue this week

Washington, Oct 18 (PTI) India is bound to figure in
Pakistan's Strategic Dialogue with the United States in
Washington this week as Islamabad's is expected to raise the
issue of Kashmir and of New Delhi's role in Afghanistan.
To be spread over three-days from October 20 to
October 22, the high-profile Pakistani delegation would be led
by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and would include
Pakistan's Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
The US delegation would be led by Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
"I can't imagine India not coming up (for discussion
during the talks)," a senior State Department official said on
the meeting between the leaders of the two countries later
this week.
Diplomatic sources familiar with the preparation for
the talks said the issue is likely to be raised by Pakistan,
which wants India to "lay off" Afghanistan and would again
reiterate its request to the Obama Administration seeking
their intervention on the Kashmir issue.
It is also likely to seek "parity with India" on the
civilian nuclear issue.
The Obama Administration for its part has, so far,
maintained that it is for India and Pakistan to resolve all of
their differences bilaterally through dialogue and ruled out
any role for itself on the Kashmir issue.
The US has also been praising India's developmental
role in Afghanistan and has in fact asked New Delhi to do
more.
The focus of the US during the talks, officials said,
would be on bilateral relationship and the war against
terrorism inside Pakistan, where the Obama Administration
feels Pakistan needs to do more to wipe out terrorist safe
havens in the tribal areas of the country.
State Department spokesman, P J Crowley, said the
Strategic Dialogue will chart progress in the full range of
issues that the US has in its relationship with Pakistan with
the floods being a major issue.
This will be the third ministerial-level Strategic
Dialogue meeting between the US and Pakistan this year.
Noting that the floods is the new reality, Daniel
Feldman, the Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and
Pakistan said everything will be seen through the prism of
floods.
"There will be a very, very strong Pakistani
delegation, a number of ministers, and we will have many of
our 13 working groups meeting next Wednesday and Thursday,
co-chaired by US either secretaries or undersecretaries and
Pakistani ministers, and then culminating in the plenary on
Friday," he said.