The US-Pakistan Relations

Focus on Pakistan, Not Musharraf: USDaily Times, April 11, 2007

LAHORE: Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, says the United States is investing more in its relationship with the people of Pakistan than rather than with President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“I don’t think we are investing in Musharraf; I think we’re investing in Pakistan,” Boucher said in an interview to Sidharth Bhatia of Indian media outlet Daily News & Analysis in Mumbai on April 6.

“You know, we invest a lot in Pakistan and it’s not just military - it’s probably a hundred million dollars a year on education,” Boucher said. “It’s money on healthcare; it’s money on roads. I’ve been to the border areas in Pakistan, and I’ve gone on roads that we built and met with villagers who say, ‘My old mother can get to the hospital in an hour now instead of two days.’ I’ve gone to schools that we built and seen children in those schools. That’s not working with the General, that’s working with the people of Pakistan.”

He said the US was supporting Pakistan and its government because Gen Musharraf had pledged to take the country towards democracy and openness. “We want Pakistan to succeed as a democratic nation, as an open economy, as a moderate society. And that’s the direction that President Musharraf has given his country, that’s what he has pledged to do - he’s pledged to have democratic elections. That’s the direction we support. So we’ll work with them. We’ll work with him, we’ll work with them,” Boucher said.

The US assistant secretary of state said Pakistan and India, through a four-year-old peace process, have “made more progress [in their relationship] recently than they ever have before. It’s been largely due, or very largely due to the efforts of statesmen on both sides, the positions that Pakistani leaders and Indian leaders have taken with each other and their desire to move forward.”

Boucher said the US role was to “to stand and applaud and continue to encourage them to do what they’re doing”. He said terrorism was a “horrible problem” in the region, but it was important that all sides address the issue together.

Boucher conceded that the Taliban had been “more active and dangerous” in the last couple of years, but said this was because there was now more pressure on them.

In the “problem areas” of southern Afghanistan, there are “more police, more Afghan army, more NATO, there are more roads, more government officials, there’s more effective government, more economic opportunity than last year,” he said.

“If you look in Pakistan, there is more pressure on the Taliban from Pakistan than last year. So I think the simple story right now is the government is expanding and the Taliban are under pressure from all sides … maybe the reason they are reacting, is because they are under pressure from all sides.”

Boucher said there was a lot to do before the US-India nuclear deal could be finalised, but both sides were working to get it done as quickly as possible. Overall, India-US ties are “booming”, he said.

“Fifteen years ago we saw India as a difficult ally of the Soviet Union. And now India is, I gotta say, the most popular country in the world that I can think of. Everybody wants to talk to me about India.”