US special envoy Holbrooke meets Narayanan

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday met National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and is understood to have discussed how India could help Washington’s strategy aimed at ending terror threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday met National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and is understood to have discussed how India could help Washington’s strategy aimed at ending terror threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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Holbrooke, the special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was accompanied by Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.

Holbrooke is also meeting Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

Holbrooke is believed to have discussed ways in which New Delhi could cooperate in US efforts to “defeat” terrorism originating from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The two top US officials arrived here late last night after a visit to Pakistan, where Holbrooke underlines that economic and military aid provided by the US would be linked to Islamabad’s concrete support to war against Al-Qaeda.

The US has sought to link its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue. Washington argues that resumption of the dialogue would ease pressure on Islamabad and allow it to help America in the war in Afghanistan.

India maintains that the US needs to focus on targeting terror bases in Pakistan if the scourge is to be rooted out. It also believes that Islamabad is lacking capability or will to target terror bases in Pakistan and hence the international needs to act collectively and assertively.