Deal with terror as a whole: India tells US

Washington: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna brought up the plot by a Pakistani-origin man to blow up the Times Square in New York to highlight the need to target terror in India's neighbourhood. Krishna said that that a segmented approach against terror won't work, an indication that US must also target anti-India terror, in the first India-US Strategic Dialogue with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Thursday.

"We agreed that terrorism and groups operate as a syndicate leveraging each others strengths and converging together on motivation and targets. Hence a segmented approach in our neighbourhood will not succeed," said Krishna.

Hillary also reiterated that terrorists need to be rooted out of save havens in Pakistan.

"They have to be rooted out of safe havens in Pakistan where they are a grave threat to the Government of Pakistan. They are a transnational threat," said Hillary

But on Afghanistan the thinking and paths adopted by India and US seem to diverge.

"We think there is a basis for reintegrating Taliban fighters back into the society. But we believe that no one should be brought back into the society without renouncing violence, without renouncing al Qaeda, and there is no military solution to most conflicts," said Hillary.

However, Krishna warned against engaging with any group that was involved in terror-related activities.

"We need to avoid choices that lead to dark alleys of 1990s and need to safeguard progress. We are going to stay in Afghanistan to defeat these terrorist machinations," he said.

There was no mention of Lashkar-e-Toiba operative and Mumbai terror attack accused David Coleman Headley at the end of the dialogue, and no comfort for India on the issue of a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

There was also a hint from Hillary reflecting widespread doubts in Washington about India's willingness and ability to take on proactive regional and global affairs.

On other issues including US export controls and sanctions on Indian entities, its work in progress with the hope of good news during US President Barack Obama's visit to India in November 2010.

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