Obama govt would quietly focus on Kashmir: Ex US diplomat

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 18 (PTI) Observing that the Obama
administration is looking at Pakistan through a different lens
than its predecessors, a former American diplomat Wednesday
said the new US government would quietly focus itself on
Kashmir away from the public glaze.

William Milam, the former US Ambassador to Pakistan,
identified India and Kashmir as one of the issues, which the
Obama administration would focus on while trying to find a
solution to Pakistan.

"There's one more thing and it's a very delicate thing
that I think this administration will focus on. But it will be
hard to determine this focus because it will be quite closely
held and under wraps. And that is the India-centricity of
Pakistan," said Milam, who was in Islamabad from 1998 to 2001.

"Everything that Pakistan does, at least in foreign
affairs and security issues, is viewed through the lens of
India, which it views as its eternally hostile neighbour,"
Milam said, adding that the US can't do much at least on
the issue of Kashmir due to India's position on it.

"There's no good way we can do this. We certainly cannot
be seen to meddle or to even mediate on the issues,
particularly the Kashmir issue. But we really have to work on
putting this back together," Milam said testifying before the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Giving his observations on the new administration's
Pakistan policy, Milam said it is clear to him that the Obama
administration is seeing and sees Pakistan through a slightly
different lens than the previous administrations.

"Pakistan remains an ally and a very important ally of
the United States. But I think our focus is changing from the
kind of sort of more open kind of relationship we had to a
much more to a relation, which is much more focused on
changing the Pak mindset -- Pakistani mindset -- if that's
possible, in terms of resisting the threat that really
threatens their state and being able to meet that threat," he
said.

"The military side, I think, is much more going to be
much more focused on counterinsurgency operations and the
equipment, as well as the training, that is needed by the
Pakistani army to do that," he said.

The US assistance now would be much more economic in
nature, he said. "I believe that the administration is going
to triple economic assistance. That would go both to shoring
up the economy, which is in terrible shape as well as, I hope,
over the longer term, to providing some aid for social
developments and particularly education, which the public
education system as you know, is in a state of collapse," he
said. PTI