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Brownback wants active US presence in South Asia

ISLAMABAD: Calling for de-escalation of current tension between Pakistan and India, US Senator Sam Brownback on Monday called upon US to aggressively engage in South Asia to build a "robust relationship" with these countries.

The US senator was addressing a news conference at the American Centre here after a string of meetings both with the top Pakistani leadership and representatives of the political parties during his stay in Islamabad on Sunday and Monday.

He billed his talks with Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz as "serious and very good".

"The tension is too high in Kashmir region. It needs to be de-escalated. I am calling on both sides to de-escalate and engage with each other," he said in reply to a question.

South Asia "is the tensest region of the world," said the American senator. "Relaxation of tension is necessary for the economic growth of the two countries," he added.

Brownback said he would encourage President Bill Clinton to meet both the leadership of India and of Pakistan during latter's forthcoming visit to this region. US should engage with both these countries, he said.

"I think it is very important for the region. I think it is very important for the United States. Let us not start it off by focusing on differences and difficulties and conflicts," he added.

He said: "Really, what we have to do is to focus on what we can build on in gathering moves in this direction."

Any sort of relationship has got to be built on the basis where you can move on together. "That is what I am going to push forward when I do back to Washington," said Brownback.

He urged the United States for "aggressive and robust" relations with both Pakistan and India for what he described as", separate and distinct reasons."

"Pakistan has been a trusted friend, of the US in the past," Brownback said. Both the countries had been together in confronting communism during the cold war. "Pakistan is a leading nation in the Islamic world. It is no less important to us today," he added.

Sam Brownback said the US must build its ties and engage with Pakistan rather than "punish".

"I really want the United States to aggressively engage in this region. I have dedicated a great deal of time and effort in trying to build that," said the US senator.

About his talks with Gen. Musharraf, he said US stood for restoration of a democratic government as quickly as possible. "We pressed for and would continue to press for democracy," he added.

South Asia "is a very active area," as nuclear tests and Kargil episode took place here. Kashmir problem has been around here for the past 52 years, said the US senator. There should be an increased US engagement in this part of the world, he added.

Pakistan, he said, had been in the forefront in dealing with the issues like terrorism. "Terrorism is a global problem and Pakistan has denounced terrorism completely," he said. "Pakistan is a great nation," he added.

About his discussions with top Pakistani leadership, Brownback said he was told that terrorism was unacceptable to Pakistan in any form.

Both sides also discussed "how to build Pak-US relations," and there was an agreement on combating terrorism which was "a new issue to our region."

Brownback said the US and Pakistan should "get past this notion of sanction" and instead concentrate on building relationship on new basis. "This is my strongly held view," he added.

On CTBT, Brownback said the US would like both Pakistan and India to sign the treaty. "We do not want proliferation to take place," he added.

On Afghanistan, Brownback said it was a separate and distinct issue from India and Pakistan. "I am appraising the issue of Afghanistan," he added. APP