India snubs Holbrooke, wants him to stick to Afghanistan-Pakistan

[Screaming Skull]

India snubs Holbrooke, wants him to stick to ******​

Fri, Aug 14, 2009

New Delhi: US envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit to India has been put off for a second time in a month amid concern in New Delhi that his frequent trips were part of efforts to extend his regional mission beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Holbrooke, special envoy to those two South Asian countries, is to visit both from Saturday, but will not come to India, as he did in April, because of "scheduling" problems.

India told Holbrooke that the appropriate officials were not available at the moment, officials said.

Indian officials and analysts said New Delhi was worried that the special representative was attempting to expand his brief as part of Washington's policy to stabilise the region.

There are also concerns that Pakistan wants a solution to its longstanding dispute with India over Kashmir as an element of any regional peace efforts. India rejects any such notion.

"India is saying no mission creep will be allowed, no re-hyphenation with Pakistan would be allowed," said Siddharth Varadarajan, strategic affairs editor of The Hindu newspaper.

Many Indian analysts and officials believe Washington is biased toward helping Pakistan -- an old US ally and a key partner in stabilising Afghanistan -- rather than India, which only in recent years moved closer to the United States.

Holbrooke has said he is not trying to mediate between India and Pakistan and that his visits to India were only to update New Delhi on regional policy developments.

"From that perspective India should be happy that it is being kept in the loop by the United States about what it is doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan," said former Indian Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh.

"The reflection of irritation in the official (Indian) circle (about Holbrooke's visit) could be because his trips to India come tagged with engagements in Pakistan or Afghanistan."

Pakistan: A key US ally

Satish Chandra, former Indian high commissioner (ambassador) to Pakistan said it was understandable that the United States needed to comfort Pakistan - its main partner in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

"They want India to make concessions to Pakistan and release the pressure on their border so that Pakistan can fight their war," Chandra said.

He said the ice-breaking summit between the two countries last month in Egypt -- after formal talks were halted in the aftermath of the mass attack on Mumbai -- was staged at the prodding of Washington.

"Now he could have come to sell ideas on Kashmir -- how to move troops, reduce tension, giving satisfaction to Pakistan."

But the troubles with Holbrooke do not necessarily reflect a wider dissonance between India and the United States, which once were on the opposite side of the Cold War but are now enjoying warmer relations.

"There are so many layers in this relationship that it would be wrong to broadbrush it with one issue," said an Indian government official.

India snubs Holbrooke, wants him to stick to Af-Pak

 

[pmukherjee]

Of course, US is mainly a Pak ally. India had to fight US weapon systems and equipment in all its wars against Pakistan. What does it show? India is perfectly happy to let things continue that way. We just need American weapons, those that we cant obtain from Russia and Europe that is. We dont need advice from America on how to conduct our foreign policy. We definitely dont need moralising. They give us weapons, we give them dollars and promise not to use those weapons against them. We dont need Holbrooke or his anti-Indian lady assistant in India.

 

[blain2]

Mukherjee sahib, US does not sell weapons to everyone just for money. This is their military-diplomacy. Once your armed forces buy into their sales pitch and acquire the hardware then the influence they wield becomes that much more important and prominent. Sooner or later India will have to do some give and take. Its just a matter of time regardless of the current bravado and snubbing.

 

[Screaming Skull]

Mukherjee sahib, US does not sell weapons to everyone just for money. This is their military-diplomacy. Once your armed forces buy into their sales pitch and acquire the hardware then the influence they wield becomes that much more important and prominent. Sooner or later India will have to do some give and take. Its just a matter of time regardless of the current bravado and snubbing.

That depends on what weapons India decides to buy from the US. A few transport aircrafts or helis or recon aircrafts are not going to be enough for the US to wield its influence on us. In India we believe that we have already done enough give and take. There is nothing that the Americans can offer us that we can’t do without or can’t get from a third source. In essence the Indian foreign policy is not up for sale and it has been made clear to the US on this occasion and several other occasions in no ambiguous language!

 

[pmukherjee]

Mukherjee sahib, US does not sell weapons to everyone just for money. This is their military-diplomacy. Once your armed forces buy into their sales pitch and acquire the hardware then the influence they wield becomes that much more important and prominent. Sooner or later India will have to do some give and take. Its just a matter of time regardless of the current bravado and snubbing.

You know, you may be right. But we have examples of France and Germany who use all kinds of US weapons but maintain policies which are pretty much independant. Though I think it is just a matter of degree. Anyway, we should never give them the MRCA contract. Eurofighter is the one for India. Those guys are so badly off that we may negotiate a very good deal.

 

[Abasin Turi]

You know, you may be right. But we have examples of France and Germany who use all kinds of US weapons but maintain policies which are pretty much independant. Though I think it is just a matter of degree. Anyway, we should never give them the MRCA contract. Eurofighter is the one for India. Those guys are so badly off that we may negotiate a very good deal.

u can count on any other country in this world except for Israel and america... they just play for their own benefits... they are friends of nobody..! sooner or later you guys ill also know that...

 

[r3alist]

This is a major diplomatic victory by India.

They are staying out of the public eye but are in the thick of the issue through their destabilisation in Afghanistan.

They have also avoided the Kashmir issue becoming internationalised which was meant to happen.


Things are going their way and nobody in pakistan is doing much at all.

 

[IceCold]

India keeping Holbrooke in his limits is something we should be doing in the first place. Look at the way he visits Pakistan and meeting all those phony politicans of ours. Its pathetic.

 

[r3alist]

India keeping Holbrooke in his limits is something we should be doing in the first place. Look at the way he visits Pakistan and meeting all those phony politicans of ours. Its pathetic.

Not only that he is given the full red carpet treatment and dictates to our media how to behave and what questions he will address and so forth.

Islamabad has become his Washington, quite literally.

 

[maverick2009]

India will not allow Americans or indeed anybody else make india give in with concessions or deviate from its own strategic friends & goals.

India will inform the Americans diplomatically stay out of OUR BUBBLE or go get yourself another regional power as your little lap puppy.

 

[Screaming Skull]

Govt to Holbrooke: Can’t just walk in and out of India​

NEW DELHI: Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy on ******, is finding the going very difficult when it comes to India. For the second time in a month, Holbrooke has had “scheduling” problems in India.

The foreign office has told Holbrooke in very polite diplomatic terms that he cannot walk in and out of India at will. Holbrooke, senior officials said, had a habit of unilaterally deciding when he wanted to come to India and then demanding to see his top foreign policy interlocutors.

The MEA found it offensive, to say the least. Consequently, Holbrooke has discovered that soon after he announces to the world about his India travel plans, the relevant officials are invariably unavailable.

Holbrooke will be visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan starting on August 15, but will, once again, skip India. And this after having announced three weeks ago that he would be in India in mid-August.

Senior government sources, speaking on background, said Holbrooke’s mandate did not include India, so there was little need for him to visit India every time he was in the region. “It sends the wrong signals of hyphenation that we want to avoid,” they said.

Holbrooke, said sources, tried hard to come along with secretary of state Hillary Clinton during her maiden visit here last month but was discouraged. Sources said he tried hard to get Clinton to visit Pakistan, but between Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a decision to deal with India without the Pakistan baggage. So that did not happen either, much to Pakistan’s chagrin.

He had announced that he would visit India after Clinton’s visit, but that did not happen. Answering questions at a press conference in Washington at the end of July, Holbrooke, however, denied any “complications”. “There were no complications. I have three or four people in India who are my main policy interlocutors. All but one of them were going to be out of the country, so...” Then he had said he would be in India in mid-August.

On Wednesday, Holbrooke was once again telling an audience in Washington that his trip to the region involved only Pakistan and Afghanistan, not India. Describing India as a “dominant power” in South Asia, Holbrooke said the Obama administration was keeping New Delhi informed about its policies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. “The Indians are a major factor in the region. They are a dominant power,” he said.

Govt to Holbrooke: Can?t just walk in and out of India - India - NEWS - The Times of India

 

[maverick2009]

DOMINANT POWER says Holbrook

 

[A1Kaid]

I'm sure the Obama administration will be disgruntled by India's snubbing move against Holbrook. Holbrook was sent by the Obama administration to discuss affairs with India, but just like India does with other regional issues it avoids them. He went there and India says the appropriate officials are not present, that excuse only works once but let's see what happens in the future at Holbrooke's next visit to India.

Let us wait for how the Obama administration reacts.

 

[sadiqams]

India is not the dominant power it is a prominent power and is on par with Pakistan and inferior to China. (Nuclear Powers)

 

[paritosh]

India is not the dominant power it is a prominent power and is on par with Pakistan and inferior to China. (Nuclear Powers)

no the limelight is all yours to hog...ours is a miserable country.