India Is Worst Terror Victim, Must Help It: John Kerry

Washington, July 08: The US, it seems, has finally seen what we have experienced over two decades. Noting that no nation has suffered more from terrorism than India, Senator John Kerry has demanded that Washington should extend all assistance to it tackle the menace.

"First, we have to help India break with the perilous politics of South Asia's past," said Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday at the confirmation hearing of Tim Roemer as the new US ambassador to India.

The noting comes on a day that for the first time in history, Pakistan accepted it had nurtured terrorists.

“Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities. Militancy and extremism emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralised, but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives,” The Daily Times quoted President Asif Ali Zardari, as saying.

"India needs no lectures. Virtually no nation has suffered more from terrorism than India, he said. "South Asia is also a volatile nuclear flashpoint."

That said, Kerry has played a major role in tripling US aid to Pakistan to fight terrorists. Those funds, recent Pentagon reports suggested, had been diverted to arming the Pak Army against India.

The recently passed Kerry-Lugar bill to triple US non-military aid to Pakistan to recast US relationship with Islamabad, "wll help us to secure the long-term safety not only of the US and Pakistan, but of India as well," Kerry said.

Kerry, a former Democratic presidential candidate who visited India shortly after the Mumbai terror attacks, said: "I know the volatility that was felt then. But the degree to which there is still an excessive focus on India-Pakistan border issues is really almost an anachronism in today's world. And we need to work to move beyond that."

If confirmed, Roemer will be representing US at an exciting and potentially pivotal moment in US-India relations, he said "the Obama administration has a genuine opportunity to forge a true strategic US-India partnership, not as a threat or counterweight against any other nation but based on shared interests and shared values."

"If we get this right, it will benefit not only our nations but also the region and the world. There are many areas where we can make real progress," Kerry said.

He and several other senators had supported a civilian-nuclear deal with India, in part because it will help India grow its economy with clean energy, he said. "I hope this will now open the door to greater cooperation on non-proliferation."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kerry said, "will be carrying a message of friendship, to India, during her visit later this month to engage with India's newly re-elected leadership."