New Delhi, Dec 1 (Inditop.com) US President Barack Obama rang up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday to discuss the volatile situation in Afghanistan and steps needed to stabilise the region, a day after he warned Pakistan against “using militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba for policy goals”.
During the conversation, Obama also sought India’s support for a successful outcome at the Dec 7-18 conference on climate change with Manmohan Singh making it clear that New Delhi will play a constructive role in the negotiations.
“US President Barack Obama called the prime minister this morning. In a brief conversation, the two leaders discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the further steps that could be taken to bring peace and stability in the country,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement here.
The call came on a day Obama is expected to announce a “surge” of thousands of US troops to fight the Taliban insurgency.
The Obama administration is mulling over the proposal to send 30,000 to 35,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan, the largest single US troop deployment since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan figured prominently in discussions between Obama and Manmohan Singh in Washington during the prime minister’s state visit and reflected a growing congruence of views between the two countries on tackling terrorist safe havens in these countries.
The convergence of approach was reflected in the Nov 24 India-US joint statement.
During his visit to the US last week, Manmohan Singh repeatedly asked the international community to stay engaged in Afghanistan amid speculation about a weakening appetite for prolonging a seemingly endless war with no end in sight.
“I sincerely hope that the world community will have the wisdom to stay engaged in that process and premature talk of exit would only embolden the terrorist elements who are out to destabilise not only our part of the world but civilised world everywhere,” Singh had said in Washington last week.
With six days to go for the UN conference on climate change, the two leaders also discussed the Cophenhagen conference. “The two leaders discussed the forthcoming summit on climate change in Copenhagen,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Obama’s telephone call came a week after he held wide-ranging talks with Manmohan Singh in Washington, that included evolving a consensus at the Cophenhagen conference and the two countries forging collaboration in green technologies and green economy.
The prime minister told Obama that “India will play a constructive role in the negotiations and looked forward to a successful outcome”, the statement said.
Obama’s call reinforced speculation about pressure mounting on India to play a “deal maker” at the conference that is expected to take forward the Kyoto Protocol on reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing global warming, or to come up with a successor to the protocol.
Two days ago in Trinidad and Tobago, Manmohan Singh met French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who emphasised the need for India to join the ongoing negotiations for a substantive outcome at the Cophenhagen conference.
In his intervention at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit at the Trinidadian capital last week, Manmohan Singh spelt out India’s position of the need for a “balanced and comprehensive outcome” at Copenhagen based on equitable burden-sharing.
In the wake of recent announcements by the US and China, pressure has intensified on India to announce some form of quantifiable climate change actions.
