Thimphu: The 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit is underway in Thimphu, Bhutan. In recent years, the grouping has expanded to include Afghanistan in 2007 - a crucial inclusion given its strategic role in the South Asia region and the international focus on the war on terror.
SAARC has also expanded to include 9 observers - USA, China, Japan, Korea, Iran, Australia, Myanmar, EU and Mauritius.
NDTV's Maya Mirchandani spoke to the American observer, Robert Blake, in Thimpu.
Speaking on the 26/11 attacks, Blake, who is the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said that Pakistan must prosecute those responsible for it.
He also added that Pakistan should take action against the militants that are based on its soil.
Here's the full interview:
NDTV: What does the US make of SAARC? You are here as an observer, what do you hope to take away from this meeting?
Blake: well first of all, we are here to have bilateral meetings with all of our friends. The South Asian region is probably one of the most important for the US right now, not only because of Afghanistan and Pakistan but also because of our growing partnership with India. But also we have a lot of interest in the post conflict situations of Nepal and Sri Lanka so there is a lot to talk about with our friends here but we also want to see greater progress on regional cooperation between the South Asian countries because we think that would do so much to help advance development and stability for all of our friends.
NDTV: Well as you said, it is a region which is extremely significant in the world today and is also one ridden by all kinds of conflict. Very often we have seen that these conflicts overtake SAARC's agenda. What do you think about that?
Blake: I don't know if they overtake them. I think in the case of India and Pakistan, that probably has had some effect on the relative lack of progress on trade, and I think that's a shame because trade can be one of the most important sources of new jobs for the young populations of South Asia and particularly for the young populations of India and Pakistan. Your trade is relatively modest, a little under three billion dollars in bilateral trade which for the two economies the sizes of India and Pakistan is relatively small. I think there are a lot of opportunities. I was ambassador in Sri Lanka from 2006 to 2009 and I found there were Indian companies that were taking advantage of the Sri Lanka free trade agreement with India and the Sri Lanka free trade agreement with Pakistan so they were investing in Sri Lanka rather than going and trading directly which was a shame.
NDTV: As I just mentioned, SAARC expanded recently to include Afghanistan into its fold - a crucial neighbour right now. But on the question of Afghanistan and the US concerns on the Af-Pak region, there are differences on where India stands on some of those issues particularly on the whole idea of good Taliban vs bad Taliban. India is very clearly concerned about what the US defines as the good Taliban and also the idea that Pakistan is really thriving in the place it's got. As far as the Afghanistan conflict is concerned, the kind of importance the US gives it, maybe to an extent where it's not looking seriously at terrorism concerns that India may have...how does the US plan to tackle that?
Blake: Well I don't think there is really as much daylight between the US and India on Afghanistan as you imply. I think we have a shared interest in trying to stabilise that very important country to make sure that terrorism cannot once again threaten either of our countries. We have set some fairly important criteria for what we think should govern, who should be allowed to participate in these reconciliation talks by the Taliban, the most important of which is that they must renounce violence and any ties with Al-Qaida, and perhaps most importantly to abide by the terms of the current Afghan constitution and we think that will perhaps weed out some of the bad Taliban that you talked about.
NDTV: But at a time when India's concerns on terrorism are strong, we are looking at dossiers sent by Pakistan as recently as this weekend. We all thought perhaps as setting the stage for a bilateral meeting here still not confirmed, the idea that the US and India have even some differences, even if not wide, as you say. But that there are differences, how do you address India's concerns?
Blake: Well again, our main interest and I am sure India's main interest is to make sure Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot again become platforms from where terrorist s can attack the US or India or any other country. That is our main interest and those are the goals that President Obama first set out with when he began to talk about the priorities that we attach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those remain our goals and even of India I know, So I don't think those are the things that divide us, and even on these tactical things we think India has come around to the idea that there is not going to be a military solution to this, so that is the way to bring some of the Taliban in and that includes the reintegration process which is the lower level process and the reconciliation process which is a higher level political mechanism.
NDTV: And finally, one last question. The US has been following the Mumbai investigations very closely. Pakistan has just handed over the latest dossier of replies to India, again saying there isn't enough evidence, even though the US has also provided such evidence against such people itself. Do you see this as a time buying tactic from Pakistan or do you think their concerns on evidence are genuine?
Blake: I am really not in a position to judge that. I haven't seen the dossiers so I think it's up to judicial authorities on both sides to make these decisions and our interest is in seeing that Pakistan continues to prosecute those responsible for the terrible tragedy of Mumbai and to see that Pakistan takes action against the militants that are based on its soil including the Punjab based groups.