Washington:
As the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are scheduled to meet in New Delhi on Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Obama Administration is in favour of resumption of direct talks between the two neighbours.
"With respect to India and Pakistan, we have encouraged the resumption of the direct talks which were suspended when President Pervez Musharraf left office," Clinton told a Congressional panel on Wednesday.
In reply to a question from Senator Greg on Indo-Pak relations, she said "...talks between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had actually been quite productive particularly in producing results on the ground in Kashmir. But they have been in abeyance now for... slightly more than two years."
Clinton said that the countries were going to hold talks, and the US was sensitive to the concerns that the both countries have and address to their issues.
"We continue to raise it and make the case to each separately as to why it is in their mutual interest to proceed," she said.
Referring to good relationship between India and the US, the Secretary of State said "with India, we have had a very successful start to this Administration building on, frankly, the success and the investment of the prior two administrations in working with India, creating more opportunities for investment, more relationship building between our two governments."
"So I think that in these two areas, which are two of the most significant areas for America's long term security, we are working very hard and you know trying to make even very small but significant progress in any way we can," Clinton said.