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Rediff.com  » News » US praises Indian role in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka

US praises Indian role in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka

By Lalit K Jha in Washington
July 08, 2009 09:29 IST
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The Obama administration's top diplomatic nominee for India has praised the country's role in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

"I would like to say with respect to the Indians and Afghanistan that they have provided a very helpful role to the United States and to Afghanistan and to the region," Tim Roemer, the nominated US Ambassador to India, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

"They have invested over a billion people in economic development. That is a key interest for us in resolving and helping out in Afghanistan with kinetic and non-kinetic power," Roemer said in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

On India's role in Sri Lanka, Roemer appreciated the massive Indian humanitarian aid to the island nation, which has just emerged out of a more than three-decades of civil war.

"With respect to Sri Lanka, the Indian government has sent high- level -- I think their foreign minister and their national security adviser have been down there if not once, twice. They've committed $20 million in aid. They've pledged another $100 million in aid," he said.

Roemer said the United States is very concerned about the internally displaced people and encouraging resettlement and reconciliation and a peace process to go forward.

"I think that's something that would be important for the next ambassador, to continue to work with the Indian government on, to see that the Sri Lankan situation moves in a peaceful process, with reconciliation as a high goal," Roemer said.

"It is in the interest of the United States, to grow the middle class in India spiritually and economically, to see a middle class emerge there that can buy US products, exchange trade with the United States," Roemer said.

"It is in the Indians' interest to do this," he said, adding that educational institution of higher learning in US could benefit Indian agriculture.

"In terms of clean-energy projects, poverty, agriculture projects, I think that there are lots of points of leverage and scaling up that we could work on," Roemer said.

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Lalit K Jha in Washington
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