US President Barack Obama's Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has cancelled his trip to India.
US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told media persons in Washington on Thursday that a mismatch in terms of scheduling had led to the cancellation of the trip to New Delhi.
"I think the Ambassador (Holbrooke) is not going to stop in India on this trip. There was a mismatch in terms of scheduling. So, he will do that on this -- on a future trip to the region," Crowley said.
Stating he didn't know the reason for Holbrooke postponing the trip to India, one former senior US official said: "There's a hornet's nest in India now because of opposition attacks on two parts of the India-Pakistan joint statement just agreed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. I suppose it's possible the Indians didn't want a discussion about Pakistan with the United States just now. But I doubt that's the reason."
Holbrooke is currently in Afghanistan after completing a two-day visit to Pakistan. He is said to have told the Pakistani leadership during his visit that there was a need to keep India informed about developments taking place in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Before leaving Islamabad, he said, that the United States is concerned and would address Pakistan's reservations on the American-led surge against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, which may force the insurgents to sneak into Pakistan's remote tribal areas.
To a question related to the recent visit to India of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Crowley said: "We were very satisfied with the trip to India and the launching of a strategic dialogue and an expansion of the range of issues that we will address in future meetings with both countries."
On the forthcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Washington (November 24), Crowley said: "I would expect now that you have broadened the frame and significantly increased the number of issues that the two countries will address together, now comes the hard work of preparing for these meetings and deepening the cooperation and seeing what progress can be made in all of the working groups that she (Clinton) outlined with her Indian counterpart."
