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US to engage India, Pakistan simultaneously: Rice

The United States has said it will work with India and Pakistan simultaneously on a wide range of issues.

Delivering the Wriston Lecture at the Manhattan Institute in New York, US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said, "Instead of repeating the historic pattern where great power rivalry exacerbates local conflicts, we can use great power cooperation to solve conflicts, from the Middle East to Kashmir, Congo and beyond."

"The confluence of common interests and increasingly common values creates a moment of enormous opportunities," she added.

Clarifying US President George Bush's strategy of 'preemptive attacks', Rice said, "It [preemption] is not a new concept. There has never been a moral or legal requirement that a country wait to be attacked before it can address existential threats... the US has long affirmed the right to anticipatory self-defence -- from the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula in 1994."

The US national security adviser, however, said the option of 'preemptive attacks' must be exercised only after exhausting all diplomatic and legal means.

"Preemptive action does not come at the beginning of a long chain of effort. The threat must be very grave. And the risks of waiting must far outweigh the risks of action," she said.

"In fighting global terror," she said, "we will work with coalition partners on every continent, using every tool in our arsenal, from diplomacy and better defences to law enforcement, intelligence, cutting off terrorist financing and, if needed, military power."

PTI

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