New Delhi, December 2
Senator John McCain, who lost to Barack Obama in the US Presidential race, today expressed solidarity with India in the wake of Mumbai’s terror attacks and asked Pakistan to cooperate with India “as quickly and efficiently as possible”. He emphasised that Washington would not not allow terrorists to provoke a confrontation between India and Pakistan.
“This government is committed to better relations between India and Pakistan. They (those behind the Mumbai carnage) tried to provoke a confrontation between India and Pakistan,” McCain told reporters here.
“This government will not allow it to happen,” McCain said, indicating a proactive US role in preventing the likely breakdown of dialogue between India and Pakistan in the wake of the November 26 terror strikes.
“Relations between India and Pakistan were on an improving path. That was one of the objectives of terrorists (to strain ties between the two countries,” McCain said.
He hoped that Pakistan would cooperate in addressing India’s concerns over the attacks. “It is in national interests of Pakistan to weaken these elements,” he replied when asked whether the US would pressure Pakistan to act against the elements India suspected to be behind the Mumbai attacks.
McCain, Republican senator from Arizona, was on his way to Bangladesh and Bhutan, but decided to make a brief stopover here in the wake of the Mumbai strikes that killed nearly 200 persons, including six Americans.
