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US officials see hope despite
Indo-Pak summit failure

Officials in the United States of America (USA) on Monday declined to give a negative spin to the breakdown of Indo-Pak summit in Agra and insisted that an important achievement of the talks was the setting in motion of a process which hopefully would lead to eventual settlement of differences peacefully.

"It is unfortunate everybody is talking of failure," said officials declining to be named. "It has not turned out differently from what everyone expected a few days ago."

"It is unfortunate everybody got to expecting more as the talks progressed. What is important is that a continuing process for senior-level dialogue has been started," they said.

U S officials said, "We strongly support extended engagement at a senior level between India and Pakistan as the best way to address outstanding bilateral disputes and make real progress towards a reduction of tensions."

Referring to reports that there would be more talks between India and Pakistan, they said, "We see this agreement of the two leaders for further talks as reason to hope that this meeting (Agra summit) will be the start of such a continuing engagement."

Spokesman for President George W Bush said the US was 'following closely' the developments at the Agra summit and termed the get-together as a 'promising sign'.

"It's a promising sign that the two sides are talking," the spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

PTI

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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