\"We\'re surrounded by failing states ......Bangladesh\", said Chengappa
Rice finds Bangladesh becoming 'quite troubling'
BDNEWS, Dhaka
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Bangladesh is becoming "quite troubling" and there is more that the USA and India could do.
"There is more that we probably need to do on Bangladesh which is, I think, a place that is becoming quite troubling. So in the region, there is a great deal that we can do," she said in an interview with Raj Chengappa of India's leading magazine 'India Today'.
As Chengappa asked on the South Asia region saying: "we're surrounded by failing states and problems, you know, whether you look at Nepal or Sri Lanka or Bangladesh and, of course, Pakistan. What is the sort of role you think India should be playing in the region?", Rice said there are several ways in which India, and then India and the United States together, can help in this region.
About Afghanistan, she said, "We now have an opportunity in Afghanistan to actually have a stable, democratic Afghanistan in which its neighbours will not be inclined to interfere in Afghanistan politics to try to stabilize their own interests."
On Nepal, Rice said the US ambassador is in more than daily contact with the Indian and British ambassadors and that "there is a coordination of policy to try to impress upon the King the importance of returning to a democratic path."
"So in the region, there is a great deal that we can do. But I think we'll also see that also internationally, India -- and globally, India will start to play more of a role," she said.
Rice said the USA hopes to enhance defense cooperation with India.
"We have had military exercises. We are in the process of several important technology sales, like the Orion, to India...our militaries have very, very good relations, military-to-military contacts are very good. But we can now take that and make it into a more strategic dialogue to understand better how India and the United States cooperate to make this a peaceful region and, indeed, to make Asia -- to make the world more peaceful," she said.
She said the USA is trying to build a defense relationship with India that is broad and where "we can, together, look not just at India's needs but understand better the entire balance in the region."
-DailyStar
Edited on, March 19, 2005, 6:17 PM GMT, by rezwan1977.
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