Obama, Singh discuss AfPak, climate issues

Pre-mature exit will not help: PM

The two leaders also spoke on the forthcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement: “US President Barack Obama called the Prime Minister this morning. In a brief conversation, the two leaders discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the steps that could be taken to bring peace and stability in the country. The two leaders also discussed the forthcoming summit on climate change in Copenhagen. The Prime Minister told the President that India would play a constructive role in the negotiations and looked forward to a successful outcome”.
Obama’s call comes a day after he warned Pakistan against “using militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba for policy goals”.

The US President’s call came after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in Washington that Obama would be making several calls to world leaders to brief them on his new Af-Pak policy.

He said the new Af-Pak policy would come with an exit strategy and will not be “an open-ended commitment”. “Ultimately, the strategy will be to transfer the security responsibility of an area to the Afghans,” he said.

India feels that due to the continued threat posed by terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, the world community should stay engaged there and not think about a “pre-mature exit” as it could embolden terrorists.

Singh is of the view that India and the US needed to do more to counter terrorism.
Normally, environment ministers attend the annual conferences of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

But this time Danish Prime Minister Andors Fogh Rasmussen invited 60 heads of states to be present at the high-level segment on December 17-18 with the hope of thrashing out a solution as climate change negotiations between developed and developing nations have hit a roadblock.