Gates warns of militant threat to India-Pakistan ties

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned Wednesday that South Asian militant groups were seeking to destabilise the entire region and could trigger a war between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India.

Reflecting anxiety in the region about New Delhi’s reaction if it were attacked by a militant group with roots in Pakistan, Gates said restraint by India could not be counted on.

Gates said rebels in Al-Qaeda’s “syndicate” — which includes the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba — posed a danger to the region as a whole.

They are trying “to destabilise not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act,” Gates said on a visit to New Delhi.

“It’s important to recognise the magnitude of the threat that the entire region faces,” he added following talks with his Indian counterpart A.K. Antony.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and tension spiked again in 2008 when militants — that New Delhi identified as belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba — attacked the city of Mumbai, killing 166 people.

India did not mobilise forces, unlike in 2001 when it massed troops on the border with Pakistan after an attack on its parliament.

This drew praise from Gates, but he said such restraint might not be repeated next time.

“I think it’s not unreasonable to assume India’s patience would be limited were there to be further attacks,” Gates warned.

New Delhi suspects the Pakistani intelligence service of supporting terror groups that target India and has consistently called on Islamabad to crack down on militants operating on its soil.

Gates described India as a vital partner in the struggle against extremist threats and said that he had discussed how to bolster US-India military cooperation.

He also lauded India’s “extraordinary” financial aid to Afghanistan, but acknowledged the tension this created as both Islamabad and New Delhi vie for influence in Kabul.

“There are real suspicions both in India and Pakistan about what the other is doing in Afghanistan,” he said.

“So I think each country focusing its efforts on development, on humanitarian assistance, perhaps in some limited areas of training, but with full transparency for each other, would help allay these suspicions and frankly create opportunities,” he said. On his two-day trip to India, Gates has assured leaders that Washington will not abandon Afghanistan despite a timeline for withdrawing US troops. Meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, he discussed regional security and offered assurances over the target date of July 2011 for starting a drawdown of American forces, a US defence official said. Mindful of India’s concerns about an early US exit, Gates pledged the United States would remain committed to Kabul with major economic and diplomatic support even as its military presence is gradually scaled back. In Washington on Wednesday, concern about Lashkar-e-Taiba was voiced by the State Department’s counter-terrorism coordinator, Daniel Benjamin, who said the group could become a threat to the West like Al-Qaeda.

“Should it decide that it wants to either compete with Al-Qaeda or supplant Al-Qaeda it would... present itself as an extremely formidable terrorist opponent,” Benjamin said.

“It has a target set that Al-Qaeda would find... perfectly fitting. It has an enormous number of men under arms, running into the thousands.”

US officials said Gates’ visit to India reflected a blossoming relationship that has dramatically transformed since the mutual unease of the Cold War. He heads to Pakistan on Thursday. New Delhi, AFP