India backs Rabbani on Taliban talks; will discuss issue with Clinton next week

External affairs minister SM Krishna of India shaking hands with Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of the Afghanistan high peace council, in New Delhi on Thursday

New Delhi

14 July 2011

Burhanuddin Rabbani, who heads a panel which has the Afghanistan government's mandate to negotiate peace with the Taliban, would not mind using the good offices of India for finding a political solution to the strife in his country.

India is an important country in the region and we want its cooperation in peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, Mr Rabbani said on the occasion of his talks with external affairs minister SM Krishna in New Delhi on Thursday.

Mr Rabbani is on a four-day visit to India.

Afghans should not be victims in the hands of others to be used against the Afghan people themselves, Mr Rabbani said without elaborating. He noted that regional countries had a role in promoting peace in Afghanistan.

India was expected to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton when she visits New Delhi next week.

Talking to journalists, US charge d'affaires Peter Burleigh said Afghanistan could figure "prominently" in the Clinton-Krishna talks, in which the relations between and among the US, India and Pakistan would be "thoroughly covered".

Burleigh described the Taliban reconciliation talks as a "very important issue" for the US and India alike.

The US was keeping India informed of the substance of the "very preliminary discussions" that have taken place with the Taliban interlocutors.

The diplomat went on to note that the negotiations for "reaching an understanding" with "some Taliban elements" were making "slow process", and the talks could be expected to "continue for months".

"[The US is] continuing to explore [and it] will keep India directly informed and also seek advice," Mr Burleigh said.

The situation in west Asia, north Africa, and east- and south-east Asia, was also likely to be discussed in the second strategic dialogue between Clinton and Krishna on July 19.

Replying to a question about the possible implications of the US losing out on a multi-billion tender for fighter jets for the Indian Air Force, on the defence cooperation with India, Mr Burleigh said "one contract here and there [does not] make or break [the] relationship" and that the US was in it for the long-term.

Peter Burleigh returns as interim US ambassador to India

New Delhi

13 June 2011

Albert Peter Burleigh is expected to succeed Tim Roemer as the interim ambassador of the United States to India.

Burleigh (69) is no stranger to India, having temporarily served as charge d'affaires at the US embassy in New Delhi from April to July 2009, after David Mulford completed his tenure as ambassador here and before Tim Roemer took up his current position.

Roemer resigned on April 28, citing personal, professional and family considerations. He is expected to leave India by the end of June.

Burleigh is expected to arrive in New Delhi in the last week of this month and assume temporary charge till the US Government has nominated him or another individual as the US ambassador to India in succession to Roemer and the US Senate has confirmed the nomination.

Burleigh served as the US deputy representative to the United Nations from August 1997 to December 1999. Immediately prior to that, he served as the US ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives between 1995 and 1997.

Born on 7 March 1942, Burleigh joined the US foreign service in 1967, after spending a year as a Fulbright scholar in Nepal. He served in the Peace Corps in Nepal between 1963 and 1965, doing community development work in that country.

In his long career Burleigh served in the US embassies in Nepal and India, too.

Burleigh is a consultant for the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in Washington. Since 2006, he has been a consultant to the Carter Centre in Atlanta. In March 2007 he became a director of the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust. He is fluent in Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, and Sinhalese.