Interview by Robert O. Blake, Jr. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs with VoA Urdu TV

December 2, 2009

Urdu TV:  Ambassador, thank you very much for your time this afternoon.

What message do you think the people of Pakistan should take from President Obama's speech last night?

Assistant Secretary Blake:  I think the main message they should take is one of our long term commitment to the people of Pakistan and to the people of Afghanistan.  That is to help to build up their ability to eliminate the sanctuaries and safe havens that the militants enjoy.  But it's also our intention to build up the capacity of both the government of Pakistan and the government of Afghanistan to better provide for the needs of their people:  to deliver services, to improve governance, all of which will have a very important impact on the effort to undermine the militants in both countries.

Urdu TV:  In the recent past we've heard demands like do more, from Pakistan.  Last night President Obama did not touch upon that, and it's being already viewed as a positive development.  What's the reason behind that?

Assistant Secretary Blake:  I think everybody appreciates the important steps that the government of Pakistan has taken already in Swat Valley and South Waziristan, and I think everybody hopes those efforts will continue.  Again, I think the message overall is one of trying to support the people of Pakistan, and the Secretary I think very clearly laid that out during her recent visit to Pakistan.

Urdu TV:  While this was welcomed, the President also said that Pakistan is extremely important for America's success in Afghanistan.  At the same time he said safe havens for al-Qaida cannot be tolerated. Pretty strong words in a very important speech, don't you think?

Assistant Secretary Blake:  I think they're appropriately strong.  These are sanctuaries that have directly affected the security of Americans but also of people in London and Oman and Bali, as the President said last night.  So this is a common threat that we all face.  Again, I think the President was trying to make the point that this is something we all need to address together and work together to address.

Urdu TV:  Each country in the region wanted to hear something from the speech which they didn't.  For example, let's begin with India.  India wanted to hear something like Pakistan's actions against the groups which are not just threatening Pakistan but also India.  Groups like [inaudible] and other groups.  The President did not touch upon that.

Assistant Secretary Blake:  Well, the President did touch upon them in the sense that he talked about the importance of denying sanctuary to al-Qaida and its allies.  So I think he did.  And I think that India and all of the countries in the region will be encouraged by what they heard from the President because all of them have a great interest in seeing the stabilization of Afghanistan and in the long term success of all of our efforts to help stabilize that important country.

Urdu TV:  It's a front line state in the war against terrorism, it has done a lot, sacrificed a lot, and the President acknowledged that speech last night.  Pakistanis have concerns about Indian consulates in Afghanistan.  Pakistanis feel the President did not touch upon that.

Assistant Secretary Blake:  It was only a 30 minute speech devoted mostly to explaining why we are deploying 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.  So I think that was the main purpose of it.

But I think one of the points that the President wanted to stress was that this is not simply about Afghanistan.  If we are to succeed in our objectives that the President laid out in Afghanistan, then there must be also a very important parallel effort in Pakistan, again, to help the government of Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries that are provided there to terrorists.  But also to help the government of Pakistan to deliver services and improve economic opportunity for its people.

Urdu TV:  And now Afghanistan.  Talking to Taliban has been, the idea has been floated.  The President did not elaborate much on that in the speech last night.

Assistant Secretary Blake:  I think the whole concept of reintegration and  reconciliation will be something that will be discussed in the coming days.  The point we always make about that is this will have to be an effort that is led primarily by the government of Afghanistan.  We think there are important opportunities to try to, for example, improve agriculture.  We are placing a great deal of emphasis on trying to upgrade the agricultural sector.  We believe that by, again, providing economic opportunities to people that we'll be able to draw a lot of the Taliban recruits away from the murderous activities that they're engaged in now, towards efforts to help improve the economy of their country.  So we think that's a very important part of it.

But another important part will be to just work with the tribal leaders who themselves can lead with the Afghan government reintegration efforts.

Urdu TV:  Another question about India, and then I'll finish by asking a question about Central Asia since it's also your area.

What kind of role India and Pakistan have together as good neighbors, putting their intentions aside, in stabilizing Afghanistan?

Assistant Secretary Blake:  I think one of the points we always emphasize is all of us have a shared and a common interest now in defeating terrorism, particularly in this part of the world.  So I think that India and Pakistan need to work through their differences.  An important first step will be for Pakistan to continue the process of bringing to justice those who are responsible for the attacks at Mumbai.  I think that would then provide the space for India to resume dialogue with the government of Pakistan and that dialogue would in turn help to convince particularly the Pakistani military that India is not the enemy.  That the real enemy is in the Northwest Frontier Province, the FATA and the areas the Pakistani military is now focusing on.

Urdu TV:  In the Central Asian states, what is your expectation from countries like Uzbekistan or other Central Asian countries in stabilizing of Afghanistan?  What kind of a role do you expect them to play?

Assistant Secretary Blake:  All of the countries of Central Asia already are playing an extremely important role in helping in the stabilization of Afghanistan.  They are providing, for example, efforts to facilitate the transit of goods into Afghanistan.  Many of them are providing electricity to Afghanistan.  Many of them are helping to develop civilian capacity in Afghanistan.  I think the main message there is that they also have a great stake in the stabilization of Afghanistan and are very supportive of the President's efforts to increase our American troops and to, again, bring about the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Urdu TV:  Ambassador, thank you very much for your time.

Assistant Secretary Blake:  Thank you so much.  It's a pleasure to be with you.