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India, Pakistan should avoid conflict: US
LAST UPDATE: Saturday, 7 Nov 2009 - 3:54:32 AM
NEW DELHI: As India warned of retaliatory action in case of a terror attack, the US Friday said both India and Pakistan should avoid a conflict situation.
"Any conflict should be avoided. We need confidence building measures both side and we are confident that both governments will take it," US Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn said here.
Lynn was in here in Delhi for the annual Defence Policy Group (DPG) meeting between India and the US. He held talks with Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar.
This is the first such high-level structured meeting after the Obama administration took office in Washington.
After the meeting, Lynn said the steps taken under the bilateral 10-year defence framework, inked in June 2005, were reviewed in the meeting. "The aim was to further deepen and expand the ties to other military arenas from the 10 areas of cooperation identified in 2005 like counter-terrorism, maritime operations, joint combat exercises and the like."
He said discussions on Pakistan, Afghanistan and China also took place.
"We did discuss China. It is a significant country in the region. Both India and US shared mutual perception about China and would like to build good relationship with it," he said.
He was hopeful that India would soon sign Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), which envisages both Indian and American militaries providing logistic support, refuelling and berthing facilities for each other's warships and aircraft on a barter or an equal-value exchange basis, and also the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA).
Through CISMOA, the US wants to enhance the "interoperability" of the Indian and American forces, as also ensure secrecy of its C4ISR (command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems.
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