Support to Northern Alliance to be discussed

By Sandeep Dikshit and Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI, NOV. 4. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, arrived here to discuss with India the option of beefing up the Northern Alliance in the campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan and expanding bilateral military ties.

Prior to his arrival, the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, with whom Mr. Rumsfeld will hold talks on Monday, told Doordarshan that though the Afghan situation would be discussed, it was important that the two countries further developed their security and strategic relationship discussions.

Emphasising on the developments in Afghanistan, the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, said on Saturday night, after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, that Mr. Rumsfeld, who will be in India after concluding a whirlwind tour of Russia, Central Asia and Pakistan, is expected to share his assessment about the situation in the war-torn nation with his Indian interlocutors.

Government sources here said the U.S. is now beginning to expand its focus on Afghanistan's northern front. For this, the support for the Northern Alliance, which is backed by Russia, Tajikistan, Iran and India, is necessary.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Rumsfeld, while in Moscow, discussed with Russia, the Northern Alliance option, apart from the upcoming Bush-Putin summit at Crawford on ``strategic stability', revolving around the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. In Tajikistan, the U.S. side is studying the possibility of utilising the three air fields, including Kulyab, in the future Afghan campaign.

While bringing the northern Afghanistan option more prominently into focus, the U.S. also appeared to have modified its tactical profile along the southern front, straddling Pakistan. It is now actively supporting non-Taliban Pashtuns to militarily engage the Kabul regime. After the assassination of General Abdul Haq, whom the U.S. had sent into Afghanistan, by the Taliban, Washington has apparently pushed Hamid Kartzai, another Pashtun commander, to counter the Taliban, the sources said. Discussions with another anti-Taliban leader, General Abdur Rahim Wardak, former Afghan army chief, are also reportedly continuing in Pakistan.

On the bilateral front, India and the U.S. are set to revive the Indo-U.S. Defence Policy Group (DPG) and the executive steering groups that will determine the nitty gritty of future military cooperation between the three services.

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