Washington: The US has said it will support Pakistan's efforts to reduce tensions and reconcile with India seizing on the "unique opportunity" to foster lasting security of a "troubled region" of vital interest to it.

"The United States will support Pakistan's efforts to develop fruitful links with its neighbours and with the community of responsible nations," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said accepting her first first honorary degree at Air University, Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in her home state of Alabama yesterday.

This includes, Rice said, "intensified Pakistani-Afghan dialogue on regional security, continued efforts to reduce tensions and reconcile with India, and closer economic integration with the nations of South and Central Asia". Stressing that the region was of vital interest to the US, she noted growing strategic partnership with India as factors which reflected the US improved position across South and Central Asia.

"We have a unique opportunity to foster the lasting security of a troubled region, a region that is of vital interest to our nation." From our partnerships with the newly democratic Pakistan and a free Afghanistan that is fighting the Taliban, not governed by it, to our growing strategic partnership with India and our improved relationships all the way across South and Central Asia, the United States is in a dramatically different and better position in this region than we were in 2001."
Source : PTI