Brussels (Belgium): Concerns over the crisis caused by the terrorist attacks in India may overshadow NATO talks this week on drawing Georgia and Ukraine closer to the alliance, officials have said.

NATO nations are worried that rising tensions between India and Pakistan, after last week's attacks in Mumbai, could weaken Pakistan's resolve to combat pro-Taliban fighters on its border with Afghanistan.

"Of course everybody is watching with great concern what is happening in the region," alliance spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers planned meetings today and tomorrow.

More than 60,000 Western troops are battling Afghanistan's insurgency, while Pakistan's security forces have worked to cut off border routes to its lawless northwest regions used by insurgents as safe havens.

Underlining the region's fragile security situation, militants attacked a convoy carrying NATO equipment yesterday near the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

"Pakistan has been very successful, particularly in recent months, in stepping up operations in the northwest," he said. "We certainly hope that Pakistani efforts against extremism in its northwest will not be diminished as a result of events that took place last week in Mumbai."

India has blamed unspecified elements within Pakistan for the attacks last week in Mumbai that killed 170 people. Pakistan's government denied any involvement, and offered to help with the investigation.

But it also warned India not to increase its forces along their common border, saying it would respond by sending Pakistani troop  to the frontier, shifting most of them from its border with Afghanistan. That could undermine Western efforts on the Afghan side.

 

Source : PTI