Holbrooke heads to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India

August 20th, 2009 KARACHI - US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan, has said his visit has nothing to do with the Indo-Pak problem, and that he is not in Pakistan to negotiate on the Kashmir issue. In an interview to a private television channel, Holbrooke said it was upto India and Pakistan to resolve the issue bilaterally.

August 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US is keeping New Delhi informed about its policies in Afghanistan-Pakistan region as it looks at India as a "dominant power" in South Asia, a major factor in the region. "The Indians are a major factor in the region.

August 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke on Thursday said the Obama administration is keeping New Delhi posted about its policies on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Speaking on the situation prevailing in Afghanistan and Pakistan at a meeting organised by the Centre for American Progress, Holbrooke described India as a dominant power of South Asia Holbrooke said improving Indo-US relations has been a continual goal of the last three US administrations and opined that all of them had been successful in that.

July 29th, 2009 BRUSSELS - US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has reiterated that the stability of Pakistan's lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border is very important in order to have some degree of control in Afghanistan. "In order to succeed in Afghanistan we have to have some degree of stability and control on the Pakistan side of the border," The News quoted Holbrooke, as saying.

July 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The United States would not allow the Taliban to sneak into Pakistan from Afghanistan and is working out a strategy for it, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said before leaving Pakistan for Afghanistan after a two-day visit. Holbrooke said the US would not repeat its mistakes that it did in 2001 when hundreds of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters slipped into Pakistan's border region following the US led surge after 9/11.

July 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has said India, Pakistan and the United States face a common enemy, and that a joint effort is needed to crush the threat facing the region. Addressing a press conference here, Holbrooke said: "India, Pakistan and the US are surrounded by a common enemy.

July 21st, 2009 US diplomat to hold talks in Pakistan, AfghanistanWASHINGTON — The Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan is traveling to those countries this week for talks. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that Richard Holbrooke will be in Islamabad from Tuesday through Thursday.

June 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan has moved more troops to its border with Afghanistan than it has to its border with India since the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks, according to a top US official. But the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, declined to say how many troops Pakistan has moved from the border with India even as he refuted a suggestion that Pakistani troops there are back to the pre-Mumbai attack levels.

June 7th, 2009 LAHORE - President Barack Obama's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said the United States will trace the financial sources of the Taliban. Holbrooke said the Taliban is getting more money from private donors than from their opium trade, estimated to be about 300 million dollars a year.

April 25th, 2009 LAHORE - US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has said there is no evidence that India is supporting violence in Pakistan. "If the Indians were supporting those miscreants in Pakistan that would be extraordinarily bad, really dangerous, but they are not doing so.

April 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, has said that peace and stability can never return to Afghanistan until Pakistan is stabilized and comes out of the current precarious condition. Holbrooke said that Pakistan was at the center of America's strategic concerns.

February 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special envoy Richard Holbrooke has confirmed that Kashmir is not part of his mission, but hoped India and Pakistan would find common cause to reduce the threat of terrorism by taking it on head on. 'Yes, it is not part of my mission to work on Kashmir,' the envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan told PBS television in an interview when asked what was going to be President Barack Obama's goal since as a candidate he had suggested that the US should probably help try to resolve the Kashmir crisis.

February 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special envoy Richard Holbrooke has confirmed that Kashmir is not part of his mission, but hoped India and Pakistan would find common cause to reduce the threat of terrorism by taking it on head on. 'Yes, it is not part of my mission to work on Kashmir,' the envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan told PBS television in an interview when asked what was going to be President Barack Obama's goal since as a candidate he had suggested that the US should probably help try to resolve the Kashmir crisis.

February 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - India did not play into the hands of the masterminds of the Mumbai terrorist attacks who had aimed to upset the improving India-Pakistan relationship, according to a top US official. The Nov 26 terrorist attack was conducted by 'very shrewd and ruthless murderers', US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke told the PBS news channel in an interview.

February 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special envoy Richard Holbrooke will visit Pakistan, Afghanistan and India after a security conference in Germany this week, the State Department said Wednesday. The envoy left for London Wednesday and will travel from the British capital to Germany's Munich, where he is due to take part in the annual conference on international security policy, State Department Spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.