Holbrooke on a consultative trip to South Asia: Clinton

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Feb 6 (PTI) The visit of special US
Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke
to South Asia including India is for consultative purposes,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said here.

Holbrooke left for London Wednesday on a trip, which will
end with his visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Before
going to South Asia, he will be attending the Munich Security
Conference in Germany.

"These will be for consultative purposes," Clinton told
reporters about Holbrooke's trip to South Asia next week.

"He has a very vigorous schedule of meetings and he's
attempting to cover as much ground as possible. He's already
done an enormous amount of work here in the United States in
preparation," the former first lady said Thursday.

The Secretary of State said, she will wait for a report
from Holbrooke, before deciding on the next course of action.
"There is an ongoing policy review process that he is
co-chairing out of the White House, and we're in the beginning
of a very in-depth but expeditious consideration of the way
forward," Clinton said.

During his London-stopover, Holbrooke met the British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the British Foreign Minister
David Miliband. Tonight he will have dinner with French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Munich.

The exact dates of Holbrook's trip to South Asia have not
been officially revealed yet, mainly because of security
considerations. Holbrooke was appointed as the Special US
Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan soon after Clinton became
the Secretary of State.

His mandate is to co-ordinate between Afghanistan and
Pakistan along with other major players and stakeholders in
the region not only to defeat the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban,
but also aim at bringing lasting peace in the troubled
Afghanistan. PTI