Senior US diplomat to travel to India and Pakistan

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells will travel to India, Bhutan and Pakistan from April 21 to 30.

In New Delhi, Wells will meet with senior Indian government officials to discuss US-India cooperation in promoting a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region and continue to advance initiatives agreed upon at the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue last fall, the State Department said.

In Thimpu, Wells will explore prospects for deeper bilateral engagement, it said.

In Islamabad, Wells will meet senior Pakistani officials to discuss bilateral issues of mutual interest including trade, investment and regional stability.

The State Department also announced that its Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad will travel to Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, and the UK from April 21 to May 11.

This is part of the overall effort to facilitate a political settlement to bring to an end the 17-year Afghan war, America's longest.

In Kabul, Khalilzad will consult with the Afghan government and other Afghans to encourage all parties to work towards an intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations to determine a final peace settlement, the State Department said.

"In London, Moscow, Islamabad, and New Delhi, he will work to build international support for the Afghan peace process to ensure that any peace settlement reached will be sustainable," it said.

"In Doha, he will continue to press forward on negotiations with the Taliban to reach a consensus on core national security issues, and urge their participation in an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue," it said.

The Afghan peace initiative has been moving at a snail's pace due to refusal of the Taliban to sit for talks with the Afghan government officials.

Pakistan has been playing a crucial role in the process and last year released senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar from imprisonment, who is reportedly in Qatar.

Baradar was deputy to the late Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. He was arrested from Karachi in a joint Pakistan-US operation after reports that he was independently trying to conclude a deal with Afghan government.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. It sent two former diplomats in "non official" capacity to a conference on Afghan peace process in Moscow in November which was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation.

The conference organised by Russia was attended by representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries including the US, Pakistan and China.

India has been maintaining a policy of not engaging with the Taliban and pressing for an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace initiative to bring peace and stability in the war-ravaged country.