India's economy continues to grow as US President Obama to set out Afghan troop strategy
01/12/2009
Obama to share Afghan exit plan with Manmohan
Washington: US President Barack Obama will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other world leaders by Wednesday on his new Af-Pak policy that is expected to cover sending thousands of more troops to fight Taliban insurgency and outline an exit strategy.
Obama's call to Singh will take place close on the heels of the two leaders' meeting in Washington during which the Afghan issue was discussed prominently.
Singh had said it was important for all major regional and international players to put their weight behind the Afghan government.
Obama had highlighted the importance of tackling violence and extremism emanating from the region "in a serious way".
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the President would be making several calls to world leaders today and tomorrow to brief them on the issue.
Besides Singh, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and are among the leaders Obama will call.
Obama has already spoken to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on his Af-Pak policy.
Obama has maintained that it was important to recognise that the Afghan people ultimately will have to provide for their own security.
Obama's new approach is likely to focus on ensuring that the Taliban is prevented from holding control on the Afghan government and from providing safe haven to extremists to plot terrorist activities.
At his press briefing, Gibbs said the new Af-Pak policy would come with an exit strategy and "not an open-ended commitment".
"Ultimately, the strategy will be to transfer the security responsibility of an area to the Afghans. That is a big part of what you'll hear the President talk about".
More than 100,000 US and NATO troops are in Afghanistan, and the president is expected to announce the addition of over 30,000 more US troops to support the war effort.
The additional troops will bolster the already 68,000 US troops positioned along the Pakistan border and in the south, where the fighting is the most fierce.
A key element of Obama's new strategy will be diplomatic engagement with Pakistan to jointly address violent extremism.
"I think you can anticipate that a good portion of the President's speech tomorrow (Tuesday) will discuss our relationship with Pakistan and touch on going back to the very beginning of this administration in a renewed engagement diplomatically with the Pakistanis to jointly address violent extremism," Gibbs said.
The strategy reveiw comes amidst a growing war weariness among Americans the cost of sending 10,000 troops estimated at USD 10 billion a year.
A poor monsoon season has raised fears of food price inflation
India's economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate of 7.9% in the three months to September, compared to the same period last year.
The growth was helped by government stimulus spending.
A boost in manufacturing and services helped the country expand at the fastest pace for 18 months.
Some analysts said this could give the central bank room to raise interest rates as early as December to combat rising inflation.
"This data could be a green light for the Reserve Bank of India to hike rates, and there are greater chances of this by the end of the calendar year," said Robert Prior-Wandesforde from HSBC.
"The exit from the fiscal stimulus by the government may also be earlier post-the GDP data," he added.
However, a government official said he expected no change in stimulus policy for the current fiscal year.
Farm output was up 0.9% in the third quarter but economists warned that the figures did not reflect the poor monsoon season.
The central bank warned that the poor season was more likely to drive food price inflation.
US President Obama to set out Afghan troop strategy
An exit strategy is expected to form part of the speech
US President Barack Obama is set to unveil his new Afghan strategy, with an expected commitment to send thousands more troops to fight the Taliban.
Mr Obama will make his announcement in a televised speech to cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point.
He has already briefed military and foreign leaders on the deployment, reportedly of 30,000 additional troops.
On Monday British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced he would send 500 more soldiers to the country.
The US currently has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, with foreign forces overall totalling more than 100,000.
'Issued the orders'
Mr Obama's announcement comes amid growing domestic concern over the Afghan war.
MARDELL'S AMERICA
It is all part of the choreography, the idea the UK has an Afghan strategy separate from the US is fanciful
Both the rise in foreign troop deaths and the chaos that followed August's general election in Afghanistan have exacerbated fears over whether America has an exit strategy for the conflict.
Earlier this year, however, the US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, warned that America risked failure in Afghanistan unless troop numbers were increased.
He requested 40,000 more soldiers, but Mr Obama is expected to order around 30,000 to the country.
On Monday White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the "commander in chief has issued the orders" for the deployment.
You will hear the president discuss clearly that this is not open-ended
The plan is expected to focus on securing cities and on training Afghan security forces to assume more responsibility.
The president is not expected to give a target date for pulling out of Afghanistan, but Mr Gibbs said Mr Obama would make it clear that America's commitment was "not open-ended".
"We are there to partner with the Afghans, to train the Afghan national security forces, the army and the police, so that they can provide security for their country and wage a battle against an unpopular insurgency," Mr Gibbs said.
Mr Obama was said to have held telephone talks on Monday with the leaders of several nations who have troops in Afghanistan to discuss his plan.
He also spoke to Gen McChrystal and other top commanders, and will brief congressional leaders on Tuesday ahead of the speech.
On Monday, Britain confirmed it was sending a further 500 soldiers to Afghanistan, taking the country's total deployment in the country to 10,000.
The prime minister told parliament that "the safety of people on the streets of Britain" depended on the UK taking action to address the militant threat from al-Qaeda at its source - along the Afghan/Pakistan border areas.
"We should be failing in our duty if we didn't work with our allies to deal with the problem where it starts," he said.
It is all part of the choreography, the idea the UK has an Afghan strategy separate from the US is fanciful 
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