WASHINGTON: India and Pakistan are unlikely to resolve their Kashmir dispute soon given the fragile government in Islamabad, a top US commander said Tuesday. He also voiced concern over the growing reach of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India has made overtures to work more closely with Pakistan, and the US should continue to encourage the nuclear-armed rivals to negotiate, said Adm. Robert Willard, chief of US forces in the Pacific.
''But unquestionably there remains a level of tension across the border that is very hard to impact,'' he told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
''And given the turmoil that has been in Pakistan for the past couple of years, it's hard to imagine that the fragile governance in Islamabad is going to rise to a level where the impasse can be broken in the near term.''
India and Pakistan recently moved to resume a peace process that stalled after terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
Few hold out hope the two governments can tackle core disputes that have bedeviled their relations since independence from Britain six decades ago, particularly their conflicting claims over divided Kashmir.
Willard noted that India regards Kashmir as a bilateral dispute with Pakistan, and is ''quick to remind'' the US that it is an issue for them to deal with without outside interference.
Willard said the LeT group has declared a jihad on America and conducts attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, although India continues to be its main target.
He said the United States has evidence of Lashkar's presence in Europe, the broader Asia-Pacific and even in the past in Canada and the United States.
The US is working with Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and India to help build their capacities to contain the militant group, he said.
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