Obama, Singh agree to make greater effort to fight terrorism

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Praising India’s prime minister as a man of peace, President Obama today called for greater efforts from all nations in the region, including Pakistan, to fight terrorism.

At a joint news conference after about two hours of private talks, Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said they had agreed that their security officials would share information in the fight against terrorism.

Obama announced he would soon address the United States on Afghanistan and was confident that, after he explained the rationale for his new policy, the American people would back a decision to ensure that enough resources were available to deal with the war.

He refused to give any further details on how many more troops he would authorize for Afghanistan.
“It is my intention to finish the job,’ Obama said of Afghanistan.

Terrorism is a complicated issue in the region, given India’s longstanding problems with terrorists based in Pakistan. It was just a year ago that India’s commercial capital of Mumbai was the target of a series of bombing and shooting attacks.

“We both recognize that our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all peoples in the region,’ Obama said, referring to himself and Singh, ‘not just one country or the other.”

Singh is on a state visit to Washington, the first for the Obama administration. Obama said he would visit India next year.

The pair also discussed a joint effort to improve science education and a range of other issues, economic and political, such as global warming and curbing the spread of nuclear weapons.

--M ichael MuskalTwitter.com/LATimesmuskal