Rice invokes special relationship after Mumbai
David Miliband and Condoleezza Rice spoke in London
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Monday, 01, Dec 2008 11:16
Britain and the United States have a special reason for pursuing the terrorists responsible for last week's violence in Mumbai, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has said.
Speaking at a press conference in London alongside foreign secretary David Miliband, Dr Rice said Britain and the US would work with both India and Pakistan to ensure those responsible were brought to justice.
Tensions between the two subcontinental states have risen after New Delhi suggested Pakistani elements were responsible for the 188 fatalities.
"These were people who were singled out because they were British and because they were Americans, and that gives us a qualitatively different character from the point of view, certainly, of President Bush and, as I understand it, the British government," Dr Rice said.
"Ultimately, the terrorists have to be stopped because they will keep trying to bring down the civilised values and the civilised world as long as they are not challenged.
"And that means that challenging them and resolutely going after them is the only choice that we have."
Mr Miliband put pressure on the Indian government to ensure its promised raft of measures to boost its counterterrorism capabilities make a real difference.
"The Indian people, like people anywhere in the world when they're struck by terrorism, want to know that their government develops a plan to tackle that terrorism," he said.
"That doesn't mean symbolic acts. It means real acts with real partners to effect real change."
The foreign secretary will be working with a new US secretary of state from January 20th next year. Earlier today president-elect Barack OBama appointed Hillary Clinton to the post at a press conference in Chicago.
Mr Miliband said: "She's someone who believes that human effort can engineer change, and I think that's a profoundly important quality that she shares with Secretary Rice, and it's one that I think will bring a great deal to international affairs."