Bush Sends Rice To India

President George W. Bush is sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to India this week as a “further demonstration” of US solidarity with New Delhi in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai, the White House announced Sunday. Rice will arrive in New Delhi Wednesday, on the heels of an already scheduled trip to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “President Bush has asked Secretary Rice to travel to India this week in the wake of the terror attacks that killed nearly 200 people, including six American citizens,” Perino said in a statement, increasing the official US death toll in the three-day terror siege by one. Rice departed Sunday night for London, and was to attend a NATO meeting Tuesday in Brussels before traveling on to India, arriving in New Delhi on Wednesday. “Secretary Rice’s visit to India is a further demonstration of the United States’ commitment to stand in solidarity with the people of India as we all work together to hold these extremists accountable,” Perino said. “The president and the secretary thought it was important to take this moment to travel to Delhi to express the condolences of the American people directly to the Indian government and the Indian people. And to hold face-to-face conversations with Indian officials,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. He gave no further indication of Rice’s activities or agenda in India. “It is a fact, a sad fact, that India has now experienced this level of terror,” McCormack said. “So I am sure that the secretary and others in the government will be having discussions going forward about cooperating on the war on terror. But again, those will go at the pace with whatever the Indian government is comfortable with.” The spokesman did not rule out potential contact between Rice and Pakistani officials during this trip, saying simply: “I don’t have anything to announce at this point on that.”


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