British Prime Minister Tony Blair has briefed US President George W Bush on his south Asia tour, including India and Pakistan in the wake of the tense stand-off between the two neighbours. Soon after his return from the six-day trip to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Blair had a 15-minute telephone conversation with Bush on Tuesday night.
“They discussed the current situation in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan following on from the Prime Minister's visit to those countries in the last week,” Blair's spokesman said. The principal focus of his visit was to try to calm tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Blair's trip to Bagram airport near Kabul on Monday night made him the first western leader to visit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.
Donald Anderson, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, hailed Blair's trip as a success, saying that tension over Kashmir threatened world peace. “I think the consensus is that that (trip) has gone better than expected and no one was able to do or prepared to do the sort of job the Prime Minister has done,” Anderson said.
But he pointed to murmurings about the Prime Minister spending too much time on foreign affairs.
Blair's critics accused him of playing the international statesman ignoring domestic issues.
The spokesman said the Prime Minister who returned in London would now be focusing on the public service issues facing the government.
Bureau Report