This site is not updated. Last month, I traveled with President Clinton to South Asia . We made stops in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This region of rapidly increasing importance to the United States offers opportunities and challenges.
Democratic institutions are vibrant in India, growing in Bangladesh and threatened in Pakistan.
Economic prosperity based on reform, entrepreneurial innovation and entry into the global economy offers hope of a better future for over a billion people. But the threats of conflict, nuclear and missile proliferation, international terror, environmental degradation, drug trafficking and disease loom over all. In the three countries that we visited, we strove to help fulfill the great promise of this vast region. In Bangladesh, we offered support for the example set by this country of moderate Muslim democracy, successful development, and empowerment of all citizens including women. In Pakistan, the President spoke directly to this nation's 140 million people and promised to walk with them if their country chooses the path of democracy, rejection of violence and terrorism, and cooperation in the quest for regional reconciliation.