Thaindian News

Washington, May 5 (ANI): U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reiterated President Barack Obama’s message to the world that the killing of Osama bin Laden does not mean that the global fight against terror has ended.

Interacting with media at the State Department on Wednesday, Clinton described Al Qaeda as a syndicate of terror that needed to be eliminated permanently.

“As the President said last night, the effort to stop al-Qaida and its syndicate of terror - which is how I characterize it because that’s indeed what it is - will not end with the death of bin Ladin. In Afghanistan, we have to continue to take the fight to al-Qaida and its Taliban allies,” Clinton said.

She added: “Perhaps now they will take seriously the work that we are doing on trying to have some reconciliation process that resolves the insurgency. So our message to the Taliban hasn’t changed; it just has even greater resonance today. They can’t wait us out, they can’t defeat us; they need to come into the political process and denounce al-Qaida and renounce violence and agree to abide by the laws and constitution of Afghanistan.”

Clinton also said that Washington will work to bolster its partnerships with allies and other countries, even as people continue “digesting this news” of bin Laden’s killing.

“We’re going to look for ways to put this into the context of the larger debate we’re having here at home about what it takes to stay engaged in the world. There are many who believe that the State Department and USAID - really, our entire national security apparatus - is just not affordable anymore. And yet the dangers and the threats are greater than they’ve ever been, so there’s a real mismatch between kind of where we are in any realistic assessment and the tools that we have to use now,” she said.

Stating the Obama Administration is as determined as previous administrations to focus on the job at hand, Clinton said: “Everybody’s been determined and very focused. But our tools were so much better and our relationships had evolved in a way that enabled us to obtain information that was actionable. So it takes funding and it takes resources, and it takes having those person-to-person connections that really make a difference when it’s on the line.”

“We know that we have to be more efficient, we have to be more effective. That’s why I commissioned the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, the so-called QDDR, to say what could we do better and how fast could we do it,” the Secretary of State said.

She said that a majority of the State Department’s budget would be used to support diplomatic and development work, support conflict prevention and conflict resolution, and Washington’s work on nuclear proliferation etc.

Stopping the growth of violent drug cartels in places like Mexico, improving global health, reducing hunger and stopping disease and advancing the cause of human rights, would be other areas of focus, she added.

On the economic front, she said that the United States would be seeking ways to expand its trade and help American businesses to prosper further.

She also said that jobs could be cut in all kinds of areas to make the American economy better in the long term. (ANI)