Many of these concerns involve India and Pakistan , two very important countries in their own right. AsSecretary Powell said during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony July 9, we want to make surethat both the Indians and the Pakistanis understand that the United States is interested in them beyond thiscrisis. We have a strong and growing relationship with India, a transformed relationship in the economic,scientific and security fields that has permitted a degree of cooperation following the September 11 attacksthat would have been unthinkable even two years ago. With Pakistan as well, we have broken free of over adecade's difficult relationship, as that country sets a course of moderation and cooperation with the UnitedStates. But we have important interests in other countries in South Asia. In Nepal, a major rural insurgencythreatens to destabilize the country. In Sri Lanka, a long-standing civil war may be starting to move towardresolution, but the process is likely to be long and difficult. Chronic political rivalries and violencecompound a serious law and order problem in Bangladesh and pose a danger to the young democracy in thatcountry. And, of course, there is the long-term question of Afghanistan's future. Following the encouragingsuccess of the Loya Jirga process, a fragile transitional government is trying to bring stability to a countrytorn by almost a quarter century of war.