The United States is looking forward to working with the new Indian government and has expressed optimism that the thaw between India and Pakistan will continue to gain in strength.
Commenting on the new Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said, "We note that he is noted as an economic reformer and hope he will be successful in transferring the economic improvements that India has received down to village level and lower levels."
On Indo-Pak ties, he said, "I don't think that a sort of gradual rapprochement (between India and Pakistan) will be harmed at all. We have talked to Pakistani friends. You may have talked to (visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mohammad) Kasuri."
"...There is no reason that we should see a hiatus. In fact there's every reason to be able to move forward and we are looking forward to that, and we are talking to both sides about it," he told CNN television network.
Asked whether there is a clear roadmap ahead that the US could be involved in, Armitage replied, "Well, no. What is involved is the strength and the daring and the courage of the leaders of both sides of the question."
"We have made our views known to both sides, but we are not mediating. We are not in the middle of it, and I don't know of a clear roadmap. There is a general roadmap, which was determined between former prime minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and (Pakistan) President Pervez Musharraf and I think that exists," he added.