‘No option but to engage with Pak’

The US knows our views and they know what our concerns are, says India's national security adviser.

India has no option but to engage with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday on board a flight from Vietnam.

“It is our policy to engage with Pakistan. That doesn’t mean we have to give up or surrender,” Singh said, adding that “I have often said that we can choose friends, but not neighbours. We are obliged to engage with Pakistan.”

Singh’s remarks came a week before President Barack Obama’s arrival in India. He added that the US and India’s relations have entered a new phase, Indian news agency IANS reported.

Manmohan Singh, who met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hanoi for about 45 minutes, said there was a common desire to bring about a qualitative change in the relationship.

“India-US relations have entered a new phase. There is cordiality, there is understanding. It is our common desire to bring about qualitative changes in our relationship,” the prime minister told journalists.

We are strategic partners, he added.

In the run-up to Obama’s visit, the two sides are discussing the way to carry the civil nuclear relationship forward, said National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.

Stressing that India has been accepted in the global civil nuclear community, Menon said India had adhered to the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines and had a very good non-proliferation record.

He added that while the main topic of discussion when Clinton called on the prime minister was the upcoming Obama visit beginning Nov 6, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the situation in the region were also talked about.

“She welcomed the work we are doing in Afghanistan,” Menon said, adding that the US asked India to continue the task of reconstruction.

According to him, US arms to Pakistan are not related to counterterrorism and are certainly an issue. “The US knows our views and they know what our concerns are,” Menon said.

Manmohan Singh also pushed for peace and tranquillity pending a settlement on the border dispute with China and said both New Delhi and Beijing wanted a “practical solution” to their dragging border dispute that triggered a war in 1962.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, whom he met in Hanoi Friday, will visit India soon, the prime minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2010.