Manmohan believes in dialogue with Pakistan: Krishna

WASHINGTON: India pledged on Friday to go “more than half the way” to repair testy relations with Pakistan but said it has won support from the US to keep a careful eye on its neighbour.

Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna has accepted an invitation to visit Islamabad next month despite continued Indian concerns about Pakistan-based militants blamed for the deadly 2008 siege of Mumbai.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “has always been saying that you tackle those who are responsible for the Mumbai attack and I’m willing to go more than half the way,” Krishna told a news conference on a visit to Washington.

“Things have not exactly gone as per our estimates, but nonetheless we cannot give up. We will have to keep engaging Pakistan,” he said.

Krishna said his visit to Islamabad was meant to overcome a “trust deficit” between India and Pakistan, which have fought three full-fledged wars since their separation in 1947.

But Krishna said he shared India’s concerns about Pakistan with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a “strategic dialogue” on Thursday.  “The message that I get from the US administration is that they are aware of our concerns and that they are not going to do anything which would adversely affect India’s interests,” Krishna said.

Krishna said that India has also spoken to the United States about China’s plans to build two civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan.

A day earlier, Krishna told Indian reporters here that he is travelling to Islamabad in July as part of New Delhi’s effort to bridge bridges with the neighbouring country. “We are trying to build bridges with Pakistan also,” he said. The External Affairs Minister said India is “hoping to be able to eliminate the trust deficit” between the two countries. “High level visits are a very important part of it,” Krishna said.

Earlier, in his opening remarks at the Indo-US Strategic dialogue, Krishna said that the epicentre of global terrorism lies in India’s neighbourhood. “Though the epicentre of this threat lies in India’s neighbourhood, it reaches far and wide all across the world as we have seen time and again and most recently a few weeks back in Times Square,” Krishna said. “Given the fact that the groups who preach the ideology of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing, sharing resources and operating as one, it is incumbent upon all of us, to focus our efforts laser-like on every one of them,” he said. “Targeting only one or the other of such groups would only provide false comfort in the short term and will not usher in long term stability,” Krishna said in an apparent reference to the reluctance of Pakistan to take strong action against Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Commenting on India-US relations during the reception, Krishna said, “There are few relationships in the world that have so much potential as India-US relations, because I believe that our cooperation is not only for mutual benefit, but is destined to have a strong impact on global peace, prosperity and stability.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2010.