Oct 25 , 2015
News
Afghanistan, India are external challenges for Pakistan: Nawaz
* PM says Islamabad can’t be asked to bring Taliban to table as well as kill them at the same time * World must play role to prevent India’s belligerent actions
APPWASHINGTON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday termed Afghanistan and India external challenges for Pakistan.
He urged the international community to “play a role to stop the slide towards a dangerous Pakistan-India crisis by preventing India’s belligerent actions rather than Pakistan’s defensive responses”. He said, clearly there is a real threat to peace and security in South Asia. The international community can no longer pretend that it does not exist, Nawaz said while speaking at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). USIP is an independent and non-partisan federal institution, funded by the US Congress and works to prevent, mitigate and resolve violent conflicts around the world.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who earlier made his address at USIP in 2013, spoke at length on various bilateral matters, situation in the region as well as Pakistan’s successes in the war against terrorism and its achievements on economic front. He said the Pakistan-India relationship posed the most difficult and urgent challenge. “I believe a close review of some of the existing assumptions and analyses, and greater attention to Pakistan’s views and interests, would be useful in enabling Washington to play a constructive role in averting the ever present danger of escalation and promoting stability in South Asia”, he stated.
The prime minister referred to his visit to New Delhi to attend the inauguration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and said his sincere efforts to improve relations with India and the positive momentum generated by that meeting was halted when New Delhi cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks on a flimsy excuse. The Prime Minister said a normal and stable relationship between Pakistan-India can be built by adherence to the principles of the UN Charter.
On a separate note, the prime minister said, “Pakistan’s priority is to defeat the TTP, which has also found bases on Afghan territory. Peace within Afghanistan will enable Pakistan to eliminate the TTP threat”. Nawaz said he has again conveyed to President Ashraf Ghani that, if he desires, “we are prepared to assist in reviving the talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban. But we cannot bring them to the table and be asked to kill them at the same time.”
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk