ISLAMABAD – The US has been trying to convince Pakistan that India was nota threat to it and Islamabad should change its strategic stance towards NewDelhi, Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan has said.
He also said that it is time for a courteous yet “ruthlessly candiddialogue” with the US “with everything on the table” to remove allmisunderstandings between Islamabad and Washington.
Reading out a policy statement on the government’s foreign policy contoursand the security situation in Pakistan in the National Assembly yesterday,he regretted that the US downplayed India’s aggressive posturing along theLine of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary, the Dawn reported today.
The minister said the perception of India was one of the foundationaldivergences between Pakistan and the US.
“It’s time for a courteous yet ruthlessly candid dialogue between Pakistanand the US with everything on the table,” the defence minister said.
Khan said that Washington had been trying to convince Pakistan that Indiawas not a threat and, therefore, Islamabad should change its strategicstance.
“But the truism remains true. Both India’s capacity and intents are todayhostile towards Pakistan,” he alleged.
Pakistan accuses India of using Afghan soil for carrying out hostileactivities against it, a charge India has dismissed.
Khan alleged that “India has amassed men, material and garrisons along theborder with Pakistan” and said that 2017 was the deadliest year in terms ofLoC violations by India and the killings of civilians.
“India today is a highly militarised and an increasingly belligerentneighbour,” he claimed, adding that the unrelentingly hostile andanti-Pakistan stance taken by the current Indian government has reduceddrastically the space for any advocacy of peace.
The minister said Pakistan was being made a scapegoat as the US was notwinning (the war on terror) in Afghanistan.
He said Pakistan had cleared the Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA), Karachi and Balochistan under the Operation ‘Zarb-i-Azb’ and therewere no safe havens for terrorists in the country.
He urged the US to recognise the sacrifices Pakistan and its people hadmade in the war on terror since 2001.
He also criticised the US for not pursuing internal reconciliation inAfghanistan, which had now become a safe haven for terrorists.