US policy in Pakistan heading for disaster:Jaswant Singh

Kochi, Jan 22 (UNI) Slamming the US policy in Pakistan, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh today said it was high time India woke up to the ''disaster we face in the US approach to Pakistan and Afghanistan''.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a conference on the 'India/China/USA Triangle,' Mr Singh said the US policy in Pakistan had ended in a dead alley.

The US has absolutely no option left in Pakistan but to continue to support Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf despite all disturbances and notwithstanding all the verbal statements the US makes about democracy.

Stating that the US statements on Pakistan failed to carry conviction, the senior BJP leader said the US policy in this region is a policy of disaster. It is necessary for the Government of India to recognise this.'' In this context, he noted that despite India giving substantial aid and assistance to Afghanistan, no land route was available to it from Amritsar to Kabul.

Talking of the situation in India's neighbourhood, he said the country was surrounded by a ''circle of disturbed countries, right from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf, Somalia and the Maldives.'' This posed a great challenge to the country's foreign policy yet ''it is a matter of great regret that the arrangement at misgovernance that we have at the Centre is betraying India's national interest for the sake of staying in the chair,'' he added.

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