India, Pak back on negotiating table: Hina Rabbani Khar

New York, Apr 21: India and Pakistan are back on the dialogue table to sort out issues between the two nations, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has declared, saying that Islamabad cannot afford to be selective in improving ties with its neighbours.

"We cannot afford to be selective" in improving relations with immediate neighbours as betterment of ties with India, China, Afghanistan and Iran is needed for stability in the region, she said. "Pakistan's policy toward all regional neighbours, to its immediate neighbours, has been consistent. This government's policy has been consistent, that we need to find peace and stability within," Khar said in an interview with CNN.

Khar said the way to achieve stability is to "find a friendship" and improve ties based on trust with each one of Pakistan's neighbours and not by being selective. "We cannot afford to be selective about it, so be it India, be it China, be it Iran, be it Afghanistan, we do not have a choice," Khar said. She was responding to a question on how Pakistan's "obsession" with India is drawing all its security resources away from the fight against militants. Khar said India and Pakistan are back on the dialogue table, "trying to solve our problems on the negotiating table."

On slain al-Qaeda chief, Khar said that her government had "no complicity" in the hiding of Osama bin Laden. She claimed that an extensive investigation has so far found that nobody in the government knew of Bin Laden's hideaway in Abbottabad. "We are together. We are on the same page. We want to root out terrorism, because Pakistan suffers more from terrorism than any other country in this world," she said.

The Foreign Minister said there were "tough lessons" to be learnt from Bin Laden's "unexpected" presence in Pakistan and how the country can strengthen its intelligence network to "ensure this type of thing doesn't happen in Pakistan anymore." "This is not the legacy that this government wants to leave behind it at all," she said.

PTI