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| India-Pakistan |
| Mishra proposes multi-national action to counter 'Pak extremism' |
| 2008-04-28 |
| India should co-ordinate a policy with the United States of America, China and the European Union to support the new government in Pakistan’s drive to counter terrorism and extremism, India’s former national security adviser said in an interview aired on Sunday. Talking to Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme, Mishra said India should take the initiative to co-ordinate such a multi-nation action. “The elections in Pakistan were free and fair and have brought about a situation where ... there’s hope of democracy in Pakistan,” he said. “Now my view is that the democratic parties which need to take on, one way or another, the fundamentalists and the extremists, need the support of the armed forces... It’s in India’s interest to get the armed forces to fully support the civilian regime brought about by these elections.” But he said India did not need to “tom-tom” about it. “We don’t need to go public and say we’ve done this, we have done that ... we need to be discrete. I don’t want any force in Pakistan to say (first) the US was meddling now so many countries are meddling. My idea is to support the democratic forces which have already got the verdict (from the people).” He said the people of Pakistan were ready to move forward with their relations with India and added that “democratic Pakistan wants to have very good relations with India”. |
| Posted by:Fred |