The Hindu : Front Page : Zardari for fresh dialogue with India after elections

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Thursday, May 07, 2009
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Zardari for fresh dialogue with India after elections

“No Pakistani democratic government has gone to war with India”

Washington: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said he is awaiting the formation of a new government in New Delhi to start a “fresh dialogue” with India.

“Democracies have never gone to war. No Pakistani democratic government has gone to war with India. We’ve always wanted peace. We still want peace with India. We want a commercial relationship with them,” Mr. Zardari said.

“I’m waiting for the [Indian general] elections to be over so that all of this rhetoric is over and I can start a fresh dialogue with the Indian government,” he told CNN in an interview on Tuesday.

Mr. Zardari arrived in Washington on Monday to participate in a trilateral summit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday. The trilateral meetings are expected to continue on Thursday.

Mr. Obama is expected to do some tough talking with his Pakistani counterpart on the need to take firm action to rein in extremists and also tell Islamabad to shed its “obsession” of viewing India as a “mortal threat.” The summit is an initiative of Mr. Obama, who wants to establish his own channel of direct communication with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr. Zardari said: “I’m looking at the markets of India for industrialists of Pakistan and hoping to do the same.”

With concerns mounting in the U.S. and the world over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, Mr. Zardari asserted that the atomic weapons were safe and secure.

“Nothing should concern anybody as far as nuclear arsenal or other instruments of such sort,” Mr. Zardari said, adding that he had complete authority over the Army and the intelligence agency ISI.

— PTI

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