Stoutly defending his decision to resume talks with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that India must engage with its neighbour “regardless of the complexion of the set-up in Islamabad” and that “engagement does not mean surrender.”
Dr. Singh also said the leaderships of India and China were committed to the peaceful resolution of all outstanding differences, even if the bilateral relationship was a mix of both competition and cooperation.
He was speaking to a group of editors at his residence. “Engagement is necessary in order to convey our concerns to Pakistan. Conveying our concerns through the media or harsh statements in public or statements in Parliament is not as effective as talking face to face with the regime that may be in power in Pakistan,” he said.
The dialogue process came to a halt after 26/11 because Indian public opinion demanded that “Pakistan [be held] to account for this tragedy.” India had hoped that this would give India leverage “to coerce Pakistan to pay greater attention to our concerns but unfortunately that has not happened,” he said. “I think Pakistan has acquired a greater amount of leverage in dealing with the United States and others and [so] the results were not as expected.” That is why at Thimpu “my effort was to find ways and means of getting the two countries once again back on the path to a dialogue,” the Prime Minister said.
Acknowledging that things had not moved smoothly since then — in India-Pakistan relations there are always mishaps, uncertainties, some things happen like what happened at the two Foreign Minister meetings — Dr. Singh said it was his sincere belief that the process of engagement had to continue regardless of the government that was in power there. “But that does not mean Pakistan will change its thinking vis-à-vis India, that it would cease to regard an India-centric policy as its number one priority. We have to be realistic enough to take account of all the uncertainties that have been our bedevilling relations for nearly 60 years. But at the same time, if we don't want to go to war then engagement and dialogue are the only way forward,” he added.
Asked how the process was likely to be carried forward, Dr. Singh said he hoped Pakistan's Foreign Minister S.M. Qureshi, “accepts the invitation of our Foreign Minister and visits us.”
On Afghanistan, he said, India was committed to assisting the people of that country in their efforts to develop as well as to maintain their democratic system and independence. This was a commitment India would abide by even after the U.S. and other foreign forces left Afghanistan, he added.
