Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on Tuesday commenting on US-India co-operation in civil nuclear energy sector said Pakistan wanted to have equal treatment from America in the field of civil nuclear energy.
In an interview with L'Express, Paris, the Foreign Minister said, "We spoke in favour of a global approach, on a regional scale, which would have been better for preserving strategic balance."
Kasuri said like India, Pakistan has a big population - 152 million inhabitants - and a rapidly growing economy - 7 percent on average, for the past four years, therefore it needed alternative sources of energy.
"We understand that the major concern of the United States is to avoid nuclear proliferation. But as far as we are concerned, we already are a nuclear power," he said. The Foreign Minister said the co-operation in the civilian domain was, therefore, without risk.
The Minister said keeping in view Pakistan's point of view that the civilian nuclear co-operation is without any risk, the American refusal, which is perhaps not final, will not prevent Pakistan from developing its own programme adding that "even if we have to do so at a slower pace." Answering a question about Pak-USA relations, the Foreign Minister said, "They are excellent, our partnership with the United States is a strategic partnership.
We have regular contact, on different levels, covering a large number of areas." Referring to criticism on Pakistan regarding its nuclear issue, the Foreign Minister said, "It is true that we are sometimes criticised by a section of the press or by American political circles, which is a part of the game in a democracy."
The Minister said, "but on the highest level, the people with whom we have contact, whether it is the President George Bush, the Vice President Dick Cheney, Conodleezza Rice or the Secretary of State for Defence Donald Rumsfeld, do not at all share these opinions." "Our relations (Pak-America) are marked, on the contrary, by deep trust and very close co-operation," said the minister.
Replying to a question on Afghanistan issue, the Foreign Minister said, "Islamabad only wants Afghanistan's well being."
To the question on the issue of war against terrorism and allegations from Afghanistan, the Foreign Minister said, "President Pervez Musharraf himself has very firmly denounced these accusations, which mostly came from Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai."
He said, "We recently received the Afghan Foreign Minister in Islamabad, and we agreed to end these polemics, which are of no help to anyone, except to the Taliban themselves."
About present wave of violence in Afghanistan, the Foreign Minister said, "we have sympathy for the Afghans, we are supporting their efforts, this includes combating Taliban activities in the border zones."
The Minister said Pakistan has deployed 80,000 men on the ground across the Pak-Afghan border, while the whole of the American and Nato countries have 30,000 troops.
Commenting on Pak-India relations, the Foreign Minister said, "We have made progress in several areas, but there will not be a durable peace in South Asia as long as there is no solution of occupied Kashmir. And yet, on this issue, we have made practically no progress."
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