Pakistan will not accept supremacy of any country in South Asia as neither the US nor China or India could downplay Pakistan's strategic significance in the present scenario, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said here on Sunday.
She was talking to newsmen at Allama Iqbal Airport on Sunday on her return from Nusa Dua, Indonesia after attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (Asean) regional forum and meetings with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the forum.
Asked to react to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's urging to India to play a lead role in the region, Pakistan's new Foreign Minister said, "Supremacy is out of the question. Pakistan will not accept anyone's supremacy. Pakistan is a sovereign state and will keep intact its sovereignty and strategic importance in the region through the pursuit of an effective foreign policy."
Khar said: "Look, whatever role anyone wants for someone and what the actual role is, there can be differences... If the US recognises India's role, in the same way it recognises Pakistan's role. We have to have a reality-based and pragmatic approach and no one downplays Pakistan's current strategic significance or importance, not the US, China, or even India."
Khar, who returned after her first interaction with the world's top diplomats after elevation as Foreign Minister, said "Pakistan's role in this region is probably the most important now and the US recognises this."
About Pakistan - India talks, she said, "Kashmir is the focus of Pakistan's engagement. We need to have a pragmatic approach on how to take forward this engagement process. We cannot have overnight success in anything."
She said during the 45-minute meeting with her, Clinton stressed the need for Pakistan and the US to "go back to the Strategic Dialogue and...Get the relationship back on track."
Khar said Pakistan and United States had strategic convergence in goals and objectives but there were certain operational issues on which sometimes differences of opinion crop up, which could be removed through dialogue and understanding of each other's point of view.
She also described her meeting with the Chinese Foreign Ministerr Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the security forum, as very fruitful and said China is Pakistan's great friend.