New Delhi, July 12: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that India was “willing to walk more than half the distance” to normalise relations if Pakistan reaffirmed that it would bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai massacre to justice and would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist attacks against India.
The Prime Minister was replying to a question on what India’s stand would be in his scheduled meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in his interaction with journalists on board the special aircraft on the trip back from the G8 and G5 summit meetings in L’Aquila, Italy. Prefacing his answer with the remark that one could choose friends but not neighbours, he went on to say that if India were to realise its development ambitions and realise its place in the comity of nations it had to work with its neighbours to bring about peace and amity in South Asia.
Dr. Singh said India would do “all that is necessary” to resolve all outstanding issues that had bedevilled the relations between the two countries. “But it requires credible action, on the part of Pakistan to deal with terrorist elements directing their energy to disrupt and destabilise our economy and polity,” he said.
He hoped that out of his meeting with Mr. Gilani they would have “a renewed reaffirmation on the part of Pakistan that they will bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai massacre to justice, that they will not allow Pakistan territory to be used for terrorist acts directed against our country.”
“If they do that, we are willing to walk more than half the distance to normalise our relations,” Dr. Singh said.
Asked about his “unusual step” of telling Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari what India expected from him in front of the media and whether such messages worked, he said there were difficulties but he had not given up hope.
He went on to add, “Let me say that what I had said to Zardari Sahib, I had not intended to say in front of the media. I simply forgot that the media were present there. It was not my intention in any way to hurt Zardari Sahib’s feelings.”
Asked about the perception in some sections in India that United States President Barack Obama might be good for the world but not so good for India, the Prime Minister said there was no basis for such an apprehension. In his talks, he found that Mr. Obama was very supportive of India’s development ambitions and had great admiration for India. He had spent a lot of time with him at the major economies summit session on agriculture on Friday and had exchanged notes on a large number of issues. He looked forward to his visit to Washington and India had invited Mr. Obama to pay a visit.
“There is no basis for the apprehension that the Obama administration will be less sensitive to India’s concerns than the previous U. S. administrations,” the Prime Minister said. From the two days of meetings in Italy and earlier in the G20 meetings in London in April, he got the consistent impression that “we have a very responsive President Obama, as far as India’s aspirations are concerned.”
–PTI