Pakistan committed to fighting militants, foreign minister insists

Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is on a public diplomacy tour of the United States, arguing that the Obama administration will lose credibility if it pulls back in its war against the Afghanistan insurgency. Qureshi insists Pakistan's democratically elected government and its security establishment, which is often accused of links to extremists, are committed to fighting militants in their own country. But the nation wants the U.S. to provide more military resources to do the job.

Qureshi spoke with Times Foreign Editor Bruce Wallace about the prospects for lowering regional tensions with India, about allegations that the Afghan Taliban is establishing itself in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and about the timetable for a government offensive against extremists in the South Waziristan region.

So much of the debate here is about what to do in Afghanistan, but the foundation of the regional strategic problem is the Indian-Pakistani relationship. Is there any movement toward improving that since the Mumbai attacks?

There's a realization on both sides that dialogue is the only way forward. Any other option would be mutually destructive, suicidal. Now, the Mumbai attack was a hiccup.

But what I have tried to convey to the Indians is: Who has benefited from Mumbai? I bid you, not us. The real beneficiary is that element that does not want normalization. By disengaging from each other, we are falling into the trap of that very element that wants us disengaged. The only way we can defeat their designs is to have a continuous engagement and resume that dialogue.

That will have a positive impact in South Asia. If you want Pakistan focused more on the [threat from Afghanistan in the] west, then we have to feel more secure on the east. There is a linkage there.

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Are you suspicious of India's motives in building up its commercial and political presence in Afghanistan?

They have to justify their interest. They do not share a border with Afghanistan, whereas we do. So the level of engagement has to be commensurate with that. If there is no massive [Indian] reconstruction [in Afghanistan], if there are not long queues in Delhi waiting for visas to travel to Kabul, why do you have such a large presence in Afghanistan? At times it concerns us.

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American security officials allege that the Afghan Taliban has moved into Quetta, from where it is running the Afghan insurgency.