India should justify its large presence in Afghanistan: FM

Voicing Islamabad’s concern over large scale Indian presence in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said New Delhi needs to justify its interest in Pakistan’s war torn western neighbor, which shares no border with India.

“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,” he told the Los Angeles Times when asked in an interview about implications of India’s building up its commercial and political presence in Afghanistan.

“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,” he added.

The foreign minister’s comments came a day after top American experts told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Islamabad’s concerns over Indian influence in Afghanistan are real and now being taken more seriously by Washington.

Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal in a report to Pentagon recently feared serious regional implications of expanding Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan suspects an Indian hand behind unrest in parts of its southern Balochistan province and earlier this year Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani raised the issue with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, in Sherm el Sheikh, which were reflected in a joint statement issued by the two South Asian powers.

In the interview with the Times, Qureshi saw a “realization on both sides that dialogue is the only way forward.” “Any other option would be mutually destructive—suicidal,” he said about prospects of resumption of dialogue process, stalled since late last year’s attacks in Mumbai, blamed on a Pakistan based militant group. “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,”

Qureshi said, “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 extremists along the Afghan border) west, then we have to feel more secure on the east. There is a linkage there,” he added.

The foreign minister stated that the South Asian region is hostage to the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the peaceful resolution of which through uninterrupted dialogue is the only way forward.
Earlier, he told a think tank in Los Angeles about Pakistan’s constructive diplomacy with India on reducing South Asian tensions.
He declared that Pakistan is fully committed to peace, security and development in the region.
Achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan is crucial for security and economic development of Pakistan, he said, adding that no country had suffered more than Pakistan due to the wars in Afghanistan.