Asian Window

Posted by Namita Bhandare:

I’ve been caught up at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit for the past two days where the big ticket headline news, of course, was Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari stating that he was not in favour of nuclear weapons at all and that Pakistan would certainly not use it first against India.

Zardari was speaking to the audience in New Delhi via video link in his Islamabad home with huge portraits of his slain wife, Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan’s founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the background. Apparently Zardari accepted HT’s invitation to its annual summit before he became president. After being sworn in, any visit now to India will have to be a state visit and the timing of his first state visit, whenever it happens, will have to be carefully planned. So, for HT a video link was the next best option.

Zardari came off warm and full of bonhomie. His opening remarks (where he repeated a quote by his wife that there was a ‘little bit of an Indian in every Pakistani and a little bit of a Pakistani in every Indian,’) was greeted with applause.

“Cold war of the previous era kept us (India and Pakistan) divided… Let’s embrace each other,” he said and expressed hope that the two countries would move and work together in the future. Zardari also spoke of more open travel between India and Pakistan.

“I don’t feel threatened by India and India should not feel threatened by us,” Zardari said. Pakistan, he stated, was for enhancing trade and economic ties with India.

“If you can trade with China, why not with Pakistan.” He also sought New Delhi’s assistance to get loan from the IMF to tide over the grim economic situation.

Throughout his address, Zardari steered clear of any mention of Kashmir. But in response to a question from the audience he said that Kashmir belonged to the Kashmiris.

For news reports on Zardari’s address click here, here and here.

For complete HT Leadership Summit coverage click here.

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