Kerry was in India earlier this week and in Pakistan today. The interview followed the terrorist attack that might derail the proposed talks between the two countries.
(Imagine not one question on Sarah Palin, John Edwards or Scott Brown!)
You have come at a time when India has just suffered a terrorist attack and just after India proposed foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan. There is a view here that there is no point talking when Pakistan is not doing enough to crack down on groups inimical to India. Your views?
Let me begin by first expressing condolences from everybody in America for what happened in Pune... we understand what that feels like to your country. What is important to remember, however, is terrorists do these things in order to prevent good things from happening between governments, between people. Terrorists don’t want India and Pakistan to succeed in having a better relationship. Terrorists don’t want a secular government to succeed and be strong in India. I think it is very very important not to give in to feelings that one country or the other is not doing enough yet. It is important to sit down and talk about what more needs to be done. If you don’t talk about it, things get worse. Can Pakistan do more? Absolutely, yes. And many of us have had those conversations and will continue to have those conversations... We respect the Prime Minister’s decision to have a conversation about the needs of the region and the needs of India. I think it is courageous leadership. My hope is that India and Pakistan will have these talks and that these talks will produce better cooperation from here.
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The US Director of National Intelligence has said Pakistan views some of these groups as part of its “strategic arsenal” against India. Do you agree?
Historically, they have been. We all know how they were founded. We
have partial responsibility because we helped them in the development of the Taliban to take on the USSR in Afghanistan and we worked with the ISI and the ISI worked with them. Then it was all one focused Cold War effort. And in the end of the Cold War, unfortunately the United States turned its focus elsewhere and the problem didn’t go away. So, we have to help deal with it. But fundamentally, Pakistan needs to decide where it is going, what kind of country it wants to be and what kind of relationships it wants in this region. And you know there is no place for state-sponsored terrorism by anybody, by any country.
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