The United States can play a key role in allaying Pakistan's fears about its neighbour, India, by getting involved in a solution to the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Zamir Akram, said on Friday.
He said that attempts by India and Pakistan to negotiate a settlement were derailed after 2006 by Hindu or Muslim 'extremist' groups in each country. "Unfortunately, the momentum has been lost," he told journalists.
When asked what single short-term gesture could help allay Pakistan's concerns about the strategic intentions of its neighbour, Akram said: "Something that Mr Obama promised when he 'was a candidate' for president but abandoned when he 'became president', that is, facilitate the solution to the Kashmir dispute." "That's the gesture that the administration itself said it wanted to take and they should follow up on it," he added.
Akram suggested that the West has been too intent on securing relations with its ally, India, to forge a bulwark against China-an ally of Pakistan-in Asia. He said that Pakistan's concerns about its bigger neighbour stretching from nuclear weapons to energy supply, a strategic build-up in the region, and fear of being surrounded to the west and east by neighbours-Afghanistan and India-with whom it has tensions.
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