Krishna on the 'trust deficit' between India, Pak

Asserting that India is committed to peace and dialogue with Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said there is a need to address the "trust deficit" between the two South Asian neighbours.

"My prime minister has consistently believed in the need for dialogue to seek a future of peace and cooperation with Pakistan," Krishna told Obama at a reception held in his honour by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Krishna said he will meet his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad in July.

"The trust deficit in relations between India and Pakistan needs to be specifically addressed," Krishna said. "The continuing threat of terrorism is a cause of great concern for us in India," he noted.

A day earlier, Krishna told Indian reporters that he is travelling to Islamabad in July as part of New Delhi's effort to build bridges with the neighbouring country.

"We are trying to build bridges with Pakistan also," he said. The minister said India is "hoping to eliminate the trust deficit" between the two countries.

"High-level visits are a very important part of trying to do that," Krishna said.

In his opening remarks at the Indo-US Strategic dialogue, Krishna said that the epicentre of global terrorism lies in India's neighbourhood.

"Though the epicentre of this threat lies in India's neighbourhood, it reaches far and wide all across the world as we have seen time and again, and most recently a few weeks ago in Times Square," Krishna said.

"Given the fact that the groups who preach the ideology of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing, sharing resources and operating as one, it is incumbent upon all of us, to focus our efforts laser-like on every one of them," he said.

"Targeting only one or other of such groups would only provide false comfort in the short term and will not usher in long term stability," Krishna said in an apparent reference to Pakistan's reluctance to take strong action against terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

The US has welcomed the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan.

Image: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna | Photographs: Paresh Gandhi