ID :
84198
Mon, 10/12/2009 - 09:45
Auther :

'Improving ties with Pak key to India overtaking China'

Chicago, Oct 11 (PTI) Improving relationship with
Pakistan is key to India overtaking China and
"revolutionising" the 21st century to emerge as a global
power, former US President Bill Clinton has said.

"...if that one thing (improving ties with Pakistan)
could be done by India, it would revolutionise the 21st
century in ways no one can imagine," Clinton said at the PAN-
IIT conference here.

"Try to find a way to keep making progress with
the Pakistanis," Clinton said.

He stated this when asked by an audience member what
India must do to become a superpower and gain more influence
at the UN and G-20.

"If you did not have to raise defence spending 20 per
cent a year and these countries could be working together I
think you will grow faster than China," he said.

Clinton said the idea that the Chinese are going to
dominate the 21st century is not necessarily true. "It depends
mostly what you do and if you can continue to plough money
into the development of the poor and reduce inequalities in
India."

Clinton, who has time and again volunteered to help India
and Pakistan resolve the issue of Kashmir, suggested going for
the IIT model as the model of the future "and not the
standoffs of 1971 or the fights over Kashmir or whatever."


Acknowledging that it is "easier to say than to do,"
Clinton said: "I know that especially after what happened in
Mumbai. I watched the hotel room I always stay in burning, I
know that but if that one thing could be done by India it
would revolutionise the 21st century in ways no one can
imagine."

Clinton argued that this would help reduce the nuclear
threat the world faces as also the rush in all these countries
to produce atomic weapons and it would indirectly reduce
tensions in the Middle East. The same thing is true in
Afghanistan, he noted.

"I just think that if India and Pakistan can work
together then they can even overtake China in the 21st
century," Clinton argued.

"Every time India does something (development work) in
Afghanistan, Pakistan thinks it is directed against it and
vice versa but the truth is if the two countries could find a
way to work together and do common projects there, it would
stabilise Afghanistan and bring it into the 21st century,"
Clinton said.

"In an interdependent world it is a prescription for
disaster when you can't get away from your neighbour. You have
to have a non zero sum game where both sides can win," he
said. PTI LKJ
DDC

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