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Talks with Bush positive: Musharraf

B. Muralidhar Reddy

President not for judging outcome of the visit through an "Indo-centric approach"

ISLAMABAD: Amid growing criticism that Pakistan has gained nothing from the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday described his talks with Mr. Bush as extremely positive in terms of advancing the country's "economic and political interests".

He told a group of journalists in the course of a two-hour interaction at his Rawalpindi camp office that U.S. has promised to look into a broad range of resources to help Pakistan meet its increasing energy requirements.

He told them that Pakistan had discussed Washington's cooperation in setting up a nuclear power plant as part of its efforts to fulfil its rapidly growing energy needs. However, he said that Pakistan's national interests and requirements are different from those of India and disfavoured judging the outcome of the visit through an "Indo-centric approach".

"Every country has its own national interests and we have our own requirements," he said while adding, there was no need to be "Indo-centric". On his talks with Mr. Bush, he said the latter had promised to sustain U.S. influence for progress towards resolution of the Kashmir issue. "We have had substantial discussion on the Kashmir issue and agreed that there has to be a resolution of the dispute," he said. Referring to the need for resolving political disputes to root out terrorism in its long-term perspective, Gen Musharraf said he had told his U.S. counterpart that Hamas, which had been democratically elected in the Palestinian territories, should be given a chance.

He termed Pakistan-US relation as strategic and said during Bush's visit the two countries resolved to take these forward in an institutionalised manner in multi-faceted areas. In the field of defence, he said, the two countries have already agreed for forging a robust cooperation including transfer of technology.

He told Mr. Bush that Pakistan was pursuing a comprehensive strategy to deal with extremism and terrorism.

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