'India, Pak have to resolve issues for stability in S Asia'

From Lalit K Jha
Washington (PTI) - There can be no stability in
South Asia until issues between India and Pakistan are
resolved, a top US official has said.
Responding to questions from Senators on the
relationship between India and Pakistan and its impact on the
region, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told the powerful
Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan would have to
make a much larger effort to resolve differences with India.
"India has in some ways resisted engaging as well. I
think both sides need to kind of roll up their sleeves and get
to work on this. It's tough politically in both areas. But in
the end, we are never going to achieve stability in that
region until the issues between Pakistan and India are
resolved," he said in response to a question from Senator
Jeanne Shaheen.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
both Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, mentioned the confluence of India and their
impact in the region.
"One of the things that we heard from the leadership in
Pakistan was their efforts or their overtures to try and
reduce tensions with India. How much of that do you think is
real and has the potential to have a real impact, and how much
of it is show and not going to have any real impact?" Shaheen
had questioned.
"I think it is real. I think they are making an effort
at trying to see if they can find a way to resolve the issues
between Pakistan and India. And, they've made efforts at that.
I think what has to happen is that they really do have to make
this a higher priority. They've got to really focus on this.
"I think in terms of the security of Pakistan if they
could find a way to resolve their differences with India,
that country would be a different country. But to do that, to
achieve that, I really do think that they have to put a much
larger effort into trying to resolve those differences with
India," Panetta said.
In his testimony, Mullen said the United States should
help create more stakeholders in Pakistan's prosperity, help
the Pakistani people address their economic, political and
internal security challenges, and promote Indian-Pakistani
cooperation on the basis of true sovereign equality.