India wants to 'reshape' ties with Pakistan

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India’s new government Thursday said it would seek to mend ties with Pakistan as long as Islamabad “confronted” militant groups operating on its soil.
The comments came two days after New Delhi said it was disappointed by the decision of a Pakistani court to free the head of a charity which New Delhi says was linked to last year’s Mumbai attacks. President Pratibha Patil, outlining the foreign policy of India’s newly elected government, said it was ready to mend fences with its nuclear-armed neighbour.
“My government will seek to reshape our relationship with Pakistan depending on the sincerity of Pakistan’s actions to confront groups who launch terrorist attacks against India from its territory,” she told parliament. India says the 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai last November were Pakistan nationals backed by “official agencies.”
The attacks, which left 166 people dead including several Westerners, froze a slow-moving peace process launched with Pakistan in 2004.
Patil warned of a “zero-tolerance” approach to terrorism “from whatever source it originates”.
In her address, Patil said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration will also sort out differences with other neighbours such as China, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
“The government will sincerely work with our neighbours to ensure that outstanding issues are addressed and the full potential of our region is realised,” she said.
Patil said the reconstruction in war-scarred Sri Lanka would be high on the government’s agenda.
“India will support initiatives which can lead to a permanent political solution of the conflict there and ensure that all Sri Lankan communities, especially the Tamils, feel secure and enjoy equal rights so that they can lead a life of dignity and self-respect,” she said.
Despite improving trade ties, India and China still have an unresolved border dispute which took the world’s two most populous countries to war in 1962.
India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of its Himalayan territory, while Beijing claims the whole of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is 90,000 square kilometres.