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Britain welcomes India, Pakistan talks at Thimphu

UK foreign secretary David Miliband said, 'We want the dialogue to be established and the meeting happening is a good thing.'

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Britain today welcomed the outcome of talks between the leaders of India and Pakistan, saying dialogue and rapprochement between the two countries was incredibly important.
    
"I believe dialogue and rapprochement between India and Pakistan is incredibly important. But it needs to be led by
India and Pakistan and can not be imposed from outside," foreign secretary David Miliband told members of the Indian
Journalists Association here today.

Noting that normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan would benefit the two countries both economically and security wise, Miliband said "We want the dialogue to be established and the meeting happening is a good thing".

He said he had made it clear to Pakistan on a recent visit that if it was going to win the confidence of Indians, it has to tackle the terror and bring to justice those linked to deadly attacks in Mumbai.
    
Miliband's comments come a day after prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani took the first cautious steps towards serious re-engagement in Thimphu by asking their respective foreign ministers to meet.

Miliband said: "I am, as a politician, had gone to Pakistan and told them you have to move further and faster in tackling this domestic terror and its links abroad. I believe it is important to talk frankly".
    
Describing Britain's relations with India as "better than ever," Miliband said it is genuine partnership of equals, a partnership based on culture, history and politics. He also described India's democracy is "a shining example all over the
world".

He said: "relationship between prime minister Gordon Brown and prime minister Manmohan Singh are remarkably close - a relationship of shared values, shared priorities and shared experience and also shared working together over a long
period".

He said the two countries have a "very close bilateral relationship".
    
In "multi-national arena, whether in Commonwealth or United Nations fora, we have a lot of work to do together. We are not always exactly the same".

Answering questions, Miliband said Britain would be a powerful partner of India under a Labour government.
    
"My generation do feel that India is a success story from which we can learn - a success story with which we can cooperate," he said.

Recalling his visit to India, Miliband said he had established a close relationship with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and "is still in touch with him".

Describing Gandhi as "certainly a rising star", Miliband said: "We have been in touch. He wants to use the forces of democracy to help propel the country forward".

Miliband said that Britain had all along supported India's role in the development of Afghanistan.
    
Answering a question, he said "I didn't talk about good Taliban or bad Taliban. A significant part of insurgency is not linked to al-Queda".
    
He pointed out that several communal and local disputes are taken advantage of by Talibans.
    
"The project of reintegration - political engagement at local levels and strategic political engagement - is important and should be supported very very strongly.

"The purpose of military effort and development effort of which India is a significant part, is to create a condition for political settlement because Afghanistan is not going to be conquered or occupied," he said.

He said a political settlement can be achieved with strong engagement to enable Afghanistan's defences to be able to withstand any continuing insurgency.

He said "95 per cent of Afghan people don't want Taliban back. They remember Taliban's misrule and hate it".

He also took time to refer to the third and final television debate between leaders of Britain's three major parties.

Miliband asserted that prime minister Gordon Brown had won the argument, though he might have lagged behind in style.
    
"The prime minister won the argument but never set out to win the style... Argument matters," he said of the debate.
    
He said the Labour party's position was "clearer and fairer" on immigration. "It is clearer because of point-based system. While students are welcome, there is no room for unskilled to enter Britain," he said.
    
Miliband said the Tories and the Liberal Democrats were not clear on their stand on immigration. "They want a cap on immigration while Lib Dems want amnesty for illegal immigrants which is dangerous".

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