By NNN-PTI,
Washington : Voicing concern over the stability of the “fledgling” government in Islamabad, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama has said Pakistan needs to be convinced that its “biggest threat” is not India but militants within its own borders.
“Now you’ve got a fledgling democratic government (in Pakistan). We have to support their efforts to democratise. That means, by the way, not just providing military aid, it means helping them to provide concrete solutions to the poverty and lack of education that exists in Pakistan. So I want to increase non-military aid to Pakistan,” he told CNN.
“But we also have to help make the case that the biggest threat to Pakistan right now is not India which has been their historical enemy, it is actually militants within their own borders. And if we can get them to refocus on that, then that is going to be critical to our success not just in stabilising Pakistan but also in finishing the job in Afghanistan.”
Asked how worried he was about the stability of Pakistani government as it seemed al-Qaeda was going after the new leadership post-Pervez Musharraf, Obama said: “Well, I am concerned about it.”
“This was one of the problems with our previous strategy where there was a lot of resentment that built up as a consequence of our support of President Musharraf there who had squelched democracy,” he said in an interview to CNN’s Situation Room.
About Afghanistan, Obama said “we’re still going to have expenditures” there “because we need to hunt down (Osama) bin Laden and al-Qaeda and put them finally out of business.”
During the wide-ranging interview, he spoke both about foreign and domestic policy challenges and priorities but gave the impression that his focus, if elected in the November 4 polls, would be in addressing the economic woes and the mess America finds itself in.