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Defence Policy

I did not go to Pakistan to lecture them on what they ought and ought not to be doing, and I do not think that that would be at all productive. If I thought that that was an appropriate way in which to deal with a proud and sovereign nation, I would do precisely that. We should recognise and applaud, as I do, what Pakistan has done in the past year or so. It has shifted resources and although, yes, Pakistan sees the Indian border as a threat and has forces based on that border that it is not prepared to move, it has shifted both its position and its forces. Its forces have confronted the insurgency in the Swat valley very effectively and are proposing, if they have not started already, to confront it in Waziristan. I received from Pakistani politicians and military leaders their clear recognition that the insurgency was a threat to them as well as to Afghanistan and to our forces based in Afghanistan. We need to work with them rather than thinking that we can lecture them in any way. I do not think that that would be appropriate or constructive.