Pakistan and India have to return to a sustained and result-oriented engagement as they have "no option" but to peacefully resolve all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir dispute, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said today.
Addressing the North Atlantic Council, the principal decision-making body of NATO, in Brussels, Gilani said Pakistan desires "good neighbourly and cooperative relations" with India.
He said Pakistan has suggested to India that the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism be reactivated.
"Our two countries have no option but to resolve peacefully all outstanding disputes including Kashmir, Siachen and water," he said.
"Dialogue, I believe, offers the only way forward. We need to get back to a serious, sustained and result-oriented engagement," he remarked.
The two countries "must also work closely" on eliminating terrorism and forging closer economic and trade relations, he said.
Gilani noted that he had a "good meeting" with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a SAARC summit in Bhutan in April and that they had "agreed to resume our dialogue process".
However, Gilani also said that his country continues to have concerns about "Pakistan-specific Indian military doctrines such as the Cold Start envisaging a limited conventional war under the nuclear over-hang" and a "huge increase in the Indian military budget and massive weapon acquisitions".
"These together with discriminatory policies, especially in the nuclear and technological arena, have accentuated the regional imbalance in South Asia," he said.
Pakistan believes that "all these and other issues between Pakistan and India must be resolved peacefully through dialogue", he added.
Gilani noted that Pakistan-India relations have a "significant bearing" on South Asian security and said: "Unfortunately, long-outstanding disputes such as Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek continue to fester and require a just and peaceful resolution."
He also pointed out that the region is "water stressed" and that water issues "have started to impact on Pakistan's agriculture and the well being of our people" as the country is a lower riparian state.
Such issues of peace, security and strategic stability need to be addressed in a "forthright manner", he said.
The India-Pakistan peace process launched in 1997 "yielded some dividends in terms of confidence building during the period 2004 to 2008" and both sides had agreed that the process would be "irreversible and uninterruptable", he said.
"Regrettably, since the past two years, the composite dialogue process was stalled. The ostensible reason given by India was the Mumbai terror attack. Pakistan acted swiftly to get the suspects arrested. We have done our utmost to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.
"We have indicated to India that only serious, sustained and pragmatic cooperation is the sure way of addressing each other's concerns on terrorism. We have suggested that the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism be reactivated," Gilani added.
Members of NATO "must take active interest in South Asian security perspectives" as the region is nuclearised and "issues of peace, strategic stability and security pose formidable challenges to Pakistan and impinge on global peace and security", he contended.
Gilani touched on other issues during his address, including Pakistan's relations with NATO and the situation in Afghanistan, which he said continues to a concern for Pakistan.
Pakistan has a legitimate interest in early restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan as it is being impacted by the turmoil in that country, he said.
"Regrettably, the security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious. Despite years of NATO/ISAF involvement, insurgency remains deep and far-spread," he said.
The London Conference decided to back a political process for reintegration and reconciliation because there is an "increasing realisation that a military solution will not alone work", he pointed out.
Pakistan wants a "peaceful, stable and secure" Afghanistan and Afghan society "must be enabled to re-establish its societal equilibrium through an indigenous Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process", he said.
Pakistan will be happy to "facilitate the process of reconciliation, given the large presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan", he added.
Gilani made it clear that "re-Talibanisation of Afghanistan would not be acceptable" and that the international community, "in particular immediate neighbours of Afghanistan, must respect the sovereignty, independence, national unity and territorial integrity of Afghanistan".
Pakistan's policy for Afghanistan also included "respect for the principles of non-intervention and non-interference in internal affairs", he said.
Gilani described Pakistan's relations with the Afghan government as "cordial and very cooperative" and said he wished "President Hamid Karzai well in his endeavours to promote peace and bring about national unity".
"The international community ought to do much more in rescuing Afghanistan from the state of narco-war economy. A sustained, long-term engagement is very necessary,"