"India is the largest member of SAARC... It's always good not to wear high heels when your are tall. So that others don't feel even smaller... And I am quite sanguine that India is able to do that.
"Prime Minister Modi has taken the first step towards Bhutan. He has gone to Nepal. Hopefully, he will have a similar outlook towards Bangladesh and eventually the harder nut to crack...That is Pakistan," he said here.
The current bilateral approach of "dispute resolution first and friendship later" has to be abandoned in favour of "become friends and solve the disputes later" narrative, he said.
Haqqani, who has also authored books, said all those who had been supporting terrorism from within Pakistan have now themselves become victims of the menace.
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"To think that terrorism and violence is the way to try and take advantage of a bigger neighbour and to make that bigger neighbour your equal by trying to undermine him, will only backfire and that is already happening. So those who have supported terrorism out of Pakistan are now becoming victims of terrorism themselves," he said.
"We have ended up keeping our anger alive, we have kept our wounds open. This permanent state of animosity has resulted in a situation in which countries that have more in common than they have with others have less trade, less travel, less educational exchange," he said.
Both countries need to learn a lesson from countries that have "healed the wounds of history" and moved towards integration for economic gains, said Haqqani, who has been a vocal critic of the Pakistan establishment on certain issues.