Washington: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has reiterated that India is not a threat to Pakistan, and acknowledged that the danger was from the terrorists within the country.
"Well, I am already on record. I have never considered India a threat," Zardari said in interviews to various US TV channels on Sunday as he has been over the last couple of days.
"I have always considered India as a neighbour, which we want to improve our relationship with. We have had some cold times and we have had some hard times with them. We have gone to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships," Zardari said.
Asked about moving troops from the Indian border to the tribal areas of Pakistan to fight the war against terrorism, Zardari said, "Pakistan has already done so."
Speaking separately on the Fox News Sunday, US Central Command chief General David Petraeus said, "there are a number of signs of difference" between Pakistan's new offensive against the Taliban and the previous ones which have not been effective.
"There is a degree of unanimity (among Pakistanis) that there must be swift and effective action taken against the Taliban in Pakistan," he said.
"And this is reflected also, as has been announced by the Pakistani leaders, in the shift of forces from the eastern part of their country faced off against India to the North-West Frontier Province areas where the fighting is already ongoing and where more presumably it will be conducted," he added.
Asked if he was confident that Pakistanis have the counter-insurgency strategy to beat the Taliban in the Swat Valley, General Petraeus said during last week's trilateral summit that "there's an understanding that this does have to be a whole-of-government approach."
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