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Pak needs 'cultural change' to view that India is not enemy: US

Describing Pakistan as "badly fractured country", US Vice President Joe Biden has said that Islamabad needs a "cultural change" to view that India is not its enemy. Known as authority on Pakistan and Afghanistan because of his long stint in Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden said that Pakistan needs to move away from its India-enemy mentality.

Updated on: Apr 29, 2009, 11:29:05 IST
PTI | By , Washington
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Describing Pakistan as "badly fractured country", US Vice President Joe Biden has said that Islamabad needs a "cultural change" to view that India is not its enemy.

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"This is a badly fractured country...That in one sense has made great strides," Biden said at a fund raiser meeting in Houston in response to a question.

Known as authority on Pakistan and Afghanistan because of his long stint in Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden said that Pakistan needs to move away from its India-enemy mentality.

Given the animosity the Pakistan establishment has against India, the Vice President felt it would require a cultural change to have them think otherwise.

"There's got to be an overall culturally difficult thing to happen, a realisation that India is not the enemy... it is FATA, it's (Baitullah) Mehsud, it's the al-Qaeda influence, it's the Taliban," he said.

Democratic election, Biden said provided "peaceful transition" from military leadership and proved the strength of a middle class and that a new government was not founded on religious tenets.

"But two things have happened in my sense, a loss of confidence on the part of the Pakistani military as well as the Pakistani political leadership," Biden said according to a pool report provided by the White House.

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