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David Cameron defends 'frank' comments about Pakistan
BBC NEWS
July 29, 2010: David Cameron: "I think it's important to speak frankly". UK Prime Minister David Cameron has defended his comments about Pakistan's record on tackling terrorism as he continued his trip to India. He said it was "important to speak frankly" and while Pakistan had "made progress... we need them to do more". His comments on Wednesday had led to him being accused of "damaging the prospects of regional peace".
He is due to meet Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh later on Thursday. The talks in Delhi, on the final day of his "jobs mission" to the country, are expected to focus on trade and security. Ahead of the meeting Mr Cameron was asked about his warning to India's neighbor Pakistan about "promoting the export of terror" and his view it was intolerable Pakistan should be allowed to "look both ways".
He told the BBC on Thursday: "I think it's important to speak frankly about the problems as you see them. I mean I think that is what people expect of their government. "To be fair to the Pakistan government, they have made progress in chasing down militants and terrorists in Pakistan that threaten their own country and threaten others.
"But we need them to do more and we should work with them to do more because as I said yesterday, it's not acceptable to have those within Pakistan who are supporting terrorist groups that can do so much damage to their own country and to British people whether in Afghanistan or back home in Britain."
His remarks followed the leaking of US documents on the Wikileaks website in which Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency was accused of secretly helping the Afghan insurgency.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, criticized Mr Cameron for choosing to believe leaks that the official said lacked both credibility and corroboration. Writing in the Guardian, he said: "One would have wished that the prime minister would have considered Pakistan's enormous role in the war on terror and the sacrifices it has rendered since 9/11.
"There seems to be more reliance on information based on intelligence leaks which lack credibility of proof. A bilateral visit aimed at earning business could have been done without damaging the prospects of regional peace."
Later, Mr Hasan told the BBC that he hoped Mr Cameron's comments were a "slip of the tongue" and "not a meant slight by him". "He is new in government, maybe he will learn soon and he will know how to handle things," said the high commissioner.
"I hope he will make amends and he will pacify the people of Pakistan as well as the government of Pakistan because it has been taken here very adversely, people are really hurt."
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder said Mr Cameron had "certainly made an impression with his comments on Pakistan, which were being seen as unusually blunt".
And Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the prime minister needed to think, "through carefully what he is going to say" on such occasions. While Britain must speak with "conviction" on important issues, he said Mr Cameron had only told "half the story" and "failed to recognize" Pakistan had lost thousands of its own citizens, including former leader Benazir Bhutto, to terrorist attacks. "There is a fine line between a straight talker and a loud mouth," he told the BBC.
Mr Cameron's remarks are likely to be welcomed by officials in Delhi, which has long accused its neighbor of backing attacks on Indian targets.
The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars, with peace negotiations stalling following the Mumbai attacks of 2008, which India blamed on Pakistani-based militants.
Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, is to visit Britain next week.
The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, who is traveling with the prime minister, said his remarks about Pakistan were likely to be welcomed by Mr Singh when the two men meet later.
The aim of Mr Cameron's two-day visit to India is to strengthen relations and assert the UK as the "partner of choice" for India.
Downing Street has described the trip as the largest UK trade delegation in living memory.
On Wednesday, Business Secretary Vince Cable, who is among several senior cabinet colleagues accompanying Mr Cameron on his trip, announced the government would allow the export of British civil nuclear technology to India for the first time.
The two governments also announced a £700m deal between BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and India's leading aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, to supply 57 Hawk trainer aircraft to India.
