New Delhi is ready to discuss all the issues with Pakistan, including Kashmir, but there will be limit to such dialogue as long as India faces terrorism from across the border, national security adviser Shivshankar Menon has said.
"On Kashmir, we have made it quite clear we are willing to discuss all issues with Pakistan. But we also made it clear that as long as we face terrorist attacks from Pakistan, there will be limits on how far this dialogue would proceed," he said in response to a question at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - a Washington-based think-tank.
No democratic government in India, Menon observed, can be "so insensitive" to what is going on about the popular opinion in India and decides somehow to settle issues without there being a larger resolution and improvement in relationship.
"Today, we are in a stage where we are trying to restore the dialogue. We are trying to see whether we can get the dialogue going.
"But quite frankly when it comes to linking that (Kashmir issue) to the existence of jehadi terrorism in Pakistan, I do not see the link," he said.
India had bitter experiences with Pakistan in the past in this regard, he said.
"If you look at it at slightly longer period when we were actually engaged in full fledged composite dialogue with Pakistan between 2005 and 2007 and were making considerable progress on issues that divided us.
"(But) They did not seem to stop terrorism or the terrorists. They might use it as a pretext," he argued.
