WASHINGTON: The United States policy of acting as an "external equaliser" in the South Asian region and bolstering Pakistan has created difficulties for India, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh has said.
"The US loses interest and Pakistan on its own begins to flounder and when it flounders there are difficulties for India. This is the reality," he said.
It is no good asking America to do something, because "the US, as far as Pakistan is concerned has run into a blind alley," he added.
"There is no option but to continue its policy with Pakistan and therefore India would have to continue to pay a price," he added.
Stressing that India has to find an answer, he said, "We have to beat it internally and we have to beat it bilaterally because the nature of the situation is that Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq; this is our neighbourhood and we are only eight and a half minutes away. The US is 8500 miles away. We have to deal with it."
Singh maintained that problems faced by India will have to be settled by the country.
"One of the failures of India's diplomacy has been its inability to manage its relations with all its neighbours. If I don't admit it then I am denying the existing reality," the former minister said, pointing to the unsettled border issues with China and Pakistan.
"These are signal shortcomings. It is India that has to answer," Singh said.
He said Washington was welcome to strike a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan but warned that a "great deal" will have to be transformed internally within Pakistan, such as democracy.
"I cannot claim that India alone has a right to be secure in the region. All countries have a right to be and feel secure," he said.
