We want peace with India: Zardari

September 25th, 2009 NEW YORK - President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan wants peaceful relations with India, and urged resolution of the Kashmir issue, as it is the key to peace in the region. He said the only way forward with India is the dialogue, saying Pakistan hails the resumption of dialogue with India and Pakistan wants friendly relations with its neighbour.

September 23rd, 2009 NEW YORK - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has urged the United States to hasten the process of releasing the remaining 1.6 billion dollars of the Coalition Support Fund for Pakistan. During his meeting with the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke here, Zardari also pushed for the early realization of the Tokyo pledges to help Pakistan come out of the crises it is facing currently and stabilize the country's economy.

September 19th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said here that his country wants India to be part of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan group, a media report said Friday. We want India to be the part of Friends of Democratic Pakistan and will encourage any Indian investment in this regard, Zardari said while speaking Thursday at the think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), the Nation newspaper reported on its site.

September 19th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has again blamed terrorist attacks on non-state actors and supporters of dictatorship in Pakistan. In remarks made ahead of what he described as coming leadership level talks in New York, Zardari also called for meaningful progress toward resolving the dispute with India over Kashmir.

September 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - An editorial in one of the leading English dailies of Pakistan has highlighted that President Asif Ali Zardari is being unnecessarily targeted and criticized by certain quarters in the country even if he attempts to address the long pending issues with India in his bid to de-escalate tension between the two neighbour countries. The Daily Times editorial said while Zardari is condemned for his overture to India, similar actions taken by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif goes unnoticed in the country.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who has the backing of top military commanders for his goodwill gestures towards India, has said that the army is united in dealing with the threat emanating from militants and are no more worried about the Indian threat. In Pakistan civil leaders always operate in the shadow of the military, but Zardari appears to have backing of the army high command for some controversial stances, a report in The Telegraph states.

July 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said it is important for both India and Pakistan to share a cordial relationship so as to establish peace in the region and fight against extremism. "Good neighbourly relations were essential for the welfare of the people of both countries and also for fighting militancy," presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted Zardari, as saying.

June 24th, 2009 BRUSSELS - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that India is no longer a military threat to Pakistan, rather it is the Taliban which is threatening peace in the region as well as in the whole world. Talking to a private television channel ahead of the first summit between the European Union (EU) and Pakistan here, Zardari said both India and Pakistan do not have any ill-feelings against each other, and both the countries have good intentions.

June 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani media Wednesday prominently featured on their front pages the meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg but refrained from commenting editorially. The lack of editorials was not surprising given that Pakistani papers normally comment on an event two days after it occurs.

June 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has urged India to resume bilateral peace talks 'unconditionally' so that common problems afflicting both countries can be addressed effectively. Zardari told the Executive Director of the Kashmir Centre in Washington, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, that Pakistan wanted Kashmir issue resolve peacefully.

May 23rd, 2009 LAHORE - Hinting that the military offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups could be expanded into other regions than the Swat Valley, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the Taliban would be hunted down everywhere inside the country's geographical territory. In an interview to a private television channel, Zardari refuted media reports that quoted him as saying that the government is planning to carry out military operations in Waziristan after Swat.

May 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Putting aside continuous US demands for shifting its troops from the eastern Indian border to the Western border along Afghanistan to focus more on the Taliban's surge, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the move is not possible. "Half of our army is deployed on Indo-Pak Eastern boarder and we cannot move army from there for their deployment on Western border," The News quoted Zardari, as saying.

May 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari says he hopes to build better relations with India after its parliamentary elections and 'if our American friends can help us, they're welcome to.' 'I know they are busy at the moment. Democracies are always willing to work with democracies,' Zardari told reporters after a meeting Thursday with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with his Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says he proposes to start a fresh peace dialogue with India after the Indian elections are over later this month. 'Democracies have never gone to war.

April 27th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the government would be compelled to review its stand on the Swat peace deal and the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation if the people of the region opined the accord has failed to establish peace. "When the people of Swat feel there is no peace even after the regulation, then the provincial government, assembly and the parliament can give their opinion on this issue," The Daily Times quoted Zardari, as saying.