ISLAMABAD, July 18: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, while commenting on US-India cooperation in nuclear energy sector, said on Tuesday that Pakistan wanted to have equal treatment from America in this field.

In an interview with L’Express, Paris, the foreign minister said: “We spoke in favour of a global approach on a regional scale which would have been better for preserving strategic balance.”

Kasuri said like India, Pakistan had a big population of over 152 million inhabitants and an economy growing at an average rate of seven per cent for the past four years, therefore, it also needed alternative sources of energy.

“We understand that the major concern of the United States is nuclear proliferation. But as far as we are concerned, we already are a nuclear power,” he said.

The foreign minister said that cooperation in civilian domain was, therefore, without risk.

The minister said keeping in view Pakistan’s point of view that civilian nuclear cooperation was without any risk, the America’s refusal, which was perhaps not final, would not prevent Pakistan from developing its own programme “even if we have to do so at a slower pace.”

Answering a question about Pakistan-USA relations, the minister said: “They are excellent, our partnership with the United States is a strategic one. We have regular contact, at different levels, covering a large number of areas.”

The foreign minister said it was true that Pakistan was, sometimes, criticised by a section of press or by American political circles for its nuclear programme but it was part of game in a democracy.

“But at the highest level, people like President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Conodleezza Rice or Secretary of State for Defence Donald Rumsfeld do not at all share these opinions,” the minister said, adding that Pakistan’s relations with the US were marked by deep trust and very close cooperation.

Replying to a question on the issue of war against terrorism and allegations from Afghanistan, the foreign minister said that President Pervez Musharraf himself had firmly denounced these accusations, which mostly came from Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai.

“We recently received the Afghan foreign minister in Islamabad and we agreed to end these polemics, which are of no help to anyone, except Taliban themselves.”

The minister said Pakistan had deployed 80,000 men along the Pakistan-Afghan border while the American and Nato countries had 30,000 troops.

Commenting on the Pakistan-India relations, Mr Kasuri said: “We have made progress in several areas but there will not be a durable peace in South Asia as long as the issue remains unresolved.

‘‘And yet, on this issue, we have made practically no progress.”—APP