New Delhi, Jun 25: Pakistan continues to be an “international migraine” with a combination of problems like extremism, poverty and a weak government plaguing the country and the US is in a “difficult position” to resolve this, a former US Secretary of State said today.
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also gave a thumbs up to the growing ties between India and the US by giving the credit for taking initiatives in this regard to both the Bill Clinton and George Bush regimes.
Delivering a lecture here on ‘2012: A year of Political Change', Albright listed problems of ethnic conflicts, Indo-Pak and battle over South China sea are some of the problems that the world is confronting in the 21st century.
“Pakistan continues to be an international migraine. It has poverty, extremism, issues of nuclear non-proliferation and a weak government. It needs to learn how to deal with extremism and the issue of nuclear non-proliferation. The US is in a difficult situation to resolve this. It is central to many problems,” she said.
Albright, who served under Clinton, said in a lighter vein that India, which has improved its ties especially those related to business, can resolve the “migraine”.
She briefly touched upon the difficult phase of the US-Pak relations and said Pakistan should focus more on countering terrorism that would bring peace to the region and the world.
Highly critical of the United Nations, the former US official said the world body needs to made more functional and responsible.
“My father was a Czechoslovakian diplomat and was working in the UN. He was on the panel on Jammu and Kashmir. I am getting older, but the Kashmir issue is still not resolved,” she said in a lighter vein.
