Do not intend to lecture India,Pak on bilateral issues: Hague

At the same time,Britain desires an “equally strong relationship” with Pakistan,he said.

“We will be sufficiently strong friends with India and Pakistan not to tell them how to resolve their bilateral problems and not to lecture them about those issues.

“So it is not for the UK to lay down solutions for them,” Hague told a news conference he addressed along with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Hague,who is on a three-day visit here,was responding to a question on whether Britain would play a role in resolving differences between India and Pakistan on the sharing of river waters.

The new British government,he said,is working to elevate its relationship with many countries outside Europe and North America due to the changing world economy.

“Yes,India is one of those countries but we want an equally strong relationship with Pakistan… That’s why I have come to Pakistan as one of my first goals as the new Foreign Secretary is to emphasise that improvement in bilateral relationships,that improvement in broadening relations over the long-term applies to Pakistan as well,” Hague said.

The new British government’s stand on ties with India does not “in any way contradict what we have said about Pakistan because we welcome improvement in relations between” the two countries,he added.

Hague’s predecessor David Miliband had become a centre of a diplomatic row between India and Britain after he suggested that the Kashmir issue was at the root of terror attacks like the one in Mumbai.

In an article last year,Miliband wrote: “Resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms”.

India was upset by the suggestion and had registered a protest with Britain.

Hague’s remarks that his government intends to stay out of Indo-Pak matters is an indication that the new dispensation would be careful not to stir another such diplomatic row.

Hague vowed to deepen the “strategic dialogue” with Pakistan and to increase developmental assistance to 665 million pounds over a period of four years.

Qureshi and Hague said they had reviewed bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Qureshi described their talks as good and said both sides decided to carry forward the process and expand areas of cooperation.

Replying to a question on the exchange of dossiers between India and Pakistan on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks,Qureshi said New Delhi had provided answers to some questions raised by Islamabad in its latest dossier and this information is being examined by the interior ministry.

India and Pakistan will have plenty of opportunity to discuss the Mumbai attacks and related issues when Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram visits Islamabad later this week to attend a SAARC conference,Qureshi said.