Heading home from St. Petersburg with a strong international denunciation of the Mumbai massacre and its sponsors in hand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today underlined the importance of flexibility in dealing with Pakistan and a firm resolve to defeat terrorism.

Asked about the government’s approach to Pakistan after Mumbai, Singh told reporters on board Air India One that he will “look at whatever options there are and for the time being, I think the dialogue process has suffered but I won’t say it is a setback.”

If he sounded like Sisyphus, the mythical Greek who was condemned forever to push a rock up the summit only to see it roll down again, in trying to revive the troubled peace process, Singh was calling on the nation to “reflect” on the complex relationship with Pakistan and the challenges of a prolonged war on terror in the wake of the Mumbai blasts.

“I think it is inevitable that in the light of this ghastly tragedy we need to reflect on our relations with Pakistan”, Singh said. He went to add, “I have said more than once that the destinies of the people of South Asia are closely inter-linked”.

Underlining that “our countries need peace and stability to realize our developmental potential”, Singh said “anything that gives a setback to that process is not something that makes me happy”.

While pleased with the unprecedented international solidarity he had mobilised from the world leaders at the G-8 summit, Singh was not going to be carried away. The assessment in the Indian delegation was that the universal condemnation of terrorism and its “sponsors”, an indirect reference to Pakistan, does not in any way imply international support for a confrontation with Islamabad or the Indian position on Jammu and Kashmir.

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