•Anubhuti Vishnoi: Do you think 9/11 helped bring about a kind of world solidarity against terrorism?

Absolutely. The then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said after 9/11 that we were all Americans. There was a lot of solidarity behind the USA those days. Of course, we didn’t fully understand what America did with the war against Iraq. Certainly, Saddam Hussein was a dictator of sorts. But his was a secular government. We did not understand how the kind of terrorism that caused 9/ 11 could be combated by the war against Iraq. And that was where the division came up. But we all face a common challenge, namely the challenge of fundamentalist terrorism.

•Anubhuti Vishnoi: How do you view the role of Pakistan which is both the victim and home to terror?

On one hand, I think Pakistan is instrumental in our ability to stabilise Afghanistan. So we need them and their cooperation. But I also share Indian reservations on the state in which Pakistan finds itself today. It is very unstable they have a very volatile internal situation. There is a government but nobody knows how long it will survive. It is a very difficult situation for a country that is not homogenous at all. However, I think we would be well advised to involve Pakistan in stabilising Afghanistan. That means we must make it easy for the Pakistani government to combat terrorism. In the long run, fundamentalist terrorism cannot be in the interest of any government in Pakistan.

... contd.