London, July 20: Britain has asked Pakistan to take the killing of Osama bin Laden as an opportunity to root out the entire terror set up in the country, according to BJP President Nitin Gadkari who met Foreign Secretary William Hague here.
Hague, who met Gadkari here soon after his meeting with Yousuf Raza Gilani, told the visiting BJP leader that the Pakistani Prime Minister assured him that the leadership in his country was serious about tackling terrorism.
He said Pakistan was facing problems in tackling terrorism as the government was not in control of the entire territory and was facing attacks as well.
Britain has also told the Pakistani leadership that both Delhi and Islamabad should resolve their problems and cooperate with each other in economic field.
"We don't have an answer to your bilateral issues, but we do feel economic cooperation between the two countries should be encouraged," Hague told the BJP president.
Hague also said that Pakistan should concentrate on economic growth like India, and should promote economic cooperation with its neighbour.
The British Foreign Secretary said that they have told Pakistan to focus on reconciliatory efforts in Afghanistan and use the killing of al Qaeda chief bin Laden as an opportunity to root out terror networks from the country.
Gadkari urged Hague to use his influence with Pakistan to ask it to dismantle its terror machine against India before New Delhi could engage in a meaningful dialogue.
Gadkari told the British Foreign secretary, who conveyed his condolences to him over the recent Mumbai terror attacks, that any dialogue process would be meaningless until Pakistan used terror as a state policy and terror groups like LeT and JeM continued to remain offshoots of the ISI.
The BJP president, who is on a six-day visit to the UK, during his 30-minute meeting exchanged views with Hague on the entire gamut of Indo-British relations.
Gadkari conveyed to Hague, his party's appreciation of British government's repeated advice to Islamabad to stop exporting terror to India and other places.
"We believe that terrorism is a common concern for the mankind and the war against terrorism can only be won by the joint efforts of all countries concerned," he said.
He also told the British Foreign Secretary that India's opposition party was in favour of peaceful relations with Pakistan, citing Atal Bihari Vajpayee's peace initiatives that were later derailed by the Kargil conflict.
The BJP, he said, would like Pakistan to fight poverty and move ahead on the path of socio-economic development.
India would be willing to cooperate with Pakistan in economic field if it gives up the path of confrontation and terminate the proxy-war against India.
Hague told Gadkari that Britain fully supported India's case for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council along with Germany, Japan and Brazil.
India has good political and economic strength and can play an important role in the world affairs, the British Foreign Secretary told the BJP president.
Britain would like to promote foreign policy cooperation with India so that the two friendly democracies could play a constructive role at the world forum, Hague said.
He said India has a vigorous parliament. "Yours is more vibrant than us. There is great friendship with India across the party line in Britain and all the main political parties have strong support for the country," Hague told Gadkari.
----PTI---
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