Kissinger warns on Pakistan becoming a failed state

“Pakistan would have to be prevented from becoming a failed state, because to have a failed state with nuclear weapons will be an extraordinary case and that is a challenge to the international society,” Kissinger said.

The celebrated diplomat said Pakistan was also crucial to the success of US policy in Afghanistan and hoped the Obama administration would have a better Afghan strategy than the current Bush government, which, he said, had failed on this front. “How to relate Pakistan to the problem of Afghanistan which required cooperation of Pakistan, that, I think, as the administration evolves, it will become necessary to have a re-evaluation of the Afghanistan problem compared to the failure of the previous regime,” he said.

Kissinger said the US foreign policy faced some of the toughest and most complex set of problems in a long time and urged a more multilateral approach to deal with global issues. He said relations with Russia and China demanded very deft handing. “The challenge for Obama will be to try and engage Russia in a dialogue and to take necessary steps swiftly and consciously to resolve the disputes,” he said.