Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said a nuclear showdown between India and Pakistan was a thing of the past, but asserted that lasting peace in the subcontinent will be possible only after the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
"The tension in bilateral (Indo-Pak) relations will subside if the root causes of the dispute are removed through a peace dialogue. The dialogue on the Kashmir problem and its solution will ensure a lasting peace," Musharraf said in an interview to Russian influential daily Kommersant published on Tuesday.
Responding to a question about Indo-Pak relations and the possibility of nuclear stand-off between the two South Asian rivals, Musharraf said all apprehensions about an exchange of nuclear strikes between the two countries were a 'matter of past'.
"The times when there were talks about exchange of nuclear strikes between Pakistan and India are a matter of past. Even in those days we maintained calm and insisted on resolving all the disputes through dialogue," Musharraf said.
Musharraf, however, stressed that Pakistan had to achieve military parity with India to prevent another war.
"The balance of conventional forces and the need to maintain a situation when there are no victors averted a war between the two countries," he said, referring to the standoff at the border after the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.
Musharraf also ruled out the possibility of Pakistani nuclear assets falling into the hands of extremists, saying all the checks and balances were in place and his government was sticking to non-proliferation commitments.
Denying any plans to transform Pakistan into a democratic secular nation, Musharraf said the country would stick to the ideals of its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah and remain an Islamic, liberal and progressive state.
Responding to a question about Pakistan's role in combating Taliban fighters on its soil, Musharraf claimed Islamabad was at the forefront of war on terror and his government had set up a wide intelligence network in the tribal belt to deal with al Qaeda and Taliban militants.