Pakistan still believes India poses threat to it: Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff

WASHINGTON: Pakistan still believes that India poses "existential threat" to them, even as the US has been pulling them closer to the view that the terrorism is the greater danger to it, a top American commander has said.

"They still believe that India poses their greatest existential threat, although we've been pulling them closer to our view, which would suggest that terrorism is as much a threat to them as it is to us," General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told PBS news.

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has got some internal issues which he has to manage politically, Dempsey said.

"I mean you've seen the same reports as I have about their internal domestic politics, and it's challenging, and so yeah I do think that General Kayani, when we have our conversations, I think that he will do what he can, which may never be what we would like," he said responding to questions.

Dempsey revealed that Kayani was his classmate in a US military school. Kayani, he said, was very upset when he found out that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was on Pakistani territory and had been killed by American forces.

"That doesn't mean that there may not have been others in the country that were...but we have, from my personal understanding, have never found any evidence to that, that there would be some who were...it. It's just hard to believe," he said.

"Yeah, hard to believe that somebody didn't know," he added. The top American General said he believes that Pakistan is stable today.

"I do think there are some trend lines that would be concerning for both them and us in terms of migration of various terrorist groups. And again, I think their economic forecast is what probably gives me the greatest cause for concern," he said.