'US to work closely with India, Pakistan'

As a result of the relationship we have been able to develop with the two countries, "we no longer see India and Pakistan in one lens, but we look at them as two proud nations we are working with individually, and because we respect them individually, we can help them work together as they solve mutual problems," Powell said in a speech at the Congressionally funded US Institute of Peace in Washington on Thursday.

"We defend the peace and extend the peace and we work with our friends in South Asia," he said.

Recalling that two years ago he was "worried to death" that there a major war may breakout between India and Pakistan, he said the United States got deeply engaged, along with other members of the international community, working with the Pakistanis and the Indians.

"And now we see them working together, having meetings among themselves, having soccer matches with each other, working on issues that would have been too difficult to even imagine just a year and a half, two years ago. That is part of our policy of defending the peace and extending the peace throughout the world," he said.