India cut off talks: Sattar

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 16. Pakistan wishes that India would follow up on the Lahore process, which among other things, had called for an intensification of efforts to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, says the country's Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar.

At the National Press Club, Mr. Sattar termed the Lahore meeting of February 1999 as a good one that was forward looking for both India and Pakistan but it was India that decided to cut off that dialogue with Pakistan. ``It is India's choice, not ours and we can live with the situation. We will wait for India to consider whether stalling the dialogue will serve their interests better,'' Mr.Sattar remarked.

On the issue of trust that had gone away in the aftermath of Kargil, Mr. Sattar said the history of the region showed that there was no trust between India and Pakistan; as New Delhi had always sought to leverage the power disparity in South Asia for imposing its own preferences - something that Islamabad could never accept.

Mr. Sattar was often interrupted by people of Afghan origin and their supporters protesting Islamabad's policy of backing the Taliban in their country. A handful of demonstrators were outside the National Press Club Building as well, denouncing Pakistan's Afghan policy. Mr. Sattar disputed the notion that the Taliban was being led around by Pakistan stressing that the Afghans were too fiercely independent to allow this.

To a question on the Pakistani response to the National Missile Defence system that is currently being proposed by the United States in the context of the perceived responses of India and China, Mr. Sattar insisted that Pakistan's desire was to stabilise the overt nuclearisation of South Asia and that the country was not for a nuclear arms race.

Mr. Sattar then talked about a ``plan'' that India appeared to have for an Anti Ballistic Missile capability which, in his view, would destabilise the deterrence in South Asia. If the present situation in the sub-continent destabilised, Pakistan would be obliged to upgrade its defensive deterrent capability, he said.

He also played down a report in sections of the media here that Pakistan's nuclear capability was vastly superior to that of India, quality and quantity-wise. Pakistan's programme and capability were very limited in contrast to India's and Islamabad was not competing with India.

Mr. Sattar also referred to Kashmir being the ``core issue'' and made the point that Islamabad was ready for any kind of a peaceful settlement for the resolution of this problem. Noting that there were different means to sort out contentious issues, Mr. Sattar said that Pakistan was prepared for any method of settling disputes - negotiations, good offices, mediation and adjudication - including that for Kashmir.

Mr. Sattar said that he shared the American concern on terrorism as Pakistan itself had been the target of terrorism. Maintaining that Islamabad did not share Washington's perception that the centre of gravity of terrorism had shifted to South Asia, Mr. Sattar noted that Pakistan's influence with the Taliban in Afghanistan was very limited and sanctions against that fundamentalist outfit would only make matters worse.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : PM to meet RSS chief, explain compulsions
Next     : Players under a cloud must quit: Dhindsa