The Hindu : No meter to measure U.S. pressure on Pak.: Sinha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 15, 2003

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No meter to measure U.S. pressure on Pak.: Sinha

By Vladimir Radyuhin

The External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, with the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in Moscow on Wednesday. — AFP

MOSCOW MAY 14. T he External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, has voiced satisfaction with the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell's understanding of the importance of putting pressure on Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism, but voiced disappointment with the effectiveness of that pressure.

"They keep telling us that they are applying pressure, but we do not have a meter to measure that pressure, for some reason or the other, the words conveyed to us sound very reassuring, but the impact on the ground is not equally reassuring,'' Mr. Sinha told reporters today after meeting Mr. Powell here, on the sidelines of their separate bilateral visits to Russia.

By contrast, Mr. Sinha was all praise for Russia's position on the issue. "We get full understanding and unstinted support from Russia on the problem of cross-border terrorism.''

He explained to Mr. Powell India's step-by-step approach to normalise relations with Pakistan and stressed the need for Islamabad to end cross-border terrorism and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

He said there was full understanding with Mr. Powell about their approaches to Pakistan-related issues. "There was no suggestion from the U.S. side at the meeting of any pressure on the issue of India-Pakistan relations.''

He ruled out any third-party role in India-Pakistan talks, saying that the only issue India was prepared to discuss with the U.S., or any other country for that matter, was bringing pressure on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism.Meanwhile, India and the U.S. will put in place a monitoring mechanism to push forward bilateral cooperation in the crucial areas of space, nuclear power and high-tech. Mr. Sinha, and the U.S. Secretary of State agreed to maintain regular interaction, even if it is on phone, every month to review progress the two countries make in the "trinity issues'' of cooperation in cutting-edge technologies.

Mr. Sinha described the decision to set up a monitoring mechanism at the level of Foreign Ministers as a "very welcome outcome'' of the hour-long meeting with Mr. Powell. The mechanism will start functioning after India's Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, visits Washington in early July for indepth review of cooperation plans in the space, nuclear and high-tech triad.

The foreign policy supremos of India and the U.S. discussed bilateral ties in other thrust areas, such as defence, trade and economic cooperation. "We are satisfied with much progress being made in defence cooperation.''

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