The Hindu : We need intermediaries, says Pak. Foreign Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 17, 2003

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We need intermediaries, says Pak. Foreign Minister

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington May 16. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, has held out the hope that the international community, including the United States, will remain "engaged" in South Asia; and that the "helping out" by Americans did not mean they were trying to "impose" a solution.

"I don't think if the Americans are helping out in South Asia, they are trying to impose a solution. Pakistan and India are two large countries... There's no question of anybody imposing their will on India or Pakistan. But we need friends. What happens is when two friends stop talking to each other, you sometimes need friends who will make them talk to each other," Mr. Kasuri said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank here on Thursday.

Mr. Kasuri praised the Bush administration for its "positive role" in the subcontinent and said that one would have to be "grateful" for this.

"... After all, it's quite evident that last year when we were on the verge of war, who was running hither and thither? It's the Americans. So we should be grateful to them instead of saying that they were applying pressure," Mr. Kasuri said to a question on the role of the U.S.

"I think they were doing something that is very noble — trying to prevent two nuclear armed countries from going for mass slaughter. So I'm not one of those who regard this as pressure. I look at it in a positive light," he added.

Pressure was not the correct phrase when referring to the role of the U.S. for, this brought with it a belief that "some sort of an unwelcome input" was being made against one's wishes and particularly so in an Asian context where there was the concept of "loss of face".

"... I think you need intermediaries — you can give them any name. Sometimes our Indian neighbours are sensitive to the use of the term "mediation". We can invent facilitation; if that word is not found suitable, we can invent yet another word. Whether it is facilitation, mediation, friendship, encouragement, coaxing — I don't know what other words we can use," Mr. Kasuri remarked.

Mr. Kasuri was asked how he would explain Pakistan's efforts for economic development, on the one hand, and its desire to purchase American weapons worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the other.

He replied that there had been three wars between India and Pakistan and that India had a much larger military force.

"We have decided as a nation that we want friendship with India, but we will not tolerate hegemony... since we've had three wars and these fears are not imaginary, no Government in Pakistan will lower its threshold below a certain level," Mr. Kasuri said.

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