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Friday, Jun 11, 2004

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Solution to Kashmir issue possible: Natwar

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 10. Public opinion in India and Pakistan is ahead of their Governments in seeking a mutually acceptable solution to the Kashmir issue, the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, has said in an interview on BBC World's `Hardtalk India' programme.

An advance press release onthe interview quoted Mr. Singh as saying that a solution to the Kashmir issue was possible given goodwill on both sides. "And I think it should be the attempt of both countries, both foreign offices, the leaders of both countries, to try and address this thing and say, we have gone with it for 57 years and let us create the climate."

Asked whether India was open to the possibility of a revision of boundaries with Pakistan, Mr. Singh said, "Well you know, we will cross the bridge when we come to it."

Praising his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Mr. Singh said: "I must say he is a very engaging personality, with a great sense of humour, and he is very forthcoming. I like his disarming candour."

When asked whether he shared the opinion of the Vajpayee Government that India and the United States were "natural allies", Mr. Singh said, "I would like to call it that we are very close friends."

On India's response to a possible request to send troops to Iraq under the new United Nations Security Council resolution, Mr. Singh said: "The response will be that there has to be a national consensus on it. We have to be clear and read the fine language of the [U.N.] Resolution, under whom will the Indian troops serve — the U.N.s flag or the flag of any other country — [and] whom will they report to. All these details will have to be given."

Mr. Singh said that he would raise the issue of the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, at the coming interaction with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

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