WASHINGTON, JUNE 14: In a significant change in its earlier stance, United States today said Kashmir problem ultimately has to be settled bilaterally between India and Pakistan through dialogue.``The Kashmir problem has been going for almost 50 years and the UN and various envoys have tried to do something about it... And, ultimately, it is one of those issues that can only be resolved by the parties themselves,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN TV network in an interview.``The US is obviously going to do what we can to push them together to facilitate it (dialogue between the two), but, as with so many of these disputes, it is the leaders (of the two countries) who themselves have to make the hard choices... It is very hard for outsiders to make something happen,'' she said.
President Clinton had on Thursday sought the help of China in seeking ``any ultimate resolution to the differences between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir issue.''
New Delhi had swiftly rejected Clinton'ssuggestion .Albright said the nuclear problem had to be really dealt with in terms of ``its root causes (a reference to Kashmir issue) as far as India and Pakistan are concerned.''
``You (CNN interviewer Wolf Blitzer) are right: Kashmir is a flash point. What I find interesting is that there has been some reluctance by other countries to talk about Kashmir as a problem in the various communiques and meetings we have had for the last couple of weeks,'' she said.
India ready to go on extra mile on talks
NEW DELHI: India has repeated its offer for bilateral talks with Pakistan saying New Delhi is ready to go ``the extra mile'' for friendship with its neighbours. ``We have always from day one wanted to have a dialogue and good relations with Pakistan,'' Minister of State for External Affairs Vasundhara Raje said.
``Even after our nuclear tests, we have made it clear that we are interested in friendship with our neighbours, and we are even ready to go the extra mile to ensure this. We would like totalk and talk as soon as possible,'' Raje said. On Islamabad's insistence that Kashmir was the core issue to any talks between the two countries, she said, ``There are some concerns that they have, and some concerns that we have.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
