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US prods Security Council into discussing Kashmir on Thursday

Indian diplomacy appears to be in for a tough time as the Clinton administration proposes to raise the Kashmir issue at a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council convened by the US in Geneva on Thursday, primarily to discuss the situation arising out of the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said the five nations -- the US, Russia, China, Britain and France -- would search for ways to avert a regional nuclear arms race and to seek a solution of the Kashmir problem.

Neither India nor Pakistan has been invited to the meeting especially called to discuss their problems.

He said the US took a long-term view of the situation which envisaged dealing with the ''underlying political issues between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir, that have caused conflict between these two countries before and now, in the aftermath of their nuclear testing, raised the frightening prospect of conflict that would be of a different character.''

Asked whether the US was going into this meeting with any new idea to resolve the 50-year-old Kashmir problem, he said, ''The short answer to the question is, today is Monday, the meeting is on Thursday, what we do want to do is to make clear to parties -- the Indians and Pakistanis -- that the combination of the political tensions, including over Kashmir, with the nuclear testing that has occurred is a volatile combination and that it's time to get on with resolving the problem.''

''In terms of America or other countries's specific ideas for how to do so, I would prefer to defer on that (Thursday's meeting),'' Rubin added.

India has all along been averse to the idea of third-party interference in Kashmir, preferring to resolve all its outstanding disputes with neighbouring Pakistan bilaterally through direct talks. The US move to drag Kashmir into a forum the basic purpose of which is to deal with the problem of proliferation, is bound to cause uneasiness to New Delhi, according to observers.

On the contrary, Pakistan favours third party intervention. Its ambassador to the US, Riaz Khokhar, who was present at a press conference addressed by two visiting Pakistani members of parliament in Washington yesterday, favoured such an approach in keeping with his country's policies.

The Pakistani envoy said there was no hope of any bilateral agreement with India. Islamabad would insist on a guarantor to ensure implementation of any bilateral accord that would be reached between New Delhi and Islamabad. ''We (India and Pakistan) have not been able to solve a single problem bilaterally,'' he added.

Rubin, however, said the immediate focus of the meeting would be to consider ways to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan and to try to avoid the kind of provocative steps that had been taken in recent days and weeks.

''The situation has deteriorated significantly as a result of the tests of nuclear weapons by both countries, and the international community is going to, we hope, start by reinforcing the goals of the global non-proliferation regime that have served the American people and the security of the world so well,'' he added.

UNI

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