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Regardless of Security Council meet, India will not allow third-party mediation

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Pakistan's efforts to rope in Western countries to internationalise the Kashmir issue, in a bid to fulfill Islamabad's attempts to make the Indian border state a hotbed of international conspiracy, will not be allowed under any circumstances, senior defence ministry officials said today.

While declining to comment on the possible outcome of the meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in Geneva, these officials pointed out that as already reiterated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, New Delhi will not allow a third party any role in Kashmir. Thus, whatever be the outcome of the foreign ministers's meeting today, India would only agree to a political solution of the Kashmir dispute bilaterally with Pakistan within the framework of the Shimla agreement. The officials refused to elaborate, adding that they were working in close coordination with their counterparts at the ministry of external affairs on the Kashmir issue.

Significantly, Russia today emphasised that it was committed to a political solution of the Kashmir dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad within the framework of the Shimla agreement. Referring to Moscow's utterances in this context, the officials pointed out that Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov's three-point proposal yesterday to lessen tension between India and Pakistan following their recent nuclear tests did not even mention Kashmir.

The officials also stressed that even as India would continue to improve relations with China and neighbouring countries, no loopholes would be allowed to creep into its security framework. "While we look forward to better relations with our neighbours, we will not allow any chinks in our security armour," a senior defence ministry official pointed out.

Asked to comment on reports in the foreign media that the big five nuclear powers would insist that India drastically cut down its security personnel including the army in Kashmir from 500,000 to a much lower figure, the officials said no country would be allowed to dictate terms to India as far as the latter's security was concerned.

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