October 18, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 30, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Oct 17: India assured the United States on Wednesday that it would work for good neighbourly relations with Pakistan and described claims by Islamabad of war-like movements by its army in Jammu and Kashmir as wrong and absurd.

The assurance of peace and dialogue with Pakistan came at a news conference addressed jointly by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.

“We discussed how to promote stability on the subcontinent,” Powell said of his meeting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other officials in New Delhi. “In my talks here and in Pakistan I have encouraged leaders of both nations to continue their dialogue and to take steps to reduce tension between them.”

He announced that Vajpayee, due in New York for the UN General Assembly session next month, would be visiting Washington on Nov 9 at the invitation of President George W Bush for a working meeting with him.

Diplomats monitoring the Powell visit said efforts were being made to arrange a meeting between Jaswant Singh and Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar soon, possibly in New York. They said President Pervez Musharraf was unlikely to be able to make the visit to New York because of the ongoing military campaign.

Responding to Powell’s nudge Jaswant Singh said there was as a perceptible change in Pakistan’s position on terrorism that came with Islamabad’s quest to fight the scourge in a global alliance.

“We have a relationship with our western neighbour,” Singh said. “We are committed — this government has demonstrated a commitment of improving relations with Pakistan as perhaps no other government has done in the last 50 years, despite difficulties.”

In separate remarks to the BBC India’s junior Foreign Minister Omar Abdullah played down claims by Islamabad on Wednesday that recent movement of Indian troops and the air force had assumed threatening dimensions.

“Whatever steps India has taken is from our side of the border and I don’t see that situation changing,” Abdullah said referring to the stepped up cross-border firing that became particularly severe on Monday. An Indian foreign ministry spokesperson described Islamabad’s charge of war-like postures as absurd and asked the Pakistani spokesperson to show restraint.

Back at the news conference Jaswant Singh said: “You can change friends but you cannot change neighbours. And we certainly cannot alter geography. And Pakistan with India has to learn to live together as good neighbours. It will come, be assured. We cannot push the pace of it. Nobody can push the pace of it. The people of the two countries realize what the prime minister has said that the two countries have to forget the past. And we have to learn together to fight what our real enemies, poverty.”

When Powell sought assuage India’s riled feelings over his remarks in Islamabad about the centrality of Kashmir as an issue, Jaswant Singh stepped in to make it easy for his guest: “That is obviously the position that the United States of America has and has held. And as two democracies we could disagree on it. But we don’t need necessarily to be disagreeable about disagreements. We can work together. The question of the state of Jammu and Kashmir is an example of the secular tradition of the Indian nation. And in that sense, we cannot move on to re-inventing the two-nation theory all over again. We have said so to the Secretary of State too.”

In fact India’s assurances of peace crossed the normal limits it usually sets for Pakistan. Asked by an American reporter if stepped up US economic aid would worry New Delhi, Singh said India wished Pakistan well.

“It is my hope that they will utilize the economic aid for the right purpose and that is something Pakistan has to decide... We have a certain experience about military aid to Pakistan in the past, and now that we see some evidence of Pakistan moving away from the fixed positions of the past and joining the rest of the international community, we can only hope that the same approach will govern the utilization of any other aid or assistance from the US or any other country.”

Powell said India and the United States were natural allies.

“President Bush has made it absolutely clear that transforming our relationship with India, to put it on a higher plane is one of his highest priorities. I find that this view is entirely shared by Prime Minister Vajpayee and his colleagues as well. The United States and India have responsibility as multiethnic democracies to work in close partnership with each other.”

He assured India that the global coalition against terrorism would not ignore New Delhi’s problems with the scourge.

“My colleagues here have pointed out correctly that the problems of terrorism are not limited to Afghanistan. And I assured them that our efforts are directed against all terrorisms. The United States and India are united against terrorism and that includes terrorism that has been directed against India as well,” Powell said.

He said he had also discussed President Bush’s new strategic initiative with Vajpayee.

“I leave India for the Apec ministerial conference, confident that the United States and India stand together against the scourge of international terrorism, strengthened by our shared democratic values, and ready as never before to work together for freedom, prosperity and security in the region and in the world,” Powell said.

He said Pakistan had made it clear in recent weeks that they recognize the nature of the Taliban regime. “They are working with us to fight against Al Qaeda and they are working with us to see what kind of a government can be put together in the post-Taliban regime. We deplore all kinds of terrorism whether it is the kind of terrorism we saw on 11th September or the kind of terrorism we saw on first of October in Srinagar,” he said.