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| March 25, 2002 | Monday | Muharram 10, 1423 |
‘Kashmir issue’s settlement in China’s interest’
BEIJING, March 24: Easing of Pakistan-India tension and settlement of the Kashmir dispute conform to the strategic interests of China and Russia, Chinese scholars have said.
A senior scholar, Wong Yie, said escalation of tension in Pakistan-India relations was bound to result in policy adjustment of external forces that wished to have good relations with both the countries for their economic interests.
Talking to APP, he said: “Settlement of disputes through political means is not only in the fundamental interest of the two countries, it also meets the strategic interests of China and Russia.”
He said it was generally believed that the escalation of the Pakistan-India conflict would lead to military interference by the external forces in the region, which also threatens the security of China.
Another scholar Wang Guoqiang from the Institute for Strategic Studies, National Defence University, wrote in an article in a daily that policy-orientations of the big powers were key external factors for easing the confrontation between India and Pakistan. With traditional interests in South Asia, China and Russia are worried about falling victims to problems caused by tension in India and Pakistan relations.
Thus, a common point in China and Russia’s policies towards the issue was to prevent such a situation from happening, he said.
Wang said China was engaged in promoting its good relations with India in accordance with its five principles of peaceful coexistence.
Wang Baofu, who is research fellow with the institute, stated in an article that military conflicts of any scale between India and Pakistan would affect the long-term strategic interests of the United States in South Asia and Middle East.
He was of the view that the tension in Pakistan-India relations posed a thorny problem for the US. On one hand, the US hoped to establish a relationship of strategic cooperation with India, while on the other hand, it was aware that Pakistan was an important country in South Asia, which had a major influence in the Muslim World.
He said the US was the most important external factor influencing Pakistan-India relations and it was hoped that the USA would help form a framework to prevent confli