July 28, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

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NEW DELHI, July 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Saturday that India and Pakistan recognize the need for a dialogue to sort out their catalogue of problems but both were expecting certain conditions to be met before they embark again on that road to peace.

“I think both sides now recognise the need for a dialogue. It is a question of timing and it is a question of expectations and conditions met,” Powell told reporters accompanying him, shortly before he arrived in New Delhi for the third time since October.

Powell’s new host in India, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, however, played down any expectations from the talks even before the two sides met, first one on one and then at a delegation level review of bilateral ties and issues relating to the standoff with Pakistan.

“India has always held that if the necessary conditions for talks are created, we will have talks. But we do not think that necessary conditions exist at present,” Sinha told reporters during a brief camera-session with his guest by his side.

On his arrival, Powell released a statement on his agenda in India and Pakistan. He said he would like “to see both sides take further steps to de-escalate tension so that a dialogue can be started.”

Powell is expected to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee shortly before leaving for Islamabad on Sunday morning.

“What I will have to do with both Indians and Pakistanis is see where a comfortable beginning to a dialogue can be made,” he said on his way to Delhi.

“Ultimately we have to get to a dialogue or else we will just be stuck on a plateau which would not serve our interests. We do not want to be back where we were a few months ago, a few months from now,” he told reporters accompanying him.

Star News said India was feeling somewhat let down by Powell since he came to New Delhi first in the backdrop of the Parliament attack.

“India expected him to tighten the screws on Islamabad, but far from doing that, Powell shifted the onus on New Delhi,” Star News said.

“We have seen action with respect to extremists. We have also seen some effort in controlling the situation along the Line of Control. We have seen some important words said and important actions taken — I expect to see important steps taken by the Indian government,” Powell had said then.

Star News quoted Indian foreign policy experts who said that while Powell’s perceived indifference towards Indian concerns reflected US compulsions of having to do business with Pakistan during the Afghan conflict, it ended up provoking India to go into a diplomatic overdrive, which only took a more aggressive form after the Kaluchak killings in Kashmir.

“The real problem in a sense is that it’s not clear how far the Americans are willing to go, given the fact that they have their own battle to fight against the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. They see Pakistan as very crucial to that fight,” commented Kanti Bajpai, a foreign affairs expert.

In fact New Delhi will use the opportunity to counter US claims that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is delivering on his promise to end infiltration, the analysts said

“We are not in the league where we say you are either with us or not with us because you are with someone else. An international relationship isn’t conducted in that fashion. So they have a relationship with Pakistan. To the extent that it impinges on our relationship, we will raise issues with them,” Sinha had said recently.

“While Powell’s last visit to India was generally seen as disappointing from the Indian point of view, this visit promises to be different. With terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir continuing, Powell has indicated that he will convey his country’s strong disapproval to President Musharraf,” Star News said.

On his part, Gen Musharraf speaking in an interview to an international news agency tried to draw upon the growing friendly relations between the US and Pakistan and build pressure on India for talks over Kashmir.

“His visit comes at a moment when he’s trying to de-escalate tension and also to drive home to India that we must start the process of dialogue and move forward on the Kashmir dispute,” General Musharraf said.

Ahead of Powell’s visit on Saturday, Star News carried an exclusive interview with the corps commander of the Indian army in Srinagar, Lt-Gen Patnakar, that the level of militant violence in Kashmir had gone up recently.

“If you had asked me two weeks back, I would have said infiltration has come down a little bit. Today I will not say it has come down — infiltration, I can tell you, has restarted,” Patankar said.

India Today’s web-based newspaper said New Delhi would convey its worries over the flow of militants into Kashmir to Powell.

It quoted sources in the Indian government as saying that New Delhi would also press Powell, who will visit Pakistan after talks in New Delhi, to extract a new pledge from Islamabad that it would halt infiltration of militants into the troubled state in the Himalayas.