February 21, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 19, 1423

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KARACHI, Feb 20: Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s statement against war and called for resuming meaningful dialogue between the two countries.

“It is a good statement. It will help in lowering tension. We welcome Prime Minister Vajpayee’s statement and we are prepared to engage in a comprehensive dialogue with India on Kashmir and on other outstanding issues”, said Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri at a news conference prior to his departure for Kuala Lumpur to participate in the NAM summit.

Mr Vajpayee was reported to have said in parliament on Wednesday that “there should not be any war, anywhere in the world, be it between the US and Iraq or between India and Pakistan.”

While reiterating Pakistan’s desire for resolving “all its disputes with India peacefully,” Mr Kasuri made it clear that “there cannot be peace without Kashmir.”

The foreign minister also stressed the need for removing the existing imbalance in conventional military strength between the two countries because the imbalance had encouraged New Delhi to adopt a threatening posture against Pakistan.

The foreign minister said: “Pakistan was not in an arms race with India. It is India which has imposed an arms race. We want most friendly relations with India but we don’t accept their hegemony, we don’t want local hegemons.”

He also referred to the policies of India following the 9/11 incident and said New Delhi had extracted full advantage in diverting world attention from its excesses in Kashmir.

Mr Kasuri recalled the initiatives taken by President Pervez Musharraf and the overtures made by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali for normalization of relations with India, and said that “within India there are elements who wish to improve relations,” but regretted that “certain elements” there “were trying to keep tension alive for their own vested interest”.

“My fear is that these Indians want to replicate Gujarat,” said the foreign minister, regretting that “hardly a week passes without a rhetoric from across the border, increasing tension,” the minister said.

He pointed out that Pakistan had purposely not responded in a way which could add to tension, because it believed that any effort towards reducing tension would create an environment for development. He also rejected Indian allegations of cross-border terrorism.

The foreign minister claimed that he had tried to convince the Americans that “it is essential for the US to remain engaged in South Asia because Pakistan’s major concern was that Washington’s current focus on Iraq will take the focus away, and Pakistan will be the major loser despite being supporter of the Bonn process.”

Mr Kasuri claimed that he was assured at the “highest level” in the US that this would not be allowed to happen.

With regard to the INS issue, the foreign minister said that Pakistanis would be treated “softly”, which meant that “executive discretion will be exercised in their favour”. As a result of his “proactive interest” in the registration issue, the threat of hundreds of thousands of deportations, was no longer imminent, he claimed.

He also referred to the matter pertaining to defence cooperation between Pakistan and the US and said he had pointed out that sanctions had created a conventional force imbalance between India and Pakistan, which must be removed.

To a question he said Pakistan had now developed considerable indigenous capability and was only dependent on sophisticated weapons system.

With regard to the issue of hot pursuit inside Pakistan’s tribal areas in search of the so-called Al Qaeda men, Mr Kasuri made it clear that only Pakistani troops can operate inside the border. He said that only intelligence was being shared with the US, along with more than 35 other countries.

Asked to comment on the American offer to put Pakistan’s nuclear assets under joint command by the Americans, Mr Kasuri declared that “it can never happen that our nuclear assets slip into someone else’s control.”

IRAQ CRISIS: As regards to the Iraq situation, the foreign minister called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis through the UN Security Council.

While emphasizing that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq should be preserved, Mr Kasuri said that “Iraq must fully cooperate with the UN and its weapons inspectors. President Saddam should cooperate with the UN so that the misery of his own people, who had suffered a lot under sanctions, comes to an end.”

Pakistan, he said, would abide by the decision of the Security Council in respect of Iraq and all other issues including Kashmir.

Asked if Pakistan felt the need for a new Security Council resolution on Iraq, Mr Kasuri said Islamabad was “trying for a consensus. We will adopt a principled stand.” He did not elaborate on the formulation of consensus.

Asked what would be Pakistan’s position if the US decided to go it alone against Iraq, Mr Kasuri described the question as “speculative”.

Mr Kasuri recalled his “extended” tour of the United States and said relations between Pakistan and the US were “very close, very friendly and very warm but, there are differences in nuance, such as with regard to the situation in Iraq and Kashmir”.

NAM SUMMIT: Referring to the NAM summit, Mr Kasuri said the final document was a comprehensive one which covered all issues of concern to the movement.

“It will be our desire that the elements of the Declaration include re-vitalization of NAM, right to self- determination, the concerns of the countries of NAM in the process of globalization, equitable trade regime, right of development, external debt burden of the developing countries, right to food, issues concerning terrorism and culture of peace,” he said.