KARACHI: Russian envoy for bilateral solution of Kashmir
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, April 16: Russia has called upon India and Pakistan to resolve their conflicts through peaceful means and create a climate of understanding and accommodation.
Recognising that the problem of Kashmir exists between the two countries, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, M. Eduard S. Shevchenko, nevertheless, said it was “complicated and cannot be solved in a day, as it is a problem of bilateral nature between India and Pakistan and only they can solve it”.
“In the current situation of hostility between the two countries, it is impossible to talk of resolving this issue without improving relations”, he told members of the English Speaking Union at a local hotel on Wednesday.
He said that Russia, along with the United States, Britain and France, was ready to offer its good offices but India was not prepared to accept any third party mediation. “It will not give up Kashmir,” he added.
It was, therefore, necessary for Pakistan and India to improve their relations step by step, by lessening hostilities, he said.
He recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin in July last at a conference in Almaty had tried to arrange a meeting between Indian Premier A. B. Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf, but he failed as one side did not respond. He further recalled that the Soviet Union had played a mediatory role in Tashkent, after both India and Pakistan had agreed to it.
“We will continue to work with India and Pakistan to push them to work for the resolution of the crisis,” he said and pointed at the colossal loss both countries are incurring on account of the hostile situation.
To a question, he said the UN resolutions on Kashmir were “old and forgotten by many people”.
On the Iraq crisis, he said Russia did not support the “dictatorial and dirty regime” of Saddam Hussain, but it was against the invasion of a sovereign country.
“The use of force against a sovereign country without a mandate of the UN Security Council is a violation of international law. We advised the US and Britain not to commit the same mistake which we committed by invading Afghanistan during the Soviet era. We are ashamed of that mistake,” he said adding that the invasion of Afghanistan was a major factor that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Mr Shevchenko stressed that best solution of the post-war crisis in Iraq was that UN should be given a pivotal role and all countries should be involved in the post-war affairs under the US umbrella.
“We cannot support the superiority of a single power in a multi-polar world. After the occupation of Iraq, it could be another country. It could be Syria. The US is not satisfied with the behaviour of Syria”, he said.
“They could not find any WMD or chemical or biological weapons, but the US wanted to push the Security council to accept its point of view,” he said. He was of the view that if Iraq had those weapons, the regime would have used them as the last resort.
Referring to American threats to Syria, the Russian ambassador said there was no evidence of what is being alleged against Syria.
“Syria has its own problems with Israel. But why this double standard? Why is it that what is allowed to Israel is not permissible for others?,” he said adding that “we do have good relations with Israel, but we cannot approve its policy towards the poor and oppressed Palestinians.”
To a question he replied: “We should not be expected to be militarily arrayed against the US. Not only that at the moment the US is the superpower, but Russia also posses the capability which can be lethal. So both of them have to behave with responsibility”.
He said that some Muslim countries had been expecting Russia to move a resolution in the Security Council to condemn the aggression against Iraq, but they themselves had done nothing, though Syria and Pakistan were on the Security Council.
Earlier, ESUP president Byram D. Avari, spoke of Pak-Russian relations and called for increasing cooperation in various fields.
