BERLIN, May 28: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said he would retire if he fails to make peace with Pakistan over Kashmir, Der Spiegel magazine said in its edition coinciding with his visit to Germany.
Mr Vajpayee has hinted Kashmir would be his last peace initiative, and when asked what would happen if he failed he said: “Then I have to accept my defeat, then I’ll have to go into retirement.”
“I have emphasised more than once that we want peace with Pakistan and are striving for friendly cooperation,” he told the weekly German news magazine in a wide-ranging interview.
“The geographical location of the two countries alone makes it essential for India and Pakistan to have good relations. We all only stand to gain by no longer exhausting ourselves in a nonsensical confrontation.”
Mr Vajpayee also said that the two countries “are partners in an international coalition against terrorism and in order to fight it everywhere we need to support each other.”
Mr Vajpayee began on Tuesday a week-long tour of Germany, Russia and France.
Indicating that the resolution of the Kashmir problem would require “serious compromises”, Mr Vajpayee has said he is prepared to negotiate with President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
“I am prepared to negotiate with him,” Mr Vajpayee said when asked if he considered Gen Musharraf “trustworthy”, says a news report by Press Trust of India from Germany.
Asked if he was concentrating in achieving improvement in everyday life together with Pakistan like in trade relations, transport, and cultural exchanges and that the most important question of the Kashmir issue was not answered this way, Mr Vajpayee said after all the years of tensions and mutual distrust the views about the other have hardened.—Agencies
