NEW DELHI, Oct 11: New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark has described Kashmir as a "nuclear flash point" and urged New Delhi to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ahead of her first visit to India.
The Hindustan Times quoted her as saying in Wellington on Monday: "There has been many a time during my tenure that there has been a danger of a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan but the resolution of the nuclear issue lies in the resolution of the Kashmir issue, I think Kashmir is the flash point."
The newspaper said the statement might spark a controversy ahead of her first-ever visit to India. However, when told that India had rejected her theory and considered Kashmir as an internal issue and asked if it could really lead to a nuclear conflict, she replied: "Of course it is a conflict-driving point, and that has put pressures on India and Pakistan to go nuclear," she said.
The newspaper quoted Indian analysts as saying that the prime minister might have been influenced by a parliamentarian close to her who was of Pakistani origin. But Ms Clark, according to the paper, "maintained that she is a friend of India and her visit to India is meant to send a signal that Wellington wanted to engage India but maintained that she will not budge from her principled stand on the nuclear issue."
"We have a principled stand on the nuclear issue and the public opinion in New Zealand supports that. We will tell India to sign the CTBT. India will always find New Zealand as the dominant voice for nuclear disarmament," Ms Clark said. However, she said that India and Pakistan were showing signs of progress, which she said was a good step.
According to the report Ms Clark is known for her tough views and earlier this year had refused to send troops to Iraq despite mounting US pressure. This was followed by her decision to deport two Israelis caught in New Zealand who were suspected to be spying for Mossad.
