WASHINGTON, Nov 23: India is willing to discuss the 56-year old Kashmir dispute with Pakistan as part of a composite dialogue, says Krishna Chandra Pant, a member of New Delhi’s National Security Council and Deputy Chairman of the country’s planning commission.

Mr Pant’s offer, made at a gathering of US foreign policy analysts in Washington over the weekend, is the first major indication from an Indian official in months that India would like to engage Pakistan in a dialogue over all issues, including the core issue of Kashmir.

“We believe that Kashmir can be resolved as a function of improved India-Pakistan relations and, to that end, are ready to discuss it as part of a composite dialogue,” said Mr Pant. “All that India is asking for is some concrete, credible gestures on the part of Pakistan to create a conducive environment for talks.”

At the round table meeting, Mr Pant used a combination of peace gestures and threats while explaining India’s policy towards Pakistan. At one stage, he declared that there was “a political consensus across the spectrum in India” for having good relations with Pakistan. But he then immediately invited the United States to join India’s war against “the epicentre of terrorism,” which, he said, what Pakistan was.

“There is no doubt in our minds about the fact that a stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s own interest and as much was said by our Prime Minister in a symbolically potent statement at Lahore on Feb 20,” said Mr Pant. “It is Pakistan that has to come to a conclusion on what kind of relationship it wants with India.”

Despite “cross-border terrorism” in Kashmir, said Mr Pant, India had been pursuing normalisation with Pakistan in both the political and economic fields.

“Disappointingly, though, Pakistan’s response, so far, seems to be to enter into a dialogue with India to make it yield,” he added.

He then hastened to point out that “totalitarian, military and theocratic regimes” could not be trusted because they allow their countries to become fertile grounds for terrorism.

To deal with such regimes, he invited the United States to join India in the war against terrorism, abandoning its “double standards” born out of “short-term political, military or economic considerations.”

He did not want the United States only to help fight “cross-border terrorism” but also to work with India in doing away with the “twin threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.”

And he did not trust his audience to guess who was “the epicentre” of these twin threats.

The “chief epicentre” of these threats, he said, happens to be located in “our immediate neighbourhood.” To build its clandestine nuclear and missile programmes, he said, Pakistan had been dealing with the countries that the United States considers rogue states.

“Even its (Pakistan’s) President has now acknowledged the trade in missiles with North Korea. Other countries in our neighbourhood have helped it reach critical levels in its nuclear and missile readiness,” said Mr Pant, alluding to China’s defence assistance to Pakistan.

“Contrary to India’s own approach and nuclear doctrine, which is marked by exceptional restraint, including a commitment to ‘no first use,’ a minimum credible deterrent and a moratorium on further explosive nuclear underground testing, Pakistan is wedded to an overt policy of first and early use of nuclear weapons,” he told the US analysts.

He said during the cold war, the NATO countries also had a first-use nuclear policy but they did so to maintain the status quo. Unlike them, he said, Pakistan had sought to change the status quo with the help of its policy of first-use. “And it is disconcerting.”