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ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, June 5: President George W. Bush made a personal appeal to the leaders of Pakistan and India on Wednesday to step back from the abyss as the nuclear-armed neighbours showed no sign of compromise in a standoff over Kashmir.
The US leader telephoned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. It raised the profile of an international diplomatic offensive to head off war as the United States and Britain urged their citizens to leave the region.
“The president reiterated President Musharraf that the United States expects Pakistan to live up to the commitment Pakistan has made to end all support for terrorism. The president emphasised to Prime Minister Vajpayee the need for India to respond with de-escalatory steps,” Fleischer said.
“Whatever information has so far been coming, it does not indicate there has been any substantial or noticeable reduction in infiltration,” Indian Defence Fernandes told reporters in Bangalore.
US DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE: Fears that millions could be killed in the first atomic war between nuclear-armed states have prompted world leaders to step up diplomatic pressure to pull them back from the brink.
In a last-ditch effort to prevent the skirmishing from escalating into the fourth war between the old foes, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is due in Islamabad on Thursday before going on to New Delhi. He will be followed by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
SITUATION CHANGING: Earlier in London, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for cool heads to avert war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
“There is no question that when you have two nations with nuclear weapons...that is a dangerous situation,” he said after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on a flying visit en route for the troubled region. “The US has important relations with each of the two countries. We have a stake in those two countries not setting themselves back,” he added. “The world has an interest — these two countries have an interest in not setting themselves back.”
Rumsfeld’s stop in Britain was the first on a lengthy trip that will take him to Brussels later on Wednesday for NATO meetings and Estonia for meetings with Nordic and Baltic ministers as well as Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
But the centrepiece of his busy trip will be talks with leaders in India and Pakistan.
Rumsfeld said the two leaders were intelligent and educated and understood that they had no real interest in starting a war.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon emphasised that the US and British governments had been co-ordinating their efforts to try to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan but there was no step-by-step plan for achieving peace in the region.
“There is not a formula, because there cannot be a formula in what is a rapidly changing situation,” said Hoon. “The first step is to back away from the brink. I don’t think we can possibly plan out what will happen thereafter. Both sides clearly have to see, as we see, real advantages in stepping back from the brink and preparing to discuss the issues.”
A spokeswoman for Blair’s Downing Street office said the prime minister and Rumsfeld had talked for about an hour on a wide range of issues including their “deep concern” about India and Pakistan.—Reuters
