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NEW DELHI, June 20: Senior Indian officials said on Thursday that “cross-border infiltration” in Kashmir had now almost completely stopped and that the world was largely to be thanked for intervening to prevent a war over the issue with Pakistan.
The “infiltration” of militants in Kashmir “has almost ended,” defence minister George Fernandes said in Srinagar on Thursday.
However, the United States, which played the most pivotal role in bringing the two countries back from the brink, said it was still maintaining a cautious stance and its advisory against travel to India remained intact, an assertion that invited a familiar rebuke from New Delhi.
“Lessening of tension is primarily because these great powers have now taken a stand. Now the word is not from Pakistan but from the leaders of these countries which are leading the global coalition against terrorism,” home minister Lal Krishan Advani said in a discussion on state-run Doordarshan.
The Press Trust of India, in a dispatch from Moscow, said Russia, too, had welcomed the ongoing de-escalation of India-Pakistan tension. Moscow emphasised the need for consolidating and developing the positive trend for resumption of negotiations between the two countries.
“The Russian side welcomes the steps taken by the Indian and Pakistani leaderships, resulting in a reduction of the level of confrontation in the region,” a Russian foreign ministry release was quoted by PTI as saying.
“Now the important thing is to consolidate and develop the positive trends and achieve the creation of prerequisites for the resumption of the negotiation process between New Delhi and Islamabad and the return of Indo-Pak relations to normalcy,” Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Saltanov told Pakistan ambassador Iftikhar Murshed on Wednesday in course of their meeting.
Fernandes, addressing a public function in Srinagar, however, said what must have been noted by everyone still concerned by the existing levels of the military standoff.
“The Indian Army has been in Kashmir since 1947 and whenever there have been invasions, the brave soldiers have protected the region,” he said, adding: “The Army will remain in Kashmir to protect every inch of the motherland.”
TRAVEL WARNING: The US embassy in New Delhi said there was no change in Washington’s ‘travel warning’ asking Americans to defer travel to India and Pakistan.
About reports that Washington may rescind or dilute its travel warning following easing of tensions between India and Pakistan, a US embassy spokesman was quoted by PTI as saying: “There has been no change in the travel warning at present. When a change is made, it will be announced immediately.”
The US travel warning was issued last month during heightened tensions between India and Pakistan and fears that there could be a war. The spokesman said the decision to authorise departure of American officials in India should come up for review by this month-end.
The Bush administration has indicated that the decision to roll back the warning would be guided among other factors by whether it was possible that an unexpected event like another terrorist strike in India could immediately reverse the situation. PTI said Washington has taken note of statements by Indian leaders that New Delhi would not respond peremptorily to any such incident. PTI quoted Indian officials as saying the US advisory was unwarranted.
OTHER SIGN: Other signs were also available of the easing of war tensions.
For example, India and the United States, for the first time, would hold an intensive dialogue on their experiences in use of air power in counter insurgency operations during the upcoming visit of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S.Krishnaswamy to America.
At the invitation of Gen John P. Jumper, Chief of Staff, US Air Force, Krishnaswamy will lead an Indian air force delegation on a nine-day tour of the country on June 24.
Among other things, Krishnaswamy will hold intensive dialogue on the USAF’s role in counter-insurgency operations. He will also be briefed on the air operations conducted during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
On their part, the Indian delegation will reveal to their USAF counterparts its expertise in high-altitude ares like Ladakh and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The air force chiefs are expected to discuss a joint air exercise to be held later this year in Alaska.
Krishnaswamy will also visit Wright Patterson Base, Ohio, Andrews airbase to examine control structures of the US. His itinerary will also include Air Space Command, Florida.
Meanwhile, even as both the United States and the United Kingdom were helping ease tensions between India and Pakistan, Britain had approved arms sales that included military aircraft, combat ves-sels and missiles to both the nations.
“Whitehall sanctioned export licences in military equipment ranging from ammunition to missiles to both countries, according to parliamentary answers from Trade Minister Nigel Griffiths,” Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.
The answers show that the export licences covered bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, combat vessels, Howitzers and military aircraft and their components.
Export licences covering over 200 categories and specific types of equipment were issued for the two countries between December and May, which coincided with Indian troop mobilisation along the border with Pakistan after the Dec 13 attack on Indian Parliament.
The foreign office and department of trade and industry, however, said that the decisions on arms export licences were made on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of criteria in the export guidelines.
