NEW YORK, July 1: The United States, Russia and China should jointly leverage their close relationship with India and Pakistan to resolve the outstanding Kashmir dispute, Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Maleeha Lodhi says.

In an article “Rethinking Security Challenges — a Pakistani Perspective,” published in a Washington journal called The Ambassadors Review, in its most recent issue Ms Lodhi said that “from Pakistan’s perspective, a new strategy to deal with global and regional challenges must emphasize that none of these powers should take steps that exacerbate tensions.

“Instead, each should do everything that could lead to reduction of tensions and conflict resolution. For example notions of building one country as a strategic counterweight to China would be destabilizing for the region, as indeed globally.”

She underscored that “in the current India-Pakistan military standoff the stability of US-Russia-China ties has worked in a positive way, as all three have urged restraint, avoidance of war, and resolution of issues through diplomatic and political means.

“On the other hand, a troubled pattern of their relations resulting from competitive relationships would have impacted negatively, as they would have seen in this crisis the potential to advance narrow interests and vie for further influence,” she observed.

Saying that “the United States, Russia and China have close relations with either India or Pakistan or both,” Ms Lodhi emphasized that “this influence could be put to good and positive use. If the three great powers pursue shared objectives in a cooperative way, regional peace and stability can be strengthened and mutually supported moves can be made towards resolving outstanding issues like Kashmir.”

Ms Lodhi said that in Pakistan’s view it would be disastrous for India and Pakistan to engage in a nuclear or conventional arms race and stressed it was, therefore, important for the US to work with India and Pakistan to restrain the development and deployment of nuclear weapons and to help both countries evolve a stable nuclear equation by agreeing to a strategic restraint regime.

“Pakistan sees such a regime to involve three key elements: (a) nuclear and missile restraint, (b) conventional arms control measures, and (c) conflict-resolution (addressing the outstanding dispute over Kashmir),” she writes.

Writing about the global challenges facing the world in the aftermath of the end of cold war and more recently the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, Ms Lodhi defined three principal areas of uncertainty at the global level today: (i) The future of the war against terrorism; (ii) relations between the great powers; and (iii) a perception in the outside world of US “unilateralist.”

While recognizing that “the United States is now unquestionably the preeminent world power, whose actions in the global arena and at the regional level continue to significantly influence the shaping of the world we live in” she noted that the Bush Administration had evolved its own policy approach and style, which it calls “distinct internationalism.”

Ms Lodhi says in the article that the world walked away from Afghanistan after the then Soviet Union withdrew, leaving in its trail a volatile mix of problems for neighbouring states, especially Pakistan.