TIRANA, May 2: The United States, Britain, France and Japan on Friday welcomed India’s decision to resume diplomatic and air links with Pakistan and Islamabad’s positive response to the announcement.
The decision is “very, very promising,” the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said.
“I am very pleased with developments on the subcontinent over the last several weeks,” Mr Powell said at a press conference during a visit to Albania.
“All this is very, very promising at a time when people were beginning to wonder whether or not they were going back to the potential for conflict,” he said.
“I congratulate leaders of both sides on these first steps — that are just that, first steps on the way to finding a way forward.”
#BRITAIN:# British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw welcomed India’s offer and Islamabad’s positive response, APP adds.
“I’d like to say how welcome I consider the speech of the prime minister of India this morning and the response of the Pakistani government to re-establish diplomatic relations, to re-establish normal air links and to begin talks about the long-running disputes between the two countries,” he said. He was speaking on arrival for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on the Greek island of Rhodes.
Britain’s “appreciation” for Mr Vajpayee’s “statesmanship” also came in a telephone call by Mr Straw to India’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, our correspondent in New Delhi adds.
#JAPAN:# United News of India said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi welcomed the announcement by Mr Vajpayee to appoint a high commissioner to Pakistan and restore air links. In a statement, she termed the speech by the prime minister in parliament in this regard a ‘positive’ step.
She said the Japanese government hoped that the announcement would contribute to promotion of the relations between India and Pakistan.
#FRANCE:# The French foreign ministry said it was “delighted by the announcement by the Indian prime minister of the decision by his government to re-establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan on the level of high commissioners, as well as resume civil aviation relations,” adds Paul Michaud in Paris.
“We have also taken note with satisfaction,” said Quai d’Orsay spokesman Francois Rivasseau, “of the positive reaction to this initiative by the Pakistani authorities.”
“France,” he said, “encourages the resumption of the dialogue between India and Pakistan in the spirit of the Shimla accords and sees in these recent developments a positive evolution which is worth supporting.”
#APHC:# The All Parties Hurriyet Conference welcomed the measures taken by the Vajpayee government. “I think there is a realisation in India and Pakistan that now is the time to address the problems, particularly Kashmir, to ensure permanent peace in the region,” APHC Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat told PTI.
“Neither India nor Pakistan can afford the luxury of sleeping over the problems that constitute potential threat to peace in the region,” Mr Bhat. He expressed the hope that the leaders of the countries “will rise to the occasion and move forward with a will and with wisdom to achieve peace and ensure prosperity”.
“It is not a coincidence that the announcement to ease our tense relations has come after certain comments by officials of the US. They were also made on the eve of the visit by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage,” said former Congress foreign minister and MP Natwar Singh