ISLAMABAD, April 17: The top leadership of Group of Eight (G-8) is likely to urge Pakistan and India to respect the “sanctity of the Line of Control” at the June summit, Dawn has learnt through well-placed diplomatic sources.
“It would effectively be a call on Pakistan which is seen as sponsoring cross-border infiltration of militants in the Occupied Kashmir,” these sources said.
In the past one month there has been increased talk in the Western diplomatic circles about Pakistan not doing enough to stop cross-border infiltration. This is a position that India has repeatedly taken. India and several Western countries have attributed the responsibility for the recent killings of civilians in the Indian Held Kashmir to Pakistan, even if without any basis.
Pakistan has consistently rejected such allegations. However, it seems to be incapable of adequately raising the issue of India’s obligation to produce reliable evidence when it accuses Pakistan.
Observers believe the call for “respecting the sanctity of LoC” would mean added pressure on both Pakistan and India from the world’s major industrial powers: on Pakistan to stop cross-border infiltration and on India to resume dialogue with Islamabad on all outstanding issues.
On Tuesday the Russian foreign ministry was quoted as saying that “the worsening standoff between India and Pakistan” will be one of the issues on the agenda of the forthcoming G-8 summit.
On April 10 the US Secretary of State Colin Powell told PTV in an interview that Washington was “in close touch” with both Pakistan and India. He said: “We do have a very difficult and painful situation with regard to actions across LoC. We are looking to help the two parties to resolve this in a peaceful way.”
Condemning the terrorist attacks across the LoC on Tuesday, Powell said: “We will continue to do everything we can to lower the temperature in that part of the world and to see whether or not opportunities can be created for both sides to enter into a dialogue.”
Robert Hutchings, chairman of the US National Intelligence Council, representing all 12 national intelligence agencies, including the CIA, has warned of impending Indo-Pak crises. “We could be faced at any time with crises between India and Pakistan,” Hutchings said at a seminar in Washington last week.
The G-8 summit is due to take place in Evian, France from June 1 to 3. A meeting of the G-8 Foreign Affairs ministers will be held in Paris on May 23 prior to the summit.
One of the themes France has proposed to focus on this year is ‘Security.’ The stated objective is to strengthen the fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The G8 summit is considered a major international event that brings together heads of state or government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, United States and the Russian Federation with the European Union.