ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, January 17 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday urged India and Pakistan to resolve the long-standing Kashmir issue through dialogue and de-escalate tension between the two nuclear capable neighbors. Powell was speaking to reporters in Islamabad after having a working dinner with President Pervez Musharraf. India, where Powell goes today to defuse the current standoff in South Asia, said its forces were ready for war.
India’s naval chief said his country’s armed forces remained fully mobilized and were prepared for any conflict with Pakistan. “In accordance with the directive received from the government, all three wings of the armed forces are fully mobilized. We are ready,” Adm. Madhvendra Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
Powell got a warm response to his message in Islamabad in meetings with Musharraf and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. “The United States is trying to encourage both sides to create conditions that will allow the beginning of such a dialogue,” Powell said after talks with Musharraf during which he invited the president to visit the United States “in the very near future.”
“Even the most difficult of issues can be resolved through dialogue,” Powell said at a news conference with Sattar. As part of the US effort, he said Washington would press for India and Pakistan to lift of tit-for-tat diplomatic and travel sanctions they imposed on each other this month.
Powell repeated a US offer to help in any way possible to bring Pakistan and India back to direct talks despite New Delhi’s rejection of outside involvement.
In a nod to India, he stressed that he did not see the United States as a “mediator” in the Kashmir dispute, but said he would persist in the push for such talks.
Pakistan has long argued that international involvement is necessary to resolve the Kashmir question. Sattar did not directly address Powell’s mediation remark but said the United States could play a significant role. “The United States is blessed with the unique quality of leadership to promote a peaceful settlement of this issue in accordance with recognized principles,” Sattar said. Powell said he saw reason for hope after what he described as a “bold and seminal” address to the nation by Musharraf on Saturday.
In his speech, Musharraf condemned all forms of terrorism, said no one could launch attacks on other countries from Pakistan and banned five militant groups, including two India blamed for an attack on its parliament last month.
“We want to start seeing whether or not both sides believe enough progress has been made that find ways to de-escalate politically and diplomatically...and in due course, hopefully, there will be a military de-escalation as well,” Powell said.
“We need a campaign against terrorism, not a campaign with these two countries fighting one another,” he said, referring to the US-led war on terrorism, which both India and Pakistan support and declared after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Pakistani and Indian forces have confronted each other across their border since the bloody Dec. 13 attack on the Indian parliament, blamed by India on Pakistan-based groups fighting its rule in its part of Kashmir.
Demanding that Pakistan stop “cross-border terrorism” India mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops and warned Pakistan that it was also prepared for nuclear war. India says it will not pull back its forces until Musharraf delivers on his pledge to crack down on the fighters.
