ISLAMABAD, 23 July 2004 — German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer yesterday called improvement in Pakistan and India relations a good sign and pledged his country’s full support to the ongoing peace process.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said Germany and Pakistan have agreed to continue bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and other sectors.
The two foreign ministers were addressing a joint press conference after formal talks here.
“We understand this tragic conflict between the two countries and hope that there will be progress in settling these long-term disputes,” the German foreign minister said.
He said he had told the leaders of both Pakistan and India that his country would do whatever possible to support these efforts.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf during his meeting with Fischer told him he would take a personal interest in preventing a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan.
Fischer, in Pakistan for two days on the last leg of a 10-day Asian tour, asked Islamabad to use its UN Security Council position to exert influence on Sudan to prevent a deepening of the humanitarian crisis in its Darfur region, where over 10,000 people have been killed in the past 18 months.
“Be assured I will take a personal interest,” Musharraf told Fischer, according to a German official present at their 90-minute talks in Islamabad.
Fischer, also Germany’s vice chancellor, insisted during talks with Musharraf “that a humanitarian catastrophe would have to be prevented in Sudan,” the official said.
If the Sudanese government did not live up to promises it made to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this month on curbing the violence, a Security Council resolution “would be unavoidable,” Fischer was quoted as telling Musharraf.
Sudan’s western Darfur region is in the throes of what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
More than 10,000 people have been killed since rebel groups rose up in February 2003, prompting a brutal response from Sudanese forces and government-sponsored Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.
Fischer is seeking support at the Security Council, where both Pakistan and Germany currently hold seats, in putting pressure on Khartoum. “What we need is a majority on the Security Council and full cooperation above all in establishing security and disarming the Janjaweed militias,” Fischer said after arriving in Islamabad late Wednesday.
Musharraf insisted that Sudan’s territorial integrity be preserved in any bid to resolve the crisis there. “He said that in the whole crisis, the territorial integrity of Sudan could not be violated. Fischer replied ‘of course not’,” the German official, who asked not to be named, told reporters.
UN officials say the Janjaweed have carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against black Africans. More than a million people have been displaced in the conflict.
Fischer played down his support for India’s bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council yesterday.
Musharraf told Fischer during the talks that he was “concerned” about India winning a permanent seat.
“President Musharraf said ‘We respect Germany,’ but he noted his concerns about India getting a permanent seat,” the German diplomat told reporters after their talks.
In New Delhi last week Fischer declared German support for India to take a permanent seat in return for New Delhi’s support of Germany’s own bid, under proposed reforms to make the body more “multilateral.”
Fischer said Germany’s backing of India was not aimed against “a third party” and acknowledged there were “conflicting interests” within Asian countries over who should hold a permanent seat.
“I know there are conflicting interests, not only in the Asian group but also in some other groups especially in the Western groups we belong to, and we try to support reform and cooperate,” Fischer said.
“This is not directed against any third party and for us it is crucial that we are friends to both sides, Pakistan and India. “We understand this tragic conflict between your two countries and hopefully there will be progress in settling these long-term issues. On the other side we need to progress in the reform of the UN system and we are working very hard for it.”
