India, Pakistan Should Solve J & K Issue Through Talks: Uk

Britain has said that the Kashmir issue must be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan and expressed the hope for a positive outcome of the forthcoming talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries.

Though the British government is always ready to offer its good offices for mediation if called for, but it was the governments firm position that a solution to the Kashmir question must be between India and Pakistan, under secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs Liam Fox said in the House of Commons here on Thursday night.

It is extremely encouraging that the new Pakistani government have used their large mandate to undertake an early dialogue with India. Overtures are being made in both the capitals, and the responses are encouraging, Fox said adding Britain hopes that a wider and deeper dialogue will emerge from these.

 

Fox was replying to a spate of questions on Kashmir raised by known India-baiter members of Parliament in the Commons, Liz Lynne of Liberal Democrats and Paul Liddington of the Labour Party.

Referring to the move for a summit meeting between Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief during the forthcoming South Asian Association of for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in Male later this month, he said, This bodes well for the future.

Foreign secretaries of the two countries are meeting in New Delhi from March 28 after a gap of nearly three years.

Shadow foreign secretary Robin Cook also welcomed the move to resume Indo-Pak talks in the House of Commons, but said that the representatives of the Kashmiri people should be involved in the process for any comprehensive settlement on Kashmir.

British Prime Minister John Major had on Tuesday night welcomed the proposed summit meeting and said that direct talks between India and Pakistan were the best way to iron out any differences on any issue.

With the general elections round the corner in the United Kingdom, a number of pro-Pakistan Kashmiri groups here have launched a campaign to put pressure on sitting members of Parliament to extend support to them. Last week, an early day motion was moved in the House of Commons by three Labour party members.