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Kashmir is a bilateral issue: Armitage

Virtually ruling out any intervention on the Kashmir issue, the United States on Monday said that it was a 'bilateral issue' involving India and Pakistan and could only be solved as per the Simla agreement.

"Under the Simla accord of 1972, both India and Pakistan determined that the question of Kashmir was a bilateral issue, so if it is to be solved, it will be solved bilaterally," US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in an interview to CNN.

Commenting on the US's role in resolving the Kashmir issue while 'taking a side', Armitage said, "I guess it is theoretically possible but it is difficult."

However, he said it could be solved with the assistance and encouragement of the international community, including the US and the UK.

Armitage said that the US wants to assess Musharraf's stated position that he has stopped infiltration or there is no infiltration across the Line of Control.

And in return, the US would like to get India begin a de-escalatory step of some sort that could be visible to Pakistan, he added.

About his mission and that of [US Secretary of State] Rumsfeld to India and Pakistan, Armitage said that their whole effort is going to be to try to stop the military confrontation from happening and to bring down the tension.

"The US, joined by our international parties right now, joined by [Russian] President Putin in Almaty, is trying to do our best to bring reason and logic to bear on what is a very difficult situation," he said.

When CNN said President Musharraf has said he is trying to play down the possibility of nuclear war, Armitage said: "I thank him for that. The problem is once the iron starts to be engaged between the two sides, then reason and logic seem to go out (of) the window. So the whole effort has to be to try to keep them from escalating right now."

"And I think those who say we should not even think about a nuclear exchange are right in one way but we have to have it in the back of our minds," he said.

The situation in Kashmir, he said, is extraordinarily volatile.

He recalled that former CIA director Bill Webster's statement before a Congressional Committee 12 years ago that Kashmir was the most dangerous situation in the world.

"Certainly," said Armitage, "nothing has happened in the last 12 years to change that diagnosis."

Asked about the report that the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would not have a bilateral meeting, Armitage said, "I don't think we are at a situation right now where we are in the business of promoting a meeting."

"I think right now we are in the business of both sides trying to be reasonable and logical and to lower the temperature," he said.

PTI

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