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The United States on Thursday said it was convinced that the Kashmir issue could be worked out between India and Pakistan only if the wishes of the Kashmiri people were taken into account.
"The Bush administration is willing to be helpful and US would like the Kashmir issue to be resolved peacefully," US ambassador-designate to India Robert Blackwill said in his luncheon address on 'The future of Indo-US relations' in Bombay.
Quoting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Blackwill said a solution "won't be imposed from the outside and it is not going to be the United States that is going to get in the middle of it."
The ambassador-designate said US-India relations would stand on their own during the Bush administration and would not be directed by any third party.
"And, under this American President, there will be no hyphenated linkages emanating from Washington regarding South Asian nations," Blackwill said.
Lauding Indian government's decision to reinitiate India-Pakistan talks at the Agra summit, the US ambassador said America believes that sustained engagement at a senior level between India and Pakistan was essential.
"Some people assert that the Agra summit was a disappointment but my government does not," he said adding US has learned from other conflicts of great and historic complexity that the process was important even when substance fell short of expectations.
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