US unwilling to intervene in Kashmir imbroglio

C K Arora in Washington

The Clinton administration appears unwilling to intervene in the Kashmir imbroglio as suggested by Pakistan, insisting that the United States has not changed its position on the 50-year-old dispute between India and Pakistan.

State department spokesman Nicholas Burns conveyed this after the 45-minute meeting between US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan.

''We are a friend to Pakistan, we are a friend to India and we will use our good offices in whatever way they would like us to help them progress, but they seem fully capable of proceeding on their own at this point," Burns said.

Burns said Albright and Khan had a brief discussion on Kashmir, but "it was not an extensive one."

''We have a long held position that all of the pre-Independence state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, that we think the dispute must be resolved through negotiations between India and Pakistan, which should take into account the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,'' he added.

''The secretary," Burns said, had "reaffirmed our position. The minister explained Pakistan's position. But, as Ms Albright had stated at her press conference earlier in the day that 'we do want this issue to be resolved. We think it is very important.''

Burns said the US could help in the process, ''but, there has been no request for us to do that.'' When a correspondent drew his attention to Albright's remark that the time was right to have this process of reconciliation move forward, the state department spokesman said ''she certainly did say that. She also said she is going to consider a trip to the region at some point.''

Earlier, replying to questions Albright said, ''this is the 50th anniversary of independence (of India and Pakistan) and it seems to be an appropriate time for a trip to be planned.''