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Clinton envoy to persuade India, Pak to resume talks

US President Bill Clinton is sending a high-ranking personal envoy to India and Pakistan next week, to persuade both countries to resume their suspended bilateral dialogue.

The initiative comes in the wake of Islamabad's test flight of its new Ghauri missile.

America's Permanent Representative in the United Nations Bill Richardson, during his stay in New Delhi on April 14 and 15, will meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and members of his Cabinet before flying to Islamabad to see Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief.

A senior state department official, who last night briefed the media, made it clear that Richardson was not carrying any specific settlement proposal. Nor did the United States intend to mediate in the half-a-century-old Kashmir dispute, leaving the two countries free to thrash out their differences.

Clinton, he said, had made it very clear that his administration wanted to help India and Pakistan ''to look to the future and not continued to be pulled back by the past''.

During his stay in New Delhi, Richardson will also meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other Opposition leaders.

Conscious of India's claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, he acknowledged the existence of 'particular interest' in New Delhi in the international body's expansion.

Replying to a question, the official clarified that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, during her visit to New Delhi in November, did not promise any reconsideration of the US stand which envisaged nominating Germany and Japan to the two permanent seats, leaving the remaining three to be filled by a representative each from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

He said the issue cropped up at her luncheon meeting with then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral. What she had actually said was ''we will be looking again or we have to keep looking at the issue, something on these lines''.

The senior official said that, the very fact that Richardson was leading the mission, which comprised Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl F Inderfurth and National Security Council Senior Director (Near East and South Asia) Bruce Riedel, was an indication that the Security Council expansion was a major topic of discussion.

''We want to hear what the new Indian government had to say on this issue,'' he said. ''We will also be interested in listening to what the others in the region had to say about it.''

Asked whether Richardson would offer the permanent seat to India as a kind of trade off for its agreeing to sign the Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty, he said, ''We are not looking for any quid pro quo. Richardson is going there for further discussion on the issue, about which he is eminently qualified.''

He generally avoided questions about the test flight of the Ghauri missile, the subject handled in the state department by other officials. But when asked about the Chinese input in the Pakistani missile, he said, ''We are looking into'' this aspect.

Apparently, the US did not have any firm prior information about the Pakistani test, but the official said a careful study of South Asian media did give some indication. Both India and Pakistan had long-term missile development programmes and such tests at some stage were unavoidable. But this did not mean the US supported the move, he added.

Besides India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Richardson, who leaves for the region tomorrow, will also visit Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, to become the first American cabinet-rank official to be in the strife-torn country in two decades.

UNI

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