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Kashmir Dispute Risks Nuclear Clash, U.S. Policy Change Needed
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Stephen Solarz speaks to Fellows about India and Pakistan. |
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Click here for audio excerpt |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2000 --US policy on India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir "is futile if not feckless," former congressman Stephan Solarz told IRP Fellows in International Journalism today.
In a seminar on South Asia, Solarz, the former chairman of a House subcommittee on Asia and now a Washington consultant, said the United States should make it "very clear" to Pakistan that they have "no hope whatsoever of succeeding" at efforts to remove India's presence from the disputed region of Kashmir. "We call for negotiations but its obvious there aren't going to be any negotiations as long as Pakistan continues to interfere in the affairs of Kashmir," Solarz said.
India and Pakistan have repeatedly clashed over Kashmir, a divided region with a majority Muslim population that has been at the center of contention between the two nations since the subcontinent's Partition in 1947. "The Kashmir issue goes to the heart of the political identity of each country," Solarz said.
Solarz called for a new United Nations resolution on Kashmir that would rescind previous Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite in the region. The new measure should affirm the need for negotiations between India and Pakistan, respect the rights of both peoples and make it clear that the existing cease-fire line should be respected, Solarz said.
Easing tension between India and Pakistan is crucial, the former New York congressman said. "The overriding American interest lies in preventing another war between India and Pakistan, which has the potential to escalate into the first nuclear confrontation between two countries since the end of the Second World War," Solarz said.
Solarz said resolving the Kashmir dispute would help to further improve U.S. relations with India, which were "better than they have been in a long time" as a result of factors that include President Clinton's visit to India and growing economic ties between the world's two largest democracies. Good U.S.-India relations are vital as a way of containing China's emergence as a "possible threat to stability in the region," Solarz said.
Copyright © 2005 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.