Indian team to brief Obama aides on Kashmir, CBMs

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Team will also lobby for securing permanent UNSC seat for India

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: An Indian all-party delegation will leave for the United States on Saturday (today) to apprise the aides of US president-elect Barack Obama about the Kashmir dispute.

The delegation was earlier meant to participate only in the meetings of a United Nations committee in New York, but after Obama’s recent statement regarding the Kashmir dispute, the Indian External Affairs Ministry felt the need for including Washington in the delegation’s itinerary.

The Indian government earlier downplayed Obama’s linking of the resolution of the Afghanistan conflict with the Kashmir crisis, describing it as “pre-election rhetoric that deserves to be ignored”. However, after the election of Obama as US president, India is a bit worried about the future policy of the new US administration on Kashmir.

The delegation includes Kashmir Committee Convener Ashok Bhan, Priya Dutt, Vijay Bahugna, Trichi Shiv, Anant Geetey, Prahalad Joshi, Sukhdev Paswan, Jaya Pradha and Jabir Hussain.

“Yes, we will interact with Obama’s close aides and apprise them of the progress made in the peace process between India and Pakistan and also in Indian-held Kashmir,” said a member of the delegation. He added the involvement of any third party in the Kashmir dispute would complicate the matter.

UN seat: The ministry organised a special briefing for the delegation on the issues to be raised at the UN and with the new US administration. The delegation was assigned to lobby for securing a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

The delegation was told to apprise Washington about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s vision for the economic resurgence and the empowerment of the Kashmiri people. The team will discuss bilateral relations with US officials in view of the recently signed Indo-US nuclear deal.

Experts in New Delhi believe that some advisers of Obama are determined to make US civil nuclear co-operation with India difficult by clamping restrictions on the reprocessing of the used nuclear fuel. US Democrats have been strong advocates of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Former Indian diplomat G Parthsarthy believes that while the Bush administration is supportive of India’s moves to improve relations with all its neighbours, the Obama administration is likely to work closely with China on major issues of security and co-operation in Asia.

Indian analyst Sidarath Vardarajan also recently wrote that US intervention in the region could be avoided only if India addressed the grievances of the Kashmiris, and pursued its ‘soft-border’ approach towards neighbouring countries.

“As long as New Delhi pursues a sensible approach towards Kashmir and Pakistan, interventionists and busybodies in Washington will find no space to fish in troubled waters. But if India lets down its guard and walks into the trap of confrontation - as the erstwhile Vajpayee government did in 2002 - even a ‘pro-India’ administration would jump at the opportunity to mediate,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Washington is trying to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Obama during the former’s visit to Washington to attend the G-20 summit on November 15.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg7_6