M A I N   N E W S

Fernandes arrives in USA

Washington, January 16
Defence Minister George Fernandes arrives here today with a two-pronged mission — launch a diplomatic offensive in the current standoff with Pakistan over cross-border terrorism and further expand Indo-US military ties.

During his six-day visit, Mr Fernandes will hold talks with top Bush administration officials that, among other things, will cover the sale of arms to India.

Coming just over a week after a visit by Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan will inevitably be high on the agenda of Fernandes’ discussion with his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington.

Although he made it clear that he was not coming with a shopping list of arms and equipment, the Defence Minister will push for early clearance of the list he said he had given to Rumsfeld during his visit to New Delhi in November last year. “We will look into various items which we need to acquire at the earliest,” Fernandes said, declining to go into the details.

Mr Fernandes will also seek to allay US concerns over Israel’s proposed sale of three phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWAC) planes to India. The USA media had reported that Bush Administration officials had asked Israel to defer the sale of weapons technology to India given the current crisis with Pakistan.

Dismissing such reports before his departure to the USA Mr Fernandes himself had said that “as far as I know we are getting them.” Israel’s Foreign Minister had indicated on a recent visit to India that there would be no hitch on the closing of the one billion dollar deal.

Apparently, US pressure has caused some rethinking on the part of Israel. Shunned by the USA during the cold war for siding with the Soviet Union, defence ties between India and the USA have looked up of late. “The military-to-military relationship between the two countries has recently seen considerable expansion,” Mr Fernandes said on the eve of his departure.

Figuring prominently in his discussions with Pentagon officials will be the future agenda for the Indo-US Defence Policy Group (DPG) and the upcoming meeting of the executive steering groups, both of which is expected to strengthen the scope and content of military ties. Joint military exercises will also be part of the parleys.

Opening his visit by laying a wreath at the Arlington Cemetery, Mr Fernandes is scheduled to meet Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and other Pentagon and state department officials tomorrow. He is slated to address a press conference the same evening. On Friday, he will meet with executive committee of US Defence Corporations and interact with think tanks.

Mr Fernandes will leave for New York on Saturday, where he is due to meet with leaders of the Congress besides visiting ground zero. UNI

India, Pak had plans to ‘carve up Kashmir’

Washington, January 16
India and Pakistan had “quietly discussed” last July a plan that would carve up parts of Kashmir between the two countries and give “special autonomy to the central Kashmir valley,” a leading US daily reported today, adding that the proposal had, however, “died”.

The proposal “died before it was publicly circulated,” The Washington Post reported in a despatch from Mang in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir without attributing it to any sources.

The daily, however, quoted Sartaj Aziz, former Pakistani Foreign Minister, as saying that talks in recent years were on the right track before they were derailed by hardliners.

“If that process had continued,” he said, “who knows? May be in one or two or three years we could have found a solution, or at least defused tensions.

“Today, in this atmosphere of hostility, no one is prepared to make even the slightest concessions. But I think it is still possible to move forward on Kashmir. This has to be done in a quiet way, away from the glare of the cameras.”

The despatch said: “There is another option that the two sides have not seriously discussed but which holds substantial appeal among Kashmiris — independence”.

It said the cause of Kashmir’s secession from India had no greater supporter than the hilltop village of Mang but “beneath the show of resolve to reunify Kashmir, frustration is building.

Even here, in this centre of Kashmiri nationalism, residents are starting to wonder if the struggle has been worth it. Some people say they have been treated as pawns in a larger military conflict that shows few signs of abating.” PTI