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Kashmir bilateral issue: Bush
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

President George W. Bush on Friday said it was very important that the issue of Kashmir move forward and be resolved peacefully.

Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Bush said he was pleased with the recent discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Havana. Gen. Musharraf briefed Mr. Bush on the progress of that dialogue at a meeting early on Friday morning.

“The Kashmir issue will be solved when the two leaders decide to solve it, and we want to help,” Mr. Bush said. He pointed out that the United States “can’t force nations to reach an agreement just because we want there to be an agreement.”

“Lasting agreements occur when leaders of nations say lets get the past behind us and lets move forward,” he said, adding he was “encouraged” by the meetings Dr Singh and General Musharraf have had. “There is an indication that there is desire at the leadership level to solve this long standing problem,” he said.

Saying he was impressed by General Musharraf’s will to get something done in Kashmir, Mr Bush added, “Our hope is that this process continues forward.

I asked the president, just as I would the Prime Minister of India, what can we do to help? What would you like the United States do to facilitate an agreement? Would you like us to get out of the way? Would you like us not to show up? Would you like us to be actively involved? How can we help you if you so desire to achieve peace? And that’s the role of the United States as far as I’m concerned.”

Mr Bush met General Musharraf in the wake of a storm caused by the general’s assertion that the US had threatened to bomb his country back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate in the war on terrorism.

Asked whether the US would have attacked Pakistan had General Musharraf not signed up for the war on terrorism, Mr Bush said: “The first I heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today. I was taken aback by the harshness of the words.”

General Musharraf ducked the question saying he was honour bound to his publishers not to say anything until his autobiography is released on September 26.

General Musharraf also briefed Mr Bush on a peace deal struck with tribal elders along the Afghanistan border in Pakistan. “This treaty is not to deal with the Taliban. It is to fight the Taliban,” General Musharraf said.

Mr Bush brushed aside a question on Washington’s “nuclear technology discrimination” saying he and General Musharraf had “talked about our need to work through the recent history that we have had together on dealing with proliferation matters.” The American president was referring to the nuclear black market run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan the revelation of which has undermined Pakistan’s credibility and hit its efforts to secure a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one between the US and India.

In his meeting at the White House, General Musharraf also raised the issue of the sale of F-16s to Pakistan and peace in the Palestinian territories, which he said was key to winning the war on terror.