I think it's the Indians who are now buying gold, not the Japanese any longer....
Bush urges India, Pakistan to ease tensions; Putin schedules peace conference
By Ron Fournier, Associated Press, 5/25/2002 11:07
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) In a display of tag-team diplomacy, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly urged Pakistan's president Saturday to ease tensions with neighboring India. Putin decried Pakistani missile tests and invited the South Asian adversaries to talks.
The leaders scrambled to avoid a potential war between the nuclear-armed countries, discussing the issue Friday during Bush's overnight stay at Putin's residence outside Moscow.
Touring the Hermitage Museum together, Putin told reporters that missile tests conducted Saturday by Pakistan ''really aggravated the situation and I am concerned about that.'' Bush did not mention the tests, but Secretary of State Colin Powell later said the administration was disappointed by Pakistan's actions.
''I don't think it was a particularly useful thing to do right now, even though I don't think it causes us to get any closer to conflict,'' Powell said while traveling with the president.
Bush himself urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to keep his promise to crack down on Islamic militants staging cross-border attacks in Kashmir.
''We are deeply concerned about the rhetoric,'' Bush said. ''It's very important for President Musharraf to do what he said he was going to do in his speech and that is to stop the incursions across the border. It's important that India know that he is going to fulfill the promise.''
In January, Musharraf delivered a nationally televised speech in which he promised he would crack down on terrorism. Days later, he banned five Islamic militant groups two of them accused by India of a deadly December attack on the Indian parliament. Those groups had long worked in tandem with Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence organizations.
Powell said Musharraf has not yet lived up to his January promises. ''We don't believe that action is yet complete,'' he said.
Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, also traveling with Bush, have telephoned their counterparts in both countries in an effort to defuse tensions.
''We are making it very clear to both parties that there is no benefit to a war, there is no benefit to a clash that could eventually lead to a broader war,'' Bush said.
Putin invited Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a summit of the Council on Cooperation and Confidence Measures in Asia to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on June 3-5. Members of the council include India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and several ex-Soviet states.
''I hope that they come, so that here we can discuss together how to prevent the conflict from further development,'' Putin said.
Any military conflict would ''affect the region and the world extremely negatively,'' said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, adding that both the United States and Russia ''think it should be solved by political means, through dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad.''
The Kazakhstan meeting creates a convenient occasion to hold talks ''and to exert influence on both sides to reduce tension between them,'' Ivanov said.
The Indian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would attend the Almaty summit and would hold talks with Putin. But ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said there was nothing yet to suggest that Vajpayee and Musharraf would meet one on one.
Musharraf also planned to attend the overall summit. Anwar Mahmood, Pakistan Information secretary, said of the one-on-one meeting idea: ''Pakistan will be part of any process to resolve this situation.''
Bush said he hoped the conference would help bring ''calm and reason to the region.''
Bush and Putin spoke to reporters after viewing a coronation carriage used by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. The carriage is on display at the Hermitage.
Tensions between India and Pakistan flared last week after an attack at an army camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 34 people, mostly the wives and children of Indian soldiers. India blamed the assault on Islamic militants based in Pakistan.
In ensuing days, dozens have died in cross-border shelling in the divided province, over which India and Pakistan have fought two wars. Vajpayee sent letters to Bush, Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair saying the attacks have tested his country's patience.
Pakistan conducted the first in a series of missile tests Saturday. The medium-range Ghauri missile, fired at 9:30 a.m. at an undisclosed site, flew 900 miles far enough to reach deep into India. It can carry both a conventional and nuclear warhead. |
