Stating that US sees a certain progress in Pakistan-India dialogue process, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said on Wednesday: "They have been discussing the issue of Kashmir as well."
He added: "We've encouraged both parties to take it seriously and try to reach some substantive agreements on that." He was responding to a question by chairman of the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the House, International Relations Committee, Rep James Leach, at its hearing. Leach wanted to know the dynamics of the Indo-Pakistani dialogue. "Do you see substantive progress being made, or do you see a status quo? Not that status quo isn't preferable to conflagration, but how do you see the dynamic?"
Boucher said: "I think we see a certain amount of progress, mostly in the areas of confidence-building measures." "They opened bus lines; they've got train lines; they've got a lot of contacts back and forth across the border. They have had discussions of sensitive issues like confidence building when it comes to nuclear and conventional weaponry. And we encourage those to proceed."
"They have been discussing the issue of Kashmir as well, and we've encouraged both parties to take it seriously and try to reach some substantive agreements on that."
The senior State Department official said "there are press reports that they have advanced in terms of looking at how to solve some aspects of the dispute, particularly the Siachen Glacier and Sir Creek.
"Elements of that we certainly would hope that they would find a chance to move forward in substantive ways on some of those issues that matter very much to both sides."
"I think they have made progress," he stated. He said "both Pakistan and India tell us that they're determined to continue to try to make progress and certainly we continue to very actively encourage them to work with each other and to use the present openings, the present peaceful circumstances of both nations to try to make advances that can last for a long time."
To a question on US-India nuclear deal and likely arms race in South Asia, assistant secretary Boucher told James Leach that "I don't think either side (India or Pakistan) is looking to expand weapons production beyond what they might already have planned."
Boucher referred to his meetings with Pakistani officials and a recent visit to Washington by Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan to attend meetings of bilateral strategic dialogue- that Pakistan had no intentions of starting an arms race.
"They had no intention to expand their arsenal unless they felt it was required. And we have heard similar things from the Indian side," Boucher said.
"Certainly both sides tell us they don't want to see an arms race." "They are indeed watching each other, but they're also co-operating and discussing things like confidence-building measures."
He added that the United States has "been pretty active" on that point "and making clear that this civilian nuclear co-operation with India does not in any way increase or change their ability to make weapons or the strategic equation in the region."
"We've stressed to them over and over, and there's no reason for this to lead to any inordinate or unusual increase in the number of weapons in the region."
As far as the Russian sale of reactor fuel to Tarapur is concern, he said, it was not done under new regulations; it was done under what they called an emergency supply or something like that, a provision of the NPT.
"They said it was done on an urgent basis for the supply for safety reasons, and the Indians said the same thing." He added: "We have raised this issue with both the Russians and the Indians."
"Frankly, we took a dim view of the sale at that time and particularly using those provisions, which we don't think were justified in this case. But nonetheless, they went ahead with it. I think there's still some time before that fuel actually gets loaded in the reactors."
He, however, said the provisions of this agreement would allow "a more regular, market-oriented supply of fuel to India under safeguards."
"But, what the Russians did was an existing exception embodied in the NPT and the regulations, and it does not change with the action that we're looking for from the Nuclear Suppliers Group or the action that we're looking for from the US Congress and others."
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