In many public and private statements the US administration, think tanks, generals and politicians have clearly stated that Kashmir is the root cause of much of he militancy in South Asia. After relentless pressure the Americans don’t talk about it publicly. Delhi has used its equity with the Americans on trying to remove Kashmir from the vocabulary of America—and it hasn’t worked. Every once in a while a voice from Washington once again reiterates the fact that Kashmir is disputed territory. For all her maps and talk, Kashmir remains an international issue. Even after six decades Delhi has not been able to gobble up the Muslim majority area. Nehru’s blunder has caused huge problems for generations of Bharatis. On Pakistan's independence day every August 14th, the Kashmiris raise Pakistani flogs on buildings in Srinagar and elsewhere in Indian occupied Kashmir. Every August 15th they raise black flags to protest the Bharati independence day.
‘With respect to any resolution, that’s up to them,’ Clinton responded when asked if Washington is pushing the two countries on the issue. - File photo
WASHINGTON: The United States is negotiating some measurements with both Pakistan and Afghanistan to determine success in the fight against extremists, says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In three separate interviews to US, Afghan and British media outlets, released by the State Department on Friday, the secretary also acknowledged that the United States was encouraging India and Pakistan to resume their efforts to seek a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue.
‘I don’t think that they’re benchmarks … what we’re trying to do is create some measurements that can determine whether we’re succeeding,’ said the secretary when asked if the US was negotiating specific benchmarks with Afghanistan and Pakistan to pave the way for the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan.
Referring to her talks with the Afghan defence minister in Kabul this week over better integration between the Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan, she said: ‘That’s a good benchmark. That’s the kind of benchmark we’re looking at, because what we want to see is how we determine that we’re making progress on the path … where your military will have what it needs to begin to take responsibility for much of the country.’
Mrs Clinton said that over the last 10 months, the US and Pakistan had developed a much higher degree of cooperation and communication.
She noted that only 10 months ago, the two countries didn’t have the necessary trust that ‘you have to have in order to listen to the other side and say, okay, I agree with you and I’m going forward’.
‘The cooperation between our militaries, the personal relationships that have been established between, for example, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, and chief of the army in Pakistan General Kayani, are incredibly important in helping to break down barriers,’ she added.
‘So when we said at the beginning of this administration that we were disappointed that the Pakistani government was not going after the Taliban — because we saw them as a direct threat to the Pakistani government – and that then the Pakistanis themselves reached a consensus they had to do that, we thought there was a very significant change in attitude.’
The US, she said, would continue to press them to go after all of the extremists in Pakistan.
‘Are you looking at tackling the Kashmir problem to try to help Pakistan really move its focus to the border with Afghanistan?’ she was asked.
‘Well, we’ve encouraged both countries to resume a dialogue that they were engaged in which came to a halt and yet holds a lot of promise. They had made progress, I’m told, in sorting through some of the longstanding difficulties they face, and most particularly the status of Kashmir. But it’s clear that any solution has to come from the two countries themselves,’ said the top US diplomat.
‘You’re not pushing?
‘Well, we are encouraging them to get back into dialogue. We think that is important. But with respect to any resolution, that’s up to them,’ she responded.
dawn. US wants Indo-Pak talks on Kashmir: Clinton Saturday, 21 Nov, 2009
No amount of Indian chagrin can change the fact that China does not accept the Indian occupation of Kashmir. The recent US-China joint statement coming out of Beijing so astounded Delhi that it retorted with several statements decrying the mention of India-Pakistan relations (read Kashmir between the lines).
Hillary Clinton has once again admitted that the US is pushing Bharat towards talks on Kashmir. Delhi missed a huge opportunity with President Musharraf. Now it has go back to old Pakistani positions about a plebiscite. Mir Waiz sensing movement is ready to go on his rounds to Islamabad and Beijing. Mir Waiz in his falwed logic wants a free Kashmir and an independent Kashmir. This folly will make Kashmir end up like Sikkim. Most Kashmiris realize this.That is why Gilani is still so popular. Bharatis living in their isolated homes in apartheid society have no clue about the depth of feeling the Kashmiris have for Pakistan—they never will.
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