TRIVANDRUM: Indian External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said India expected policy makers in Pakistan, in the interests of long-term peace and friendship, to ensure that militant activities in the northern states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir were not encouraged or supported from across the border.

The minister was addressing a press conference in this southern Indian city shortly before leaving for Maldives to attend the first ‘meeting of the Indo-Maldives joint commission.

Militant activities in Kashmir had been recently stepped up with “overt or covert support from across the border”, Gujral, said, adding India hoped to discuss the matter with the Pakistan foreign minister who was expected to visit New Delhi later this month.

Gujral said he did not envisage increased tension between Pakistan and India.

He said India also hoped to sign a long-term treaty of friendship and cooperation with Sri Lanka before the withdrawal of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was completed by Mar 31. The draft of the treaty was being worked out between the two governments, he added.

Asked whether he thought the earlier Indo-Sri Lankan accord signed by former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi and the erstwhile Sri Lankan president, Junius R Jayewardene redundant, Gujral said the new long-term treaty of friendship and cooperation was under consideration not because the earlier accord was redundant but because the accord was meant to serve only “a specific purpose”.

Gujral said he also hoped efforts being made by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to bring the rival Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups together would succeed leaving no scope for any “bloodbath” after the IPKF withdrawal. India was keen to see that protection of Tamils was ensured after the IPKF pull out, he said.

He said India had never supported the call for a separate Tamil state, but wanted all Tamil groups to participate in the Sri Lankan polity.

Asked if there was any qualitative change in the policy of the National Front government on the Tamil issue, he said the government was committed to withdrawing the IPKF’ by March 31, which seemed to be a feasible date. India also wanted to see various Tamil groups stopped fighting with each other and lived in peace.

Asked about the desire expressed by both Sri Lanka and Maldives to hold a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit and if he would discuss the matter in Male, Gujral said the two countries were trying to sort it out. They should discuss it among themselves and with the current SAARC chairperson, Pakistan, he added.

Asked if there would be any new initiative from India on the Afghan issue, Gujral said India’s stand on the issue was clear, India wanted the Afghans to live in peace and was for stoppage of all outside intervention. The Afghan foreign minister was likely to visit New Delhi next month, he said.

Asked about the complaint voiced by some left parties that the Indian official reaction to the U.S. military intervention in Panama had not been strong enough, Gujral said there was no room for complaint.

India had strongly reacted to the intervention and India was also a co-sponsor of the U.N. resolution condemning it. India was against military intervention by anyone in a third country, he said.

On the developments in east European countries, Gujral said India’s position on the matter had been spelt out in parliament. India supported the will of the people that had established itself in these countries and was keen to have close relations with the new regimes, he added.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 19, 1990