LONDON: Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral has ruled out any discussion on the Kashmir issue with Pakistan foreign minister Sahib Yakub Khan in New York next week.
“We are meeting with a view to easing the tension between India and Pakistan’’ Gujral said while speaking at a function organized by the Punjabi Unity Forum here Saturday evening.
The foreign minister during his 24 hour stay here on his way to New York also addressed a Press conference and met some prominent Indians.
Replying to questions from the audience, Mr. Gujral made it clear that Kashmir was non-negotiable.
Asked whether there was any fixed agenda for the meeting, Mr, Gujral said “there is no agenda” He sounded optimistic about the outcome and said given the goodwill on both sides, “‘we will be able to sort out things in the spirit of friendship and cooperation. We don’t believe in confrontation.”
Earlier, speaking to newsmen at the residence of the high commissioner for India Kuldip Nayar, the external affairs minister said the Janata Dal government believed in having good relations with all its neighbors, including Pakistan and listed the efforts made by the new government in this regard in the last three months. He said “we believe in peaceful solution of bilateral problems.”
Gujral gave a detailed account of the steps being taken by the VP Singh government to improve the situation in the troubled states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 27, 1990
