BAHRAIN: Kuwait and Pakistan are in agreement that the Kashmir issue should be resolved through bilateral negotiations and that any military confrontation between Pakistan and India should be avoided.
Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto told a press conference July 12 Thursday at the end of her two day Kuwait visit that her country and Kuwait would work closely at the July 30 Cairo meet of the organization of Islamic countries to defuse tension between Islamabad and New Delhi.
The Pakistani premier is currently on a six day tour of five West Asian and North African countries, her second within a short span of time, to buy support for her government’s sympathy with the Kashmir secessionists.
Her Iraq visit, in the first leg of her current tour, had found Baghdad, like Bahrain, adopting a neutral stand on the issue.
Ms. Bhutto denied that Pakistan owned or intended to manufacture a nuclear bomb. The Kuwaiti news agency Kuna quoted her as saying that Pakistan “has a modest nuclear programme” aimed at promoting technology and knowledge.
Describing media reports in this regard as “mere unfounded doubts” Ms. Bhutto said although Pakistan did not sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, it abided by the articles and principles necessary to avoid proliferation of nuclear arms. She said her country had placed before India a set of proposals to ensure that their region would be nuclear free and added “we are pleased that we have an agreement with India on not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities.”
She described her talks with the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber al Ahmad al Sabha and the crown prince and Prime Minister Sheikh Saad al Abdullah as “highly rewarding”.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 20, 1990
