LONDON (PTI): Britain has welcomed the decision of the Indian and Pakistani governments to resume their comprehensive dialogue on bilateral problems, including the Kashmir issue, Foreign secretary Douglas Hurd, told the House of Commons that “a genuine dialogue between India and Pakistan, as envisaged more than 20 years ago in the Simla Agreement is necessary to resolve the continuing dispute indeed, tragedy in Kashmir.”
Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan are scheduled to meet in Islamabad from January | to 3. Hurd informed the house that during his talks with the Indian leaders in New Delhi last month, “T sought to set out again in three factors that we in Britain as friends of both countries, anxious about the present position believe are needed.”
They are “a genuine dialogue between India and Pakistan, as envisaged more than 20 years ago in the Simla Agreement, an improvement in human rights in Kashmir while the Indians look for credible Kashmiri interlocutors in the internal political process, which is clearly necessary, and a clear end to external support for violence within Kashmir,” the foreign secretary said.
Those three principles he said need to be pursued, “They are widely accepted, if they were implemented in practice, it would be a big step forward,” Hurd said, adding, “We have no blueprint, but, as friends of both countries, we will do anything that we can to help.”
Article extracted from this publication >> December 3, 1993
