NEW DELHI: The Clinton Administration sent its response on Nov.1 to India’s protest against Assistant Secretary Robin Raphel’s comments questioning the accession of Kashmir,
An aide member from the US State Department was handed over to the Joint Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry of External Affairs by the US Charge d’ Affaires in New Delhi on Monday evening.
The Foreign Office was tightlipped about the contents of the US response. Sources emphasized that the document would have to be analyzed and assessed properly before the government could react. Reports from Washington suggest, however, that the State Department is acutely aware of the psychological damage to Indo US relations caused by Raphel’s statement and is keen to contain the Negative fallout as much as possible without compromising official US policy on Kashmir being a disputed territory,
It remains to be seen, however, whether or not the Clinton Administration will take appropriate steps to assure India that it does not want to see another partition of India or whether it can even do so at this stage, The Indian Govt. has understood to have taken a very serious view of Raphel’s comments. This was obvious from the Strong statement issued by External Affairs Minister Dinesh Singh On Saturday warning the US that India would not brook any outside interference on the Kashmir issue.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 5, 1993
