NEW DELHI: The German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, described the Kashmir dispute on Feb, 22 as ‘one of the most urgent problems on the international agenda’ and urged India and Pakistan to settle it peacefully.
He, however, ruled out the possibility of Germany offering its good offices for resolving the dispute, saying that the 1972 Simla Agreement could form the basis for a peaceful bilateral settlement of the issue.
A conflict in this region, he pointed out, would assume different dimensions to a conflict anywhere else in the world. He said he respected India’s position on the issue but if there was a genuine interest ‘on both sides to work towards nonproliferation, then it was important to discuss the NPT.
He rounded the morning off with a last flash of humor when asked what he felt when he saw his distorted figure in cartoons every morning. “If, someone slims me down I am very pleased,” he partied “because then I can tell my wife that I have lost weight.”
On the Narmada Project, to which Germany is a major contributor, Kohl admitted that the earlier views on the project had changed and that now India was being asked to fulfill certain preconditions.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1993
