US paper urges India to resolve Kashmir
New York, May 22: A US newspaper on Tuesday called on India to work towards resolving the decades-old Kashmir dispute with Pakistan.
“Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option,” The New York Times said. It added, “It is past time for India... to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly... then broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground.”
Barely days after the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was voted back to power in New Delhi, two leading newspapers of the west, Times London and the New York Times, have asked the Government of India to increase the chances of peace with Pakistan by resolving Kashmir dispute.
On 20 May 2009 the influential New York Times termed Kashmir as festering sore. It has mentioned Delhi and Kashmir in the same page asking the new government of India to initiate arms control, solve Kashmir, and solve the issues of water.
An Editorial in the newspaper says “Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option,” adding, “. India should take the lead in initiating arms control talks with Pakistan and China. It should also declare its intention to stop producing nuclear weapons fuel, even before a proposed multinational treaty is negotiated. That would provide leverage for Washington and others to exhort Pakistan to do the same.”
The editorial further said: “It is past time for India — stronger both economically and in international stature — to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over Kashmir. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly, then — as Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution suggests — broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground. Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option.”
On May 19 in Times London, the influential UK paper the chief foreign commentator Bronwen Maddox has said the careful, secular tone of Congress is the necessary ingredient for progress in the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. “India has stuck to the line that this is a bilateral row in which outside comment is unwelcome. The stand-off, with the line of control acting as a de facto border, largely suits it,” he said in his comment “Indian poll increases chances of peace with Pakistan over Kashmir.”
Meanwhile, the Barack Obama administration would love to see India and Pakistan re-engage in confidence-building measures and talk about Kashmir and other areas of difference, according to a top defence department official.
'There is a lot they can do to lower tensions, and they had done a lot before the Mumbai attacks,' Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defence for policy said in an interview with the Defence Writers' Group posted on the department website.