Clinton Calls for Renewed Dialogue on Kashmir

Visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton Wednesday urged India and Pakistan to resume dialogue on the issue of Kashmir, but claimed that he had not come to South Asia to mediate the dispute.

"I have not come to South Asia to mediate... Only India and Pakistan can work out the problems between them," Clinton told Indian legislators while addressing both houses of the Indian parliament here on Wednesday morning.

Clinton is the first U.S. President to visit India in 22 years. Before his arrival here on Sunday, India had repeatedly said that it would not accept any third party's advice or mediation on the Kashmir issue.

As a country with a democratic system, India should pursue dialogue with Pakistan in a bid to resolve the regional tension in South Asia, especially the tension between the two neighboring countries, said Clinton, adding that India should show its neighbors that democracy is about dialogue and negotiations between people who differ.

The U.S. president, however, made a subtle suggestion for involving Washington in resolving the Kashmir problem by making reference to the solution found to the Kargil conflict in mid last year.

"But if outsiders cannot resolve this problem, I hope you will create the opportunity to do it yourself...calling on the support of others who can help where possible as American diplomacy did in urging the Pakistanis to go back behind the Line of Control in the Kargil crisis," said Clinton.

He said that he would also push the Pakistani leadership for the early restoration of Indo-Pakistani talks during his brief stopover in Islamabad on his way home after the five-day visit to India.

"I will say the same thing to General Musharraf in Islamabad," he said.

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