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Bush Urges Pakistan-India Dialogue
ISLAMABAD, Feb 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush in a letter to Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf has called for direct talks between India and Pakistan to resolve their outstanding issues, the Foreign Office said Wednesday.
President Bush emphasized that "dialogue is vital for resolving the differences between the two countries," the ministry said.
In his first official letter to Musharraf, which U.S. ambassador William Milam delivered Wednesday, Bush "appreciated the long history of cooperation and goodwill between Pakistan and the United States."
The U.S. president "underlined the shared interests of the two countries in a peaceful and stable South Asia," and said, "He looks forward to the opportunities ahead."
Bush "applauded" Pakistan's gesture in sending assistance for earthquake relief to India and expressed pleasure at the direct contact between Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the statement said.
Musharraf in a telephone call to Vajpayee earlier this month conveyed his sympathies at the great loss of life in the January 26th earthquake in the Indian state of Gujarat after sending three relief planes for the quake victims.
Pakistan, a former U.S. Cold War ally, has been uneasy towards warming relations between Washington and New Delhi - a close friend of the former Soviet Union - during the previous U.S. administration of president Bill Clinton.
The February 2nd conversation was their first since Musharraf came to power in the October 1999 coup.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the 53 years since independence from Britain, two of them over the disputed Kashmir region.
Dialogue between the new nuclear powered rivals remains suspended since a bitter border conflict in the Kargil sector of Kashmir in 1999.
New Delhi announced a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir on November 27th and Pakistan responded by promising "maximum restraint" along the unofficial border in Kashmir and staging a partial troop withdrawal.
An ongoing bloody separatist campaign in the Indian-administered zone of Kashmir has left more than 34,000 people dead over the past 12 years.
India blames Pakistan for fomenting the insurgency, and has linked talks with Pakistan to a halt to what it calls cross-border "terrorism."
Islamabad, which holds the northern third of Kashmir, denies the allegations but provides open moral and diplomatic support to the separatists.
The Foreign Office said Bush also expressed the hope that the "issues relating to Afghanistan will be addressed in a positive way."
Pakistan has close ties with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who have turned down repeated demands for the extradition of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden wanted in Washington for, among other things, alleged involvement in bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which more than 200 died.
Washington has been pressing Islamabad to use its influence on the Taliban to hand over bin Laden to face trial in the U.S.
Following repeated failed attempts to get Taliban officials to hand bin Laden over, the U.N. Security Council, led by the U.S., imposed a second set of tougher sanctions last month including restrictions on travel and the closure of overseas offices, further exasperating a desperate situation in Afghanistan brought on by continued fighting and severe drought.
Bush, in hoping for better relations with Pakistan, stated that he "looks forward to the opportunities ahead," the statement said.
The U.S. President's letter was in response to a letter addressed to him by Musharraf earlier, the Foreign Office said.
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