08 January 2002

Indian Home Minister Visits Washington Jan. 9

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani is expected to visit Washington January 9 to continue discussions between the United States and India on the fight against terrorism and the situation between India and Pakistan.

Briefing reporters at the State Department in Washington January 8, Boucher said Secretary of State Colin Powell has been in close contact with Indian leaders about the situation in the region and the visit of the home minister offers an opportunity to continue those discussions.

Boucher said Powell also spoke with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf January 8 about ways to fight terrorism and defuse tensions between India and Pakistan, which have risen following the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in December.

India has accused Pakistan-based militants of carrying out the attack. Pakistan has arrested the leaders of several extremist organizations and promised to take further actions to restrict their activities.

Boucher said the United States expects that Pakistan will continue to move against terrorist organizations because of the danger that those organizations pose to Pakistan and its neighbors.

Regarding the issue of Kashmir, Boucher repeated that the United States is willing to help out in any way it can to resolve the tensions between Pakistan and India. He said the United States encourages Pakistan and India to engage in direct talks over Kashmir.

Following are excerpts from the transcript of Boucher's January 8 briefing containing his comments about South Asia:

Question: Richard, do you have any comments or any agenda tomorrow? The home minister of India, Mr. Advani, is coming here to meet with Mr. -- with the secretary of State. His main agenda, actually -- (inaudible) -- to fight terrorism with the United States combined. So what do we have on this?

Mr. Boucher: We have an opportunity for the secretary to continue his discussions with the Indian government, discussions that he had when he was in New Delhi, and he met at that time with the home minister in New Delhi. He's continued to be in very close touch, as you know, with Foreign Minister Singh all along about the situation, the fight against terrorism, and also the situation between India and Pakistan. So it's an opportunity to continue those discussions with the home minister tomorrow.

Question: So far, if the secretary has received anything in advance, because Parliament attack took -- after secretary's visit to India -- so did you receive anything in advance? What this agenda will be all about when he comes and meets with him tomorrow?

Mr. Boucher: I think, given that we've had constant and ongoing discussions with the Indian government, including our ambassador's discussions -- and he meets with a variety of people in the Indian government, including the home minister, on a regular basis. The ball has been moving forward in terms of our cooperation, in terms of our discussions of the situation between India and Pakistan. So we'll continue to move forward in those discussions here.

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Question: Go back quickly to India, Pakistan. An address that General Musharraf is supposed to make this week has been touted today as something that would help defuse tensions very significantly.

I believe the secretary spoke with General Musharraf this morning. Do you expect this address to really make a big difference in the situation?

Mr. Boucher: We've been in frequent contact with President Musharraf and his government. Our ambassador to Pakistan is in very close touch with them. The secretary spoke with President Musharraf again this morning. They continue to look at ways to fight terrorism and ways to de-escalate tensions between Indonesia and Pakistan -- India and Pakistan -- excuse me.

Question: (Give yourself a new foot ?) (Laughter.)

Mr. Boucher: At least the border space is a little wider.

And so they continue to discuss, as I said, the fight against terrorism and ways to de-escalate the tensions between India and Pakistan. The statement that President Musharraf has made in his joint press conference with Prime Minister Blair we attach some importance to. He said Pakistan rejects terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, period. We expect that they will continue to move against terrorist organizations because of the danger that these organizations pose to Pakistan and its neighbors; that we do understand that President Musharraf is planning to make a speech in the coming days, in which he will elaborate his thoughts for the Pakistani people on the course that their country needs to follow. And we look forward to hearing from President Musharraf in that speech on the course that he believes the nation should follow.

Question: Richard, one more --

Mr. Boucher: Let's go to the back.

Question: Home minister -- (inaudible) -- carrying a list of those 20 terrorists that he is going to suggest that tomorrow that U.S. must put pressure on Pakistan to hand over to India. So where do we stand now today -- I mean, the U.S. government?

Mr. Boucher: Where we stand today is, there's nothing new today, and the home minister's coming tomorrow.

Question: Well, first of all, I'm a little confused as to why you didn't mention the phone call when you were asked about India in the first place.

Mr. Boucher: Because the phone call was with the president of Pakistan.

Question: Yeah, I know. But so we should go alphabetically, maybe, through the list of every country, every day, to --

Mr. Boucher: I --

Question: What did --

Mr. Boucher: If you want to ask me about President Musharraf, I'll tell you the secretary talked to him.

Question: Yeah. Well -- you said that the issue of a very senior U.S. official traveling to the region might be raised with the home minister tomorrow. Might that also --

Mr. Boucher: Might come up or be discussed.

Question: Yeah. Did he speak with Musharraf about it? Is that a subject of the conversation this morning?

Mr. Boucher: I don't actually know. You know, we've mentioned it as a possibility. It's been, certainly, discussed with people in the region. At this point, there are no decisions about it, but I don't know if it specifically came up in today's phone call or not.

Question: Can you say anything, Richard, about what would make the decision -- the trip wires in the decision process -- how that decision would ultimately be made and by when?

Mr. Boucher: The secretary would decide when he's good and ready.

Question: Richard, I think the secretary said in his speech initially that the United States would be willing to help on the issue of Kashmir.

Would that require a request by both sides, or would the United States take the initiative on its own to get involved in that?

Mr. Boucher: I think the secretary repeated what we said before -- is we're willing to help out if we can, in any way we can -- in any way we can, as the parties want us to. And that's always been our position. It's a position he stated to them when he traveled there last year -- last fall, and it's always been a position that we're willing to help out to the extent we can. Certainly, we're making efforts right now to see what can be done to de-escalate the tensions, whether they want -- would want us in some further effort remains up to -- remains to be seen.

Question: But just to pin that down -- it would require consent or a request from both India and Pakistan for the United States to get involved in the Kashmir.

Mr. Boucher: I don't know of any situation in the world where we can help out -- help the parties without the parties wanting us to help.

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Question: One more India/Pakistan. You've made it clear what you expect the Pakistanis to do, but is there anything that the Indians could be doing, irrespective of Pakistan, to calm things in Kashmir, for example, opening negotiations on autonomy with local authorities?

Mr. Boucher: We're getting back to where I think we've been for the last couple of days, and that's to explain that there is an immediate situation that remains dangerous, that we believe we all need to look for ways to de-escalate that situation. We're talking to both of the governments about that, about what they can do to de-escalate the situation.

Second of all, there's the broader issue in Pakistan of President Musharraf's move against violence and extremism, and that's a process that we have certainly supported, that we welcome, and we think that remains a key to defusing the tensions of the situation with India, but also to the future of Pakistan itself.

And then third of all, there are the issues of Kashmir, and we have encouraged direct contact between the two parties over those issues. And we continue to encourage that.

Question: Yeah, but irrespective of Pakistan, couldn't the Indians do something unilaterally to defuse the situation and to make the Kashmiris feel more comfortable about Indian rule?

Mr. Boucher: I suppose so, but I don't really have a list for you at this point.