PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF INDIA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF INDIA

The Foreign Minister of India, Jaswant Singh, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference that the world need not fear an arms race in the South Asia region. In response to a question, Mr. Singh said there is “no arms race now or earlier” and concern about that issue was more a reflection of “the compulsive hostility we have been experiencing”.

Mr. Singh did not make a prepared statement but went directly to questions from correspondents.

Asked about his Government’s view on efforts to combat international terrorism and his recent discussions with his Russian counterpart, Mr. Singh said he believed in “re-emphasizing the centrality and importance of an international convention on terrorism”. He said that in the South Asia region there was an unacceptable level of “coordinated terrorist activity”. India’s concerns were shared by other regional states, which were examining how the question could be tackled through the United Nations.

Mr. Singh was asked to comment on the comparison which a correspondent said the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, had made between East Timor and Kashmir, and on East Timor and the question of international intervention in general. The Indian Minister said there was “no comparison between Jammu and Kashmir and East Timor”. On intervention, he believed that “strong sovereignties resulted in a strong United Nations, and not the reverse”.

Another correspondent referred to recent press reports, which had suggested that United States officials were issuing warnings to the armed forces of Pakistan about political interference, and asked whether Mr. Singh feared the civilian government in Pakistan might be “pushed to the brink” by the Kashmir situation. The Indian Foreign Minister replied that this was an internal matter for Pakistan, and in any case, if the State Department in Washington was giving advice to Pakistan, India was not privy to it.

Asked when he thought India might be ready to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Mr. Singh said the question of “when” was not in his hands, but those of the next Indian Government. He was confident that the next administration would seek to “build a consensus in the Indian political community” in favour of CTBT signature. Asked about the United States Government’s attitude toward Indian nuclear policy, Mr. Singh said he could not be happy about the sanctions the United States had imposed.

Singh Press Conference - 2 - 23 September 1999

Another correspondent asked why high-level talks with Pakistan had not resumed. Mr. Singh said the “the cart has been placed before the horse”. Violence had to be “abjured” and “cross-border terrorism must be discouraged” first. “These are not pre-conditions [for] but essential components” in a resumption of such talks, Mr. Singh said.

Mr. Singh told another correspondent it was not true that the Indian authorities had prevented the head of the United Nations Military Observer Mission in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) from visiting Jammu and Kashmir.

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