'I Want To Put An End To This Controversy'

Official Spokesman: It is our great pleasure to welcome the Hon’ble External Affairs Minister of India Shri Natwar Singh for his first Press Conference at Shastri Bhawan Media Centre. We will request the Hon’ble Minister to make his opening remarks and then we will go to the questions. I request you to please wait to be invited to ask your questions and introduce yourselves when you ask the questions. Sir… 

Natwar Singh: I am grateful to you all that you have come here this evening for this press conference. Before I say anything, I want to tell you that we have agreed with Pakistan that the officials of the two sides will be meeting in New Delhi on June 19 and 20 for the expert level dialogue on the nuclear Confidence Building Measures and on June 27-28 for the Foreign Secretary level talks (June 19-20 expert level dialogue on nuclear Confidence Building Measures and June 27-28 for the Foreign Secretary level talks). So I am sorry to disappoint those who thought that the dialogue was not going ahead. 

The Policy Planning (group) with China was due to meet on the 16th, but regrettably, the Representative has fallen ill. The Strategic Dialogue at the level of Vice Ministers will also be held shortly and Special Representatives of India and China on the boundary question will have their next meeting in the very near future. And it gives me great pleasure to announce that my friend and colleague J.N. Dixit has been appointed the National Security Advisor and will be replacing Shri Brajesh Mishra as our interlocutor with China on the border question. My first foreign visit will be to Nepal on the 4th and 5th of this month. 

The Prime Minister of Nepal called me the other day; I had the good fortune to know him for a number of years, and asked if I could come to Nepal at my earliest convenience. Bearing in mind the extremely close relations that we have with Nepal, I should be leaving on the 4th. 

Now, I will just spend 5 minutes to tell you a thing or two. I have returned to the Ministry of External Affairs after fourteen-and-a-half years. In these fourteen-and-a-half years the world has changed a great deal. We have all changed. India has changed. I have changed. The international agenda has changed. The Soviet Union does not exist. It is an international fact with which the world has yet to come to terms with. The fallout still continues. It is a new situation. The other very big change is that when I joined the Foreign Service 51 years ago the dictum was that an accomplished diplomat thinks twice before saying nothing. Now the reverse is true. We have bilateral diplomacy, we have multilateral diplomacy and we have media diplomacy. The intrusion of the media, its influence and power is very great. It is irreversible and all diplomats and foreign policy makers have to come to terms with this reality. We will do our best within our limitation to have a transparent, sustained working relationship with you. The impact that you make cannot be minimized. 

It is also a fact that aging people like myself are not media-savvy. I am aware of this and therefore I try and avoid appearing on the media. There are other colleagues of mine who are very media-savvy. They will be at your service. Like most things in the world it is a mixed blessing. You expose the weaknesses of the government, the injustices done to society, the treatment of women, cruelty to children. You also, not intentionally, unintentionally, sometimes, trivialize serious matters. I have two grandchildren who are seven and eight. They see a great deal of television. They are now beginning to think in images and not words. The world has to come to terms with this. I do not want to lecture you. 

Now, since taking over, I invited the representatives of the ASEAN and SAARC countries in Delhi to meet me. For the last two days, I have been having discussions with our representatives in SAARC and in the ASEAN region. I have also called our Ambassadors from Iran, Afghanistan and Nepal. As you know, I have had a large number of telephone calls. The first one was by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, which I appreciate very greatly and reciprocate his sentiments. His Majesty the King of Bhutan also was also gracious enough to call me. You know the rest of the Foreign Ministers who called me. 

Now, the foreign policy of the Manmohan Singh Government has been spelt out in our Common Minimum Programme. We attach the highest importance to having the closest, acrimony-free, multifaceted relationship with the United States of America. The US Ambassador was the first Head of Mission in Delhi that I received. We spent an hour and we covered all areas in which India and America are engaged constructively. I also said to the Ambassador that since we are friends, it is our responsibility and duty that we have our meetings in a frank and friendly manner. The Manmohan Singh Government will strengthen, deepen, widen our relationship. There are differences, but these differences will not be aired publicly and will be addressed diplomatically and tactfully.

The agenda with the United States is extensive. I shall not go into details. All that I want to say is that the impression that there might be a change in the Manmohan Singh Government towards United States is unfounded. Our relationship will be based on mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual accommodation; cooperation, not confrontation; goodwill, not growling. 

Now, let me come to Indo-Pak relations. A great deal of excitement has been engineered in the last few days. Having served in Pakistan as an Ambassador more than twenty years ago – in those days Pakistan was not a member of the Commonwealth, so we were Ambassadors, we have just now supported Pakistan’s re-entry into the Commonwealth and we are supporting them in the ARF, in ASEAN – I am familiar with the complexities, the intricacies, the suspicion, the emotion that goes into our relationship with Pakistan. It is our endeavour that the future of Indo-Pak relations no longer lies in the past. We cannot forget the past, but neither should we be the prisoners of past. 

The Prime Minister, the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, and I, have repeatedly said that we want good neighbourly, amicable, cordial relations with Pakistan. The past has been strewn with booby-traps on the ground and high-tension wires in the air. We want to put an end to that. The relationship will be based on trust, not mistrust; on frankness, not fear. The 21st century, the millennium provides an excellent occasion to come up with creative ideas so that our two countries can be mutually benefited, that we can address the paramount important matters of poverty, hunger and disease in both countries. 

Yesterday, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan issued a statement in which he said, "I have just come back from a visit to the United States. I have seen statements made by some Indian leaders regarding leadership between Pakistan and India, and the Kashmir issue. These can be reduced to four points." 

His points were: "Borders cannot be altered." No public announcement has been made by any Indian leader about this. "No plebiscite." I thought this issue was dead many many years ago. Nobody has repeated it. "Relations will be guided by the Simla Agreement, full stop." What I have said now, what I have been saying for many many years is that we consider the Simla Agreement of 2nd July 1972 as a bedrock of our bilateral relations. But our relations with Pakistan now will be governed within the framework of the Simla Agreement, the Lahore Declaration, and the press statement issued on the 6th of January by India and Pakistan in Islamabad. This fact is totally ignored, including by the Indian media. At every meeting I have said this. But they are stuck to the Simla Agreement, and so are we. We are not going to change our attitude to Simla Agreement. But it is a continuous chain; we are all not running a static or sterile foreign policy, we are approaching it in a pragmatic, empirical manner. We are fully conscious of the realities, geo-political, in our region and that is why I have called the Heads of Missions of the SAARC and of ASEAN because we attach very very great importance to this part of the world. Under the changing world it is essential that we get to know each other. So, I want to put an end to this controversy. The fourth point was: "Sino-Indian model should be followed." No formal proposal by the Government of India has been made. This model has been talked about for a number of years. The matter of the LoC becoming Indian boundary has been talked about for a number of years and by responsible people including the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Our Government has made no statement, policy statement, about this being the model.

I was asked, I have had a lot of meetings with the press, as to how I would look at it. I have said that we have just taken over. We attach the highest importance to our relations with Pakistan. We want to solve all the problems. The Simla Agreement in Paragraph 6 provides the mechanism for carrying this forward, so does Lahore, so does January 6. People have, I said, talked about the China Model. When Rajiv Gandhi and Deng Xiaoping met in December 1988, Deng Xiaoping said, ‘You know when your grandfather came here in 1954, I was Secretary-General of Communist Party of China.’ He was number six then. And he said, ‘You must have been very young’ - Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was ten years old then. And he said, ‘Well, we are friends now, we will discuss everything. We know the border problem, we will put this aside for the time being, and go on to the other areas.’ 

I said that people have talked about this kind of a model for even this dispute. I was not making a policy statement, because I am not authorized to do it. I was speaking in broad terms, looking at what you can do. There are any number of models that we can take with regard to this. But the objective is to have a relationship which is friction-free, crisis-free. Therefore, we have welcomed this changed atmosphere. The Congress party gave its broad support to the Vajpayee Government’s Pakistan policy. That policy was not consistent.

On the 16th of May 2003, Mr. Vajpayee said in Sikkim, "I will not talk to Pakistan till there is cross-border terrorism." Two days later, in Srinagar he said, "I want to stretch my hand of friendship." We said, "Well done! We have been saying so." But what happened in forty-eight hours? At one stage he said,"Aar paar ki ladai". In my humble opinion, it was unnecessary to use this verbal overkill, especially when you have no intention of doing it. 

So, through you I want to assure our friends in Pakistan, and everywhere, that we are committed to a very deep involvement with them on every possible issue. We will discuss with them whatever they want. We were not in favour of stopping cricket matches, and we said so. We were not in favour of stopping over-flying of planes. We were not in favour of the train being stopped. We were not in favour of bus being stopped. I said, "Yes, they have attacked our Parliament. We can stop the dialogue. But people-to-people contacts should continue. And the diplomatic door should never be shut. Otherwise, how do you go ahead with any kind of discussion?" So, we will discuss everything with them and we will do it in a very very friendly manner. And we want to reciprocate the friendly sentiments of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan when he talked to me. 

It is also our vision that SAARC should become an active and not a dormant body. The SAARC Charter lays down that no bilateral issues will be discussed. We sincerely hope that in the spirit that is now between India and Pakistan, bilateral issues will not be raised and they, I am told, assured us that they will not raise bilateral issues in the ASEAN and the ARF. We welcome this. My vision is that there should be a SAARC cricket team of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and they should take on the world. My vision is that there will be a day – may not be in my life time, because I am living on borrowed time, anybody who is above 70 years in India is in the waiting room of the Almighty – I hope there will be a day when like ASEAN, SAARC will have a common foreign policy, common defence policy, common economic policy, free border travel, exchange of scholars, students, newspapers, books. 

Our Government will lay very high importance to the Islamic world. There are 130 crore Muslims in the world – 1.3 billion. There are 56 Islamic countries in the world. We have very good relations with all of them. We respect their sentiments and we greatly value the reception that our people working in these countries, Gulf countries, are receiving, and doing so much for our country and for the countries they are living in. 

I will be going to China on the 21st and 22nd to Qingdao for an Asian Cooperation Dialogue with the Foreign Ministers of about twenty countries there. The Minister of Finance would have gone, but he is extremely busy with the Budget which will be presented in early July. 

I began my diplomatic career in China more than 50 years ago, and spent a year studying Chinese in the Peking University, and I lived there for two years. On the 10th, I will be leaving for Oman and UAE. From there, I am going to Geneva to meet forty of our Ambassadors in Europe. If we were to call them to Delhi, it would be a very expensive exercise. So, I have decided to go with minimum staff. The meeting will take place in Geneva in our Office of the Permanent Representative to the UN, and not in a five-star hotel. I shall be traveling Executive Class. If anybody wants to upgrade me, I will not resist it, but I will not encourage it either. 

Thank you. 

Question :  You have said that the Vajpayee Government was not consistent with its approach on Pakistan. Where will you pick up the threads? Secondly, you said that you would give high importance to our ties with Islamic world. What will be your attitude towards Israel? 

Natwar Singh: First of all, let me say two things. We were not in favour of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. India had suggested that there will be two – Palestine and Israel – but that was not accepted by the UN. But we recognized the State of Israel and there was a Consul in Bombay for over fifty years, since Panditji’s time. Then, in 1992, it was the Narasimha Rao Government which raised our relationship to the Ambassadorial level. We value our relations with Israel. They have a great deal to offer to us, they have a great deal to offer to the world. But our relations with Israel will not be at the expense of sacrificing the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. And, if I may say so, when Mr. Sharon was here and Mrs. Gandhi called on him, Dr. Manmohan Singh and I were also present, and we put across our views and said that our ties with the Palestinians preceded our Independence. All we are saying is, and even the friends of Israel are saying, the United States is saying, that what is happening now is not acceptable because the Roadmap presented by Bush and Blair has got stalled. And to expect that you can find a solution of Palestine without Mr. Arafat is, in our judgment, unrealistic. 

Question :  The Army Chief has said that four thousand Jehadis are waiting to cross over the border. What will be your Government’s consistent policy on cross-border terrorism, since you have said that NDA Government had an inconsistent policy? 

Natwar Singh : I do not want to use this occasion to relive the past because it is pointless. There was cross-border terrorism when Mr. Vajpayee went to Lahore, and there was cross-border terrorism when Musharraf sahib came to Agra. They attacked our Parliament. We are totally opposed to terrorism - cross-border, internal, external, in every way. Our American friends discovered terrorism on 9/11. We have suffered from it, 60,000 people have died in Jammu and Kashmir, two Prime Ministers have lost their lives because of terrorism. So, nobody has suffered more. If there is any attempt to cross the borders of India, or do anything, they will be properly dealt with. I think, I will mention this matter to my colleague the Minister of Defence, but we are aware of it. 

Question :  But the dialogue will go on whatever happens…

Natwar Singh: I have just told you. The dialogue will not be stalled at all. There are people who are interested that this should happen, and I do not want to give them any comfort and encouragement. I have said this before. "Natwar Singh is a hawk" - I do not understand this language of hawks and doves. We run a foreign policy establishment, not a bird sanctuary.

Question :  President Musharraf has said on several occasions since January 6th, that unless there is rapid progress …(Inaudible)… core issue of Kashmir …(Inaudible)… 

Natwar Singh: I think they are starting these talks in the next few days on these subjects and there are several occasions in the next months when the Foreign Ministers of the two countries will be able to meet both bilaterally and in multilateral fora, and we will take it step by step. We are not shying away from discussing anything. I mean, we will discuss with them Jammu and Kashmir, we will discuss the nuclear question, we will discuss cross-border terrorism, we will discuss their attitude to Kashmir in the OIC. Even now a resolution is being prepared there on Kashmir. We will tell them that since we are friends, please have a fresh look. We have not opposed your going into the Commonwealth. We have asked you to come and join the ASEAN organization (ARF). We should cooperate in the Commonwealth, in the United Nations, in all these places because if we can work together, it helps. But if the approach is that without Kashmir nothing can be discussed, then we are going to have difficulties because we too have a point of view on Jammu and Kashmir. Because, if this answer is, as you know, unless this is solved nothing happens. Mr. Vajpayee has tried, all Governments have tried. We have never said aar paar ki ladai. We have not made any conditions that, if cross-border terrorism does not stop. It is not stopping anywhere in the world. Talks are going on. What is happening in Iraq? People are still talking, trying to find a solution. The Arab League has met, other colleagues have met. So, this idea that you get stuck in a mindset is not helpful. I say this with the greatest respect for the distinguished President of Pakistan. 

Question :  General Musharraf has invited Mrs. Sonia Gandhi to Pakistan. I want to know what is the thinking of the Government on this? What would be the status of that visit? 

Natwar Singh:  As you know, Shrimati Sonia Gandhi is the Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Alliance. If she will be invited to Pakistan, it is my personal hope that she will accept because I know the reception she will get there. When her son and daughter went, 50,000 Pakistanis received them at the airport. There will be warmth and feeling.