'We Understand Indian Frustrations And Anger'

Question: Secretary Powell has already spoken on India and Pakistan, said he has made some phone calls. Could you bringus up to date on that? And also, any reaction to Pakistan planning to do some missile tests in the nearfuture?

Philip T. Reeker: Let's start with that. I think you did see, certainly on the wires, and I think some of the White Housetranscripts or coverage may have mentioned some comments Secretary Powell made. In that vein, we continue tohave strong concerns, as Secretary Powell said, about the potential for conflict between India and Pakistan,and about the danger of that conflict spiraling out of control.

We remain very deeply engaged with the Indians and the Pakistanis and others in the international communityto try to reduce tensions, avoid an outbreak of fighting, and get the parties back into an atmosphere wherethey can pursue the absolutely vital dialogue which is necessary.

As the Secretary indicated, he has made a number of phone calls. He spoke this morning with Indian Ministerof External Affairs Jaswant Singh. I mentioned yesterday he had spoken twice with President Musharraf ofPakistan, as well as several phone calls with the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Straw. Other senior StateDepartment officials and other administration officials have remained in close touch with their counterpartsin South Asia and in other capitals around the world.

We are coordinating our activities very closely with the international community. I think we discussedyesterday the fact that EU Commissioner Patten is now in the region. British Foreign Secretary Straw is goingto be there May 28th and 29th. Deputy Secretary Armitage, as I told you yesterday, will leave Washington forSouth Asia on June 4th. He will have meetings in Pakistan and India the 6th and 7th of June.

So we have continued our liaison with the British and with other foreign governments on this because we areall very concerned about the potential for conflict there, and we are all delivering the same message to theIndians and the Pakistanis on the need to reduce those tensions and try to create a more conducive atmospherefor dialogue. It's very vital that all involved do their utmost to exercise restraint, to lower the rhetoric,reduce the violence.

As I said yesterday, we understand Indian frustrations and anger over continued terrorist actions. We sharethe common goal of seeing terrorist actions stopped. And we reiterate however as our central point, ratherthan being the solution, any military action in this crisis would create even greater problems and must not bean option in this situation. So as I said, we believe it's important for India and Pakistan to resume aproductive dialogue over the issues that divide them, and that includes Kashmir, because only through dialoguewill their differences be resolved.

Let me just remind you of what we've said yesterday and continue to reiterate the important component of thisprocess being an end to infiltration into Kashmir, and we have called upon Pakistan to do all it can toachieve this objective.

In this context, as I noted yesterday, President Musharraf has made recent statements again that Pakistanwill not allow its territory to be used by terrorists for attacks anywhere. These positive statements need tobe linked with concrete actions. And so we will continue to work on this very, very closely, as I described.

Now, you had a second Question regarding --

Question: The missile tests. How does that factor into --

Philip T. Reeker: The missile tests, yes. We are disappointed by the Government of Pakistan's announced decision to flight-testmissiles at this time. The current tensions in the region that we were just discussing only reinforce the needfor India and Pakistan to take steps to prevent a costly and destabilizing arms race. And we think such anarms race would be a threat to regional and international security.

I will remind you that the Secretary said back in January, following India's missile test, that we hopeIndia and Pakistan will both begin to start going down the escalation ladder. And so we continue to urge bothsides to take steps to restrain their missile programs and their nuclear weapons programs, including thatthere be no operational deployment of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, begin a dialogue again onconfidence-building measures that could reduce the likelihood that any such weapons ever be used.

So we are disappointed in this. The Pakistanis notified us of this within the last week. I think they did apublic notification to airmen and mariners in the past couple of days as well.

Question: So are the US officials still trying to convince Pakistan not to go forward with this?

Philip T. Reeker: I think they are fully aware of our position. We have made quite clear that we think, given the currentsituation, the focus should be on steps to reduce tensions in the region; to, as I said, create an atmospherewhere they can pursue the necessary dialogue to deal with the issues that divide the two countries in apeaceful manner.

Question: We only heard about this today, but it may be that you heard about this earlier. Do you know whether theSecretary brought this up in his conversations yesterday with President Musharraf in --

Philip T. Reeker: I don't. I don't know the specifics of that. I know that there should be no Question that the Pakistanisunderstand our position on this. We have reiterated this, as I said, noting what the Secretary said inJanuary, following an Indian missile test. He referred to both India and Pakistan, hoping that they wouldbegin to start down the, as he called it, "escalation ladder." So we have been quite clear on thatfor some time.

I think there was a public notice to airmen and mariners in the past day or so that I saw, and as I said,the Pakistanis notified us sometime within this last week.

Question: Yeah, okay. Have you made your position known to them directly since you received notice this week?

Philip T. Reeker: Yes. Certainly we have continued to make that position well known, including what we are doing right here andnow from this podium.

Question: Do you have anything in particular on the new firing, artillery exchanges now for the first time, going tothe Siachen Glacier?

Philip T. Reeker: I don't. I don't think I had seen that. Clearly, as we have discussed all week, we have been concerned aboutthe increase in firing across the line of control. It has become quite heavy. This is why we have these strongconcerns, why we have found the situation quite worrisome, why we are so engaged with both sides and witheveryone in the international community to press for a reduction in this violence and in the tension that isbetween the two countries. It is a dangerous situation, and we will continue to remain very much engaged totry to get that tension down and create an atmosphere for dialogue.