Congressional Statements

Pallone urges Bush Administration to exert pressure on Pakistan in order to resume talks with India

Press Release
April 24, 2003

Long Branch, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today praised Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for statements he made in Kashmir this past week showing a willingness to resume stalled negotiations with Pakistan, but called on the Bush Administration to apply pressure on Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf to crack down on cross border terrorism in Kashmir in order to resume negotiations over the disputed Indian state. The New Jersey congressman made his request to the administration today in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"I believe the opportunity currently exists for India and Pakistan to negotiate a peace settlement of their differences," Pallone wrote in his letter to Powell. "The opportunity may not last very long because Prime Minister Vajpayee is under a considerable amount of domestic pressure to take a harder stand against Pakistan. In an attempt to bring Pakistan and India to the negotiating table, I believe it is vitally important that the administration tell Musharraf that now is the time to stop the cross border terrorism."

The New Jersey congressman was referring to comments by the prime minister during a speech in Srinagar in which he stated: "We are again extending the hand of friendship but hands should be extended from both sides. Both sides should decide to live together. We have everything that could make a good relationship." In his letter to Secretary Powell, Pallone wrote that based on these statements by the prime minister he believes the Indian government is prepared once again to begin talks with Pakistan. Pallone pointed to past statements made by the prime minister that led to talks between the two nations before the Kargil War as strong indicators that the prime minister is sincere in his words.

"Of course, such negotiations cannot occur until Pakistan stops infiltration of terrorists into Kashmir and ceases to support terrorist training camps and schools that breed hatred towards India and its governance of Kashmir," Pallone continued in his letter. "Currently, based on the continuation of daily terrorist acts throughout Kashmir and India, I am not confident General Musharraf is serious about ending cross border terrorism. The only way I envision General Musharraf reversing two years of broken promises to crack down on terrorism against India is for the Bush administration to exert more pressure on Pakistan."

Pallone, cofounder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, reiterated his frustration with the administration's efforts to pressure Musharraf to eliminate cross border terrorism in Kashmir. In his letter to Powell, Pallone pointed to comments made by U.S. Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill upon his resignation from the post last Monday. According to a news report in Tuesday's Financial Times, Blackwill had become "increasingly frustrated with the U.S. State Department's reluctance to exert more pressure on Pakistan to close down its alleged terrorist camps."

The Financial Times goes on to write that Blackwill stated: "The fight against international terrorism will not be won until terrorism against India ends permanently. There can be no other legitimate stance by the US, no American compromise whatever on this elemental geopolitical and moral truth, otherwise we sink into a swamp of strategic myopia."