Britain not to `lecture` India, Pak on bilateral relations

H S Rao
London, May 27 (PTI) Britain's new Conservative-led
government Thursday made it clear that it does not intend to
"lecture" India and Pakistan over their strained relationship,
even as it welcomed the resumption of talks between them.
Ahead of his visit to Islamabad, Foreign Secretary
William Hague said: "it will not be our approach to lecture
other countries on how they should conduct their bilateral
relations."
Hague's predecessor David Miliband had become a centre
of a diplomatic row between India and Britain after he
suggested that the Kashmir issue was at the root of terror
attacks like the one in Mumbai.
In an article last year, Miliband wrote: "Resolution
of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the
region one of their main calls to arms".
India was upset by the suggestion and had registered a
protest with Britain.
Hague's remarks that his government intends to stay
out of Indo-Pak matters is an indication that the new
dispensation would be careful not to stir another such
diplomatic row.
Welcoming the improvement in Indo-Pak ties, including
plans for foreign minister-level talks in July, Hague told
reporters that this "is of course important to relations in
that region and the future peace in the world".
"But our approach would not be to tell those countries
what to do, they must take forward their own bilateral
relations," he said.
Hague plans to visit Pakistan in the next few weeks
and India in the summer. PTI