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SA says it will push India-Pak dialogue, mum on discord over N-issue

South Africa today said it will encourage India and Pakistan to enter into a dialogue to resolve peacefully various outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir and national security.

South African vice-president Thabo Mbeki, speaking at a press conference in Durban, said his government has extended full support to India's endeavour to settle all outstanding issues with Pakistan in a cordial and friendly atmosphere.

Expressing his country's concern over the nuclear proliferation in the world, Mbeki said both India and Pakistan had sent their envoys to explain their stand on the nuclear tests conducted by them in May.

The South African government was given this impression that the leaders of India and Pakistan would discuss bilateral issues.

Mbeki said South Africa had already destroyed all its nuclear weapons as it feels the world does not require weapons of mass destruction.

The vice -president. while briefing the media on the ministerial discussion on nuclear disarmament, said the issue was being debated at the political affairs committee meeting of NAM ministers.

He refused to divulge whether South Africa had differences with India on the nuclear disarmament issue, saying Pretoria's stand on this issue was already known.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said the Non-Aligned Movement should address itself to the concerns of the developing countries to prevent conflicts in various parts of the globe.

''It has to embark on the path of understanding and co-operation and work for achieving peace,'' the prime minister said in Durban at a function organised by the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha.

Vajpayee asked the gathering, ''Will humanity advance towards peace, cooperation and collective progress in the next century or towards intensification of the kind of conflicts and social schism, which have blighted this century?''

He said India offers a highly useful repository of ideals in the global search for peace. The need of the hour is to wholeheartedly accept the imperative of unity in diversity and diversity in unity.

This is becoming more important at the international level with rapid march of globalisation which is bringing countries, cultures and communities into closer interactions and interdependence than ever before.

He said India's relations with South Africa are special. ''I am in this country of yours to attend a summit of my fellow heads of government of countries who shared a history of oppression and are today seeking to build a world free of injustice and conflicts. In this struggle, India and South Africa are principled partners,'' he added.

UNI

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