'I don't see any tilts in our relationship towards either country.Tilts are for the past'

Karl Inderfurth, United States assistant secretary of state for South Asia, has just completed a tour of the subcontinent. He shared his assessment of his trip at a media conference with South Asian reporters in Washington:

Karl Inderfurth: I have just returned from what I think was a successful visit to the South Asian region, stopping in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. I had very good meetings with government and political leaders. I also had a chance to go to various sites and countries to get a better sense for the history and culture of the region. And then in Lahore I went to the Iqbal Tomb; did such things as going to the hydropower project, the Bodakoshi Project in Nepal, to get a firsthand look at the potential for hydropower development in Nepal; travelled by train from Amritsar to New Delhi after I had gone across the Wagah border crossing, and then taken by the Pakistani commander and handed over to the Indian commander, and then we all had our photograph taken together right there -- a very cordial ceremony.

Clearly, this trip gave me a chance to meet officials and leaders and to get some understanding of the region's great diversity. And although I still have a great deal to learn, I feel quite comfortable in the job that I'm undertaking.

I also had the opportunity at the end of my visit to be a part of the official delegation at the funeral for Mother Teresa in Calcutta. My trip had been scheduled to end on Friday, and I was in Dhaka and I was asked to go to Calcutta to join the First Lady of the United States and what was a very distinguished delegation that had come over from Washington DC for that. There were actually two delegations, one with the First Lady, and then there was also a congressional delegation. In that capacity, I was also able to join her for meetings with the new Indian President and the prime minister. Both of those meetings went very well and were very cordial.

I do see my visit as the first step in a process that we hope will lead to greater US engagement in South Asia. The next step, a much larger step than mine, I might add, will be on Monday in New York when the US president meets with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief (of Pakistan) and Prime Minister I K Gujral (of India). Undersecretary Thomas Pickering, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the president will visit the region in the coming months.

It's our view that South Asia is very important to the United States, and we intend to be increasingly involved with the region. It is my good fortune to be the new assistant secretary of state when all of these things are happening, and I look forward to the task very much. With that, why don't I answer questions?

QUESTION: Recently, Congressman Pallone said the state department continues to have a tilt against India and towards Pakistan. Now, since you have been on both sides, would you like to respond to that?

Inderfurth: I don't see any tilts in our relationship towards either country. As I told leaders in both India and Pakistan, we very much want to strengthen our relations with both countries. There will be no tilt. The fact is that we have common interests in so many ways with both countries, and we will pursue them. I don't see a tilt. I will be going up to Capitol Hill, and meeting with Congressman Pallone and members of the India Caucus. They've asked me to come up to brief them on my visit and the upcoming discussions in New York and visit. So I look forward to talking to him about that. But tilts are for the past.

In your visit now, in your conversations with Indian officials as well as Pakistan officials, did you get a better sense of what exactly is going on in Kashmir as far as the bilateral talks are concerned? And what has been the Pakistani reaction, especially to what could be a US role in that region?

Let me say to you what I said in both capitals and to all that asked me the question on my visit. The United States does not intend to be a mediator in this dispute. We are a supporter of the process. We made it very clear -- I made it very clear in both New Delhi and Islamabad that we very much support the process initiated by Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharief and Gujral that the Indo-Pak talks proceed, and we very much support that. But we do not see a role for the United States as mediator. We have said that we would be willing to assist, if asked by both parties. And that is our stated policy, and I will repeat it as often as necessary.

We are very pleased that the foreign secretary talks took place. Indian Foreign Secretary Raghunath said "we are clear in our mind that the serious dialogue should continue." Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad said, "During these talks, we were able to understand each other's position in a better manner" and "We hope to continue our discussions with the same spirit in which the leadership of the two countries have started this process of dialogue."

These are the kinds of positive statements that we hoped to hear after this round concluded. I didn't get into details of these discussions with either party. These are talks for the parties to pursue. But they know of our strong support, and that support will be reiterated at the highest level of our government when President Clinton meets with the two leaders on Monday.

Could you give us some idea of what kinds of things will be discussed in President Clinton's meeting with both the prime ministers now that you've been to the region and have for yourself got a feel of it?

I wish I could answer that question. But I think that having been in government long enough and at different times to know that whatever you may prepare in your briefing books may not be exactly what's discussed in the meeting -- I think that we can all envision the usual list of suspects for topics.

But I think that in those meetings in New York, in the amount of time that they will have -- 30, 45, minutes for each meeting -- I think that most importantly the leaders will seek to establish rapport with each other and to have some sense of where they are going with their policies and really where they want to take their countries. I mean, I think that there are a lot of things they can discuss. I know that, for instance, Pakistan Prime Minister Sharief has been very concerned about the economic performance of his country.This was what he ran his election on. And of course, there's a great similarity there, in the sense that President Clinton, when he ran for office in 1992, was using the expression "It's the economy, stupid" -- I don't think he used it, but his campaign used it -- to focus on the economy and dealing with our economic problems at home.

Economic performance is, I think, an issue that I would certainly envision and would be a discussion point between the president and the prime minister of Pakistan and, indeed, what the United States can do to assist in that process. I think that's one area.

I think that when we think of Prime Minister Gujral, clearly this is a man that has shown vision in his foreign policy, both as foreign minister and now as prime minister. I think it is a vision that is quite compatible with that of President Clinton, to the extent that both are looking to the future and trying to put past conflicts behind. I think that we have in the Gujral doctrine of India's approach towards the smaller states of the region something that is very welcomed not only by those in the region itself but those, including the United States, outside the region.

I'm sure there will be a number of bilateral issues that will come up in both meetings, and I do think that the bilateral issues will be the focus of both meetings. But leaders are leaders, and leaders will discuss whatever they wish to discuss. There were no preconditions for either set of discussions. There were no conditions set on what would or would not be discussed. But clearly, our emphasis is on strengthening our bilateral relations, and also to explore with both leaders where they are leading their countries and where they would like to see their countries several years down the road.

Continued