India Rules Out Dialogue With Pakistan

January 8, 2002 - 0:0
NEW DELHI -- India ruled out Monday any immediate prospect of a dialogue with Pakistan, saying Islamabad had shown no sign of changing its stance towards the issue of terrorism, AFP reported.

"Where is the question of dialogue, when there is no change of attitude," Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Indian Security Cabinet which reviewed the weekend's South Asian Regional Summit in Nepal.

"So far as Pakistan's attitude and approach towards terrorism is concerned ... regrettably there is no change," Singh said.

He also accused Pakistan of double standard in addressing international terrorism and the activities of Muslim groups operating in Indian Kashmir.

India and Pakistan have massed troops on their border in the wake of last month's attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, which left 14 people dead.

BLAIR LEAVES INDIA FOR PAKISTAN

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair left India for Pakistan on Monday on the next stage of a U.S.-backed mission to cool military tensions between the South Asian nuclear rivals and nudge them towards a dialogue.

Blair left New Delhi shortly after midday aboard a Hercules C-130 military transport plane.

The British prime minister held talks Sunday with his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee and was scheduled to meet later Monday with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.

Throughout his four-day visit to India, Blair pushed a two-stage process for defusing Indo-Pakistan tensions, involving a complete rejection of terrorism, followed by a political dialogue.