WASHINGTON, June 10: Angrily denying that there was any American tilt towards Islamabad, US Assistant Secretary of State Rick Inderfurth said the Kashmir dispute was an international reality that could not be wished away and called on India and Pakistan to address the matter bilaterally.``There is no tilt in our policy. Could we all move beyond that kind of baggage-laden terminology? We are not tilting. We are trying to find a way that these two countries, now that they have made sovereign decisions to test, can step back, and take a deep breath to think through the consequences, Inderfurth responded sharply when an Indian journalist suggested at a briefing on Tuesday that Washington was adopting a pro-Pakistan tilt in the aftermath of the nuclear tests in the sub-continent.Asked why the Clinton administration had lately adopted the diplomatic language used by Pakistan to describe the Kashmir issue, Inderfurth said the US was not using Pakistani language or goals but simply recognising an internationalfact of life: Kashmir is a fundamental dispute between the two sides and it was absolutely essential to resolve the problem now that nuclear weapons have been added to this very volatile mix.Inderfurth, who heads the South Asia bureau in the State Department, made it clear however that the US and the international community stood by to assist India and Pakistan in this matter and the issue had to be addressed bilaterally - a position that is consonant with New Delhi's stand. We are not tilting or not adopting one's country's language or position, he repeated.A former journalist who joined Secretary of State Madeliene Albright's team during President Clinton's second term, Inderfurth was briefing South Asian correspondents for the first time after the nuclear tests in the sub-continent. Although said to be personally angered by the developments that has virtually scuppered President Clinton's trip to the region, his comments today appeared to suggest that the administration was ready to leave therecrimination behind and move on to a more constructive engagement aimed at freezing the developments in the sub-continent.But Kashmir was definitely on top of the agenda as Inderfurth carefully trod the middle ground between Indian sensitivities on the subject and Pakistani call for third party mediation. In deference to Islamabad's position, he said the US was absolutely convinced that the time was now for India and Pakistan ``to meet, to discuss, to resume dialogue'' to address the fundamental issue that has divided the two countries for 50 years. The international community is also more directly engaged with India and Pakistan in terms of offering assistance and expressing strong concerns, he added.But keeping apparently India's sensitivities in mind, he also said the US wish is for the the contending parties to address the issue directly.There is no desire on part of the P-5 or US to mediate. But we will advance ideas to resolve it and to provide assistance, he offered.Inderfurth's languagewas also less offensive and his position more understanding of the region's security concerns, though he echoed the US administration's disagreement about the two countries going down the nuclear path.Saying the decisions taken by India and Pakistan cannot be undone, he said the US was going to remain engaged and try and persuade India and Pakistan to de-escalate consistent with their legitimate security needs."We are fully cognisant and aware that both decisions have been driven by their own analysis of their national security requirements," he said. He added, "We respectfully disagree with the outcome of the decision-making process. Those are decisions taken, they cannot be undone. But what we can do is to make them move away.Despite the show of accommodation, there were flashes of pique in the senior official's tete-e-tete. For instance, he declined to confirm or elaborate on the forthcoming meeting between BJP leader Jaswant Singh and Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, although other administrationsources indicated such a contact had been scheduled for Friday.The Assistant Secretary of State also maintained there was no place for India and Pakistan at the table for the G-8 conference in London, although other countries would be attending the meeting at the margins.As for the sanctions, the Assistant Secretary put a new spin on it by saying the embargo was designed to influence and not to punish. Sanctions will have to have a degree of flexibility and it is literally under day to day review, he said. While maintaining that the US did not intend to destroy the economies of the region, he however suggested that there would be no selective discrimination between the two countries in this matter, saying ``The sanctions do not speak to who tested first and who tested second. We follow the law here.''
