DATE=3/16/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-SOUTH ASIA
NUMBER=5-45663
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton leaves Washington Saturday
on a long-delayed visit to South Asia. He'll visit
India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the course of an
eight-day mission that will include talks with Indian
and Pakistani leaders on critical security issues
including Kashmir and the regional nuclear arms race.
VOA's David Gollust has a report from the White House.
TEXT: The visit to South Asia is a first by a U-S
President in more than two decades and it will be
dominated by a five-day, five-city tour of India -
with which the United States has had burgeoning trade
relations in recent years.
Though India is the world's largest democracy,
relations with Washington were often strained during
the Cold War years as new Delhi frequently sided with
the former Soviet Union, while the United States built
close security ties with Pakistan. However, Clinton
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger says the
President's visit and meetings with Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other leaders will symbolize
a transformation of the bilateral relationship:
/// BERGER ACTUALITY ///
What this trip is fundamentally about, and I
think the most important dimension is to try to
establish a new partnership with India, to not
see India as a function of China, or a function
of the Soviet Union. But to see India as the
world's largest, perhaps most vibrant, certainly
the most promising democracies. We are natural
allies, Prime Minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee
said not too long ago. And I think that's a view
we share and have a tremendous opportunity to
re-shape, I think, over time to re-shape the
nature of our relationship to reflect their
importance.
/// END ACT ///
Plans by Mr. Clinton to visit the region were
cancelled after India and Pakistan conducted nuclear
tests in 1998, and the trip was further jeopardized by
last years clash between the two powers along the line
of control in Kashmir and the military coup in
Pakistan last October. Administration officials
acknowledge that the trip comes as at a time when
South Asian tensions are at their highest level since
the last Indian-Pakistani war in 1971, that President
Clinton will urge renewed dialogue on Kashmir and a
roll-back of the South Asian arms race.
The President's decision to visit Pakistan - announced
only a week ago - was controversial and criticized by
among others human rights activists who say the
country should have been shunned because of the
October coup. However Frank Wisner, a senior State
Department official in both the Bush and Clinton
administrations, says bypassing Islamabad would have
meant forfeiting any hope of influencing the military
regime:
/// WISNER ACTUALITY ///
I believe fundamentally that if you're going to
do business with a country as important as
Pakistan certainly is, at a time there are real
issues on the table, you have to be able to
communicate. And to be able to communicate,
you've got to communicate at the very highest
levels. The history of the past has been that we
have influence with Pakistan. If we decide not
to communicate, then we don't have influence. We
can't use our influence in a constructive way.
/// END ACTUALITY ///
The President's decision is also supported by Shirin
Tahir-Kheli, a Bush administration foreign policy aide
who now directs the South Asia Institute of the Johns
Hopkins University School of Advanced International
Studies. She says that while Mr. Clinton will not
attempt to mediate the Kashmir dispute, he can at
least press the two sides to resume an official
dialogue that has been virtually non-existent for many
months:
/// TAHIR-KHELI ACTUALITY ///
Today, India and Pakistan have zero interaction
at the government level, and at any level. And
this is unheard of in the recent histories of
countries with antagonisms like that. You did
not have it in the East-West, you did not have
that in the Middle East, track two, track one,
anything. So I think it highlights the need for
engagement. And I don't see anybody either than
the President of the United States in this
position to be able to bring that to
the notice of the two leaders.
/// END ACT ///
Aides say that during his brief Pakistan visit March
25th, Mr. Clinton will meet military leader General
Pervez Musharaff but also deliver a televised message
to the Pakistani people in which he will stress U-S
support for a return to democracy. He will also urge
that the life of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
be spared if he is convicted in his current trial on
hijacking, attempted murder and other charges.
Mr. Clinton's visit to Bangladesh next Monday will be
the first ever by a sitting U-S President and will be
aimed a paying tribute to what officials here say are
impressive strides by that country in combating
poverty and building an inclusive democracy. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/TVM/PT
16-Mar-2000 19:43 PM EDT (17-Mar-2000 0043 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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