David Milliband is correct when he says that it is essential to tackle terrorism around the world at its roots, and that terrorism emanating from Pakistan is different from that in the Middle East or Sri Lanka as “different disputes” were involved.
Why is India so upset about this?
Miliband’s Kashmir remarks upset India -DAWN - Top Stories; January 18, 2009
Miliband’s Kashmir remarks upset India
NEW DELHI, Jan 17: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s trip to India, billed as a ‘solidarity visit’ following the deadly Mumbai attacks, was dubbed ‘upsetting’ by the government on Saturday.
Miliband raised Indian hackles by linking the Kashmir dispute to the Mumbai attacks and because of what government sources called his ‘aggressive style’ during his three-day visit which ended on Friday.
“There is no linkage between Kashmir and the terror India has been facing emanating from Pakistan… The bureaucracy in the British foreign office should have educated him (Miliband) a little bit on the facts,” ruling Congress party spokesman Manish Tiwari told reporters.
Miliband’s “aggressive style, the tone and manner in which he conducted himself during talks with the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) and the foreign minister (Pranab Mukherjee) were also upsetting,” a government source told AFP on Saturday.
A report in the Hindu newspaper quoted a senior foreign ministry official as dismissing Miliband, who is 43, as “a young man”. “I guess this is the way he thinks diplomacy is conducted,” the unidentified official said. The Hindu quoted another Indian official as saying the two government meetings with Miliband were “pretty awful”. Even when Miliband was in India, the government made its displeasure known. “We do not need unsolicited advice on internal issues in India like Kashmir,” said foreign office spokesman Vishnu Prakash.
Another Indian official called the foreign ministry criticism of Miliband ‘unprecedented’, saying it was the first time New Delhi “had ticked off a government minister from a UN Security Council member country while the visit was ongoing”. —AFP
UK for ‘intensive’ Indo-Pak dialogue to resolve Kashmir issue- Hindustan Times
UK for ‘intensive’ Indo-Pak dialogue to resolve Kashmir issue
Britain has sought an “intensive dialogue” between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir problem, a day after New Delhi dismissed its previous attempt to link the issue to terrorism in the region as “unsolicited advice” on internal matters.
The UK would back an “intensive India-Pakistan dialogue” for the settlement of the Kashmir problem, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told a press conference in Islamabad last night.
He was responding to a question on his comments in an article in the British daily ‘Guardian’ published on Thursday in which he sought to link the Kashmir issue to terrorism in the region.
Reacting to his article, the Indian government had said it did not share his views and did not need “unsolicited advice on internal issues” of the country.
Miliband last night made it clear that the resolution of the Kashmir issue “depends on India and Pakistan (and) not Britain”.
He said it was essential to tackle terrorism around the world at its roots. In this regard, he said that terrorism emanating from Pakistan is different from that in the Middle East or Sri Lanka as “different disputes” were involved.
The Kashmir issue also figured in Miliband’s parleys yesterday with Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, who welcomed the UK Foreign Secretary’s article in "Guardian’.
The resolution of the “root cause of extremism” would enable the Pakistan government to “effectively focus its attention to tackle the threats of extremism and terrorism on its western borders”, Gilani was quoted as saying in an official statement.