Kashmir (Hansard, 28 October 1997)

§ 6. Mr. Pike
What recent discussions the Government have had with representatives of the Indian and Pakistan Governments on the issue of Kashmir. [12117]

§ Mr. Robin Cook
I discussed Kashmir with senior political figures during the recent visit to Pakistan and India. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister also had the opportunity to meet the Prime Ministers of both countries at the weekend. Britain continues to be willing to help, but any offer of help must be acceptable to both countries.

§ Mr. Pike
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he recognises that there is considerable international concern about the on-going conflict in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in which more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past 12 months? During recent months, there has been renewed shelling over the line of control. Will he make it clear that it is the Government's policy to give full support to the bilateral talks between India and Pakistan, with the hope that that leads to a conclusion of the conflict, while recognising that Pakistan and India have more to gain than anybody else from the solution to the problem?

§ Mr. Cook
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The two countries have a lot to gain from bilateral discussion, particularly by an improvement in trade, which is at present only 1 per cent. of their two gross domestic products. We warmly welcome the fact that the Prime Minister of India has initiated such a bilateral dialogue and we were glad that we were able at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to ensure that both of them had the opportunity to have a further bilateral dialogue, which I understand went well.

§ Dr. Fox
Who authorised Government spin doctors to try to blacken the name of our high commissioner in India, David Gore-Booth? It is surely correct to blame not 696 the servants but the masters for the failures of foreign policy. When will amateur hour at the Foreign Office come to an end?

§ Mr. Cook
No spin doctor and no official at the Foreign Office has uttered any hostile word to David Gore-Booth, who behaved—[Interruption.] I am happy to assure the House that that is exactly so. I have seen no reference in any British newspaper to any suggestion that any British spin doctor, official, news briefer—whatever one chooses to call them—has uttered a word of hostility to David Gore-Booth. On the contrary, I have myself said that he conducted himself with great dignity in sometimes very difficult circumstances.

§ Mr. Terry Davis
Will the Foreign Secretary confirm that, in deciding the future of Kashmir, the most important people are the Kashmiri people themselves?

§ Mr. Cook
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend that although the solution is primarily for both countries to find, that solution, if it is to be permanent and acceptable, must be acceptable to all the peoples of Kashmir: Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist.

§ Mr. Faber
Can the right hon. Gentleman clear up the confusion that he caused on "Today" two weeks ago when he said that the state visit to India had been an unqualified success, but that it was all the fault of the previous Government for arranging it at the wrong time?

§ Mr. Cook
I shall happily repeat to the hon. Gentleman that I think that it would have been better to be able to look forward to the next 50 years rather than backwards to the past 50 years. I am happy that he has noticed that the state visit was an unqualified success.

§ Mr. Faber
That is what you said.

§ Mr. Cook
The hon. Gentleman used my own words. Her Majesty was greeted with immense warmth by the people of India and our trade exhibition was an outstanding success. It would be helpful if Opposition Members recognised the contribution that Her Majesty has made to Anglo-Indian relations rather than running it down.

§ Mr. Galloway
Does the Foreign Secretary accept that, far from being a failure, his policy on Kashmir has millions of friends in this country and around the world who have been greatly cheered by his courage in standing up for an ethical foreign policy on behalf of a people who have been oppressed for the best part of the past 50 years by a Government—India—who have failed to implement the United Nations resolutions calling for self-determination for the people of that occupied territory? Has he had the chance to see the United States State Department report, which has described the line of control between India and Pakistan in Kashmir as the most dangerous flashpoint in international relations today—both sides of course having nuclear potential?

§ Mr. Cook
I am well aware of the report to which my hon. Friend refers. He is right to make the point that the 697 issue is of legitimate interest because both countries have near, perhaps undeclared, nuclear capacity. The issue will remain at the front of many minds.

§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Following the Foreign Secretary's notorious visit to Pakistan and India, would not the best way to solve the Kashmir problem be a period of quiet reflection by the British Government? Does not the difficult problem of Kashmir demonstrate that it would be dangerous for the British Government to act as an arbiter?

§ Mr. Cook
As I understand it, I am accused of having said that Britain would be willing to help to find a just solution. I remind the hon. Gentleman that the Prime Minister whom he supported in the previous Government said last April: we are prepared to help in the search for a solution".—[Official Report, 23 April 1996; Vol. 276, c. 192.] It is pure humbug to suggest that such an offer is statesmanship when made by a Tory Prime Minister, but lack of tact when made by a Labour Foreign Secretary.