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| Friday, 28 January 2005 |
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Pakistan says not seeking arms race with India BRUSSELS, Thursday (Reuters) Pakistan is not seeking to start an arms race with India, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said, but added there could be no full peace between the states without a solution on Kashmir. The South Asian nuclear-armed neighbours have come a long way in patching up relations since going to the brink of a fourth war in 2002, but the issue of the disputed Kashmir region remains. "Pakistan does not want to enter into an arms race with any country, including India, whether nuclear or conventional," Aziz told the Belgian Royal Institute for International Relations. "We will continue to pursue a policy of restraint and responsibility in nuclear matters," he added. Aziz said India's conventional forces "vastly outnumbered" those of Pakistan and that the gap was getting larger, much to the concern of Islamabad. "This is causing a serious imbalance in the region," he said. Top diplomats from the countries met in December to discuss the dispute over Kashmir which lies at the heart of the rivalry between the countries, but little headway was made. Aziz said there was no chance of Pakistan and India reconciling their difference unless the Kashmir dispute was resolved in a way acceptable to the people living there. "There can be no peace unless this dispute is resolved in accordance with the wishes of the people," he said. |
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