New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to convey India's disappointment on Foreign Secretary David Miliband's comments linking terror to a resolution on Kashmir.
Miliband's comments also seem to have affected the visit of British Secretary of State for Business Peter Mandelson.
He reportedly sought an appointment with the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee but did not get a reply.
It was conveyed to him later that things could have been different if it weren't for Miliband's remarks.
Miliband had written an article in The Guardian on January 15 linking India's fight against terror to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
"...on my visit to South Asia this week, I am arguing that the best antidote to the terrorist threat in the long term is cooperation. Although I understand the current difficulties, resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms, and allow Pakistani authorities to focus more effectively on tackling the threat on their western borders," Miliband said in his article published on Thursday (January 15).
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reacted to Miliband's article with MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash commenting, ""Mr Miliband is entitled to his views, which are clearly his own and are evolving. We do not need unsolicited advice on the internal issues of India like Jammu and Kashmir."
When asked by Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN show The Devil’s Advocate that whether Britain believed that the time has come for either an American or an international initiative to sort out Kashmir, Miliband replied, "Well, that’s not been our policy, no. We have felt that the composite dialogue so called between India and Pakistan is the right way forward, it’s a bilateral issue. Bilateral track has been a good track and it should be used."
Reacting to Manmohan's letter, British High Commission told CNN-IBN that Miliband did not justify terrorism.
British High Commission said that they will be having private discussions with Indian officials to help understand the Indian point of view better but admitted that Miliband's visit has caused some controversy.
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