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US has its own reasons to back India: Dixit

Former Foreign Secretary J N Dixit has said the Kargil intrusion occurred because India had a care-taker government and that the main objective of Pakistan was to precipitate a situation in which Kashmir would be centre-staged and internationalised.

Addressing a public meeting organised by 'Vigil', an RSS-backed public opinion forum, in Madras yesterday, he said India should not be unduly optimistic over the international opinion being in its favour on the Kargil issue.

He said the United States had its own reasons for backing India's position. It did not want a weakened Pakistan and would now back India rather than let things drift towards a war which would weaken Pakistan.

China did not want to antagonise India and was remaining neutral at this juncture as it knew that India could "set off centrifugal forces" in Tibet or Xinjiang.

Dixit pointed out that during the Bangladesh war, the Soviet Union had used its veto power nine times to prevent US intervention in India. But the situation could not be expected to be the same now, he added.

Dixit said Pakistan was hoping to create a Kosovo-like situation, wherein the US, on its own or with the security council's mandate could interfere to "make peace."

But Pakistan failed to realise that India was no Bosnia or Kosovo and the US would think several times before interfering in the issue, he added.

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

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