West Midlands Euro-MP welcomes India-Pakistan dialogue

12.47.40pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 2nd May 2003

Liz Lynne has long campaigned for an equitable solution to the Kashmir situation.

Liz Lynne MEP, a member of the European Parliament's South Asia delegation and President of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Kashmir, has welcomed an announcement by Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee to resume talks with Pakistan.

This follows on from a phone call offering talks from the newly elected Pakistan government on Monday.

Liz commented:

"It is vital that these two nuclear powers renew diplomatic channels. Following on from Pakistan's elections last autumn, Mr Vajpayee's agreement to talks is very encouraging."

"The Kashmir situation remains unresolved after over 50 years of tension. While the international community finally stood up and paid attention to the region last year, it was after years of ignoring the tensions between the two countries and unfortunately was only due to the fact that both came to the brink of nuclear war. I hope the lesson has now been learnt and the whole international community, including the EU and the United Nations, will not wait until the next crisis before taking an active interest in the situation."

"I hope both Pakistan and India will now see that it is in their own countries' best interest to finally come to a long term solution. Having said that, the wishes of the Kashmiri people must be taken into account."

"Liz Lynne is also Vice Chair of the All Party Kashmir Intergroup in the European Parliament.