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CNN Saturday Morning News

India, Pakistan Say They Want to Avoid War

Aired June 08, 2002 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In South Asia, U.S. diplomatic efforts are trying to silence the drums of war that are beating over a disputed region of Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan say they are intent on avoiding a war.

Senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy joins us now live from the Indian capital of New Delhi.

Hi, Mike.

MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra, greetings from New Delhi, where the temperature is over 100 degrees, but the temperature in the conflict between India and Pakistan appears to have lowered somewhat.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage has left New Delhi after a mediation mission that took him here and to the capital of Pakistan amid signs that he's coaxed India and Pakistan back from the brink.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DILEEP PADGAONNKAR, "TIMES OF INDIA": Publicly for the first time, Armitage has said that Musharraf has given the Americans guarantees that infiltration from across the border is going to stop, and it's going to stop permanently. That, I think, can be called a breakthrough -- a modest one, but a breakthrough nonetheless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHINOY: The key thing for India is that infiltration of Islamic militants from Pakistan into India and controlled Kashmir end once and for all. The Indians seem to accept Armitage's assurances that Pakistan's leader was committed to that, and the Indian leadership has been meeting here today trying to fashion a response. The talk is about some kind of reciprocal move in the coming days on the diplomatic front, perhaps a return of ambassadors to each other's capitals.

And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is due in here at the end of this coming week, and he's likely to push for some kind of military deescalation.

Indian officials, meanwhile, are downplaying the impact of an episode in which Pakistan shot down an unmanned Indian reconnaissance plane over Pakistani territory, saying that the reconnaissance mission was routine, insisting that it is not going to have any impact on the broader picture. The Indians say that if President Musharraf's assurances about infiltration prove genuine in the coming weeks, then there could be a way out of this very dangerous crisis between these two nuclear-armed neighbors -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Mike Chinoy from New Delhi, thank you.

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