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Restore status quo ante on LoC, says Russia

The Lahore talks were a diversion created by Pakistan to help infiltration in the Kargil sector, and Moscow invests strong faith in restoration of the status quo ante on the Line of Control as essential for the settlement of the Kashmir issue, says Russian news agency Novosti.

''The situation in Kashmir deteriorated recently as a consequence of the decision to choose the Himalayas as a training ground for commandos to get through the LoC in the vicinity of Kargil,'' a Novosti commentary said yesterday.

Moscow had told Pakistan, following Islamabad's request for Russia's mediation in the wake of the Kashmir conflict, that the settlement of the Kashmir issue lay in the restoration of the status quo ante on the LoC, the dispatch said.

Articulating the Kremlin's stand, author of the commentary Yuri Filippov said Moscow, greatly perturbed by the events in Kashmir, had called upon both India and Pakistan to enter into bilateral talks as a most effective vehicle for reaching an accord to defuse the Kargil crisis.

Russia had stressed that the two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, must realise that mounting tensions between them will lead to instability in the subcontinent, he said.

The news agency reminded the two countries that Russia still being a ''major European and Asian power'' cannot remain indifferent to the Kashmir developments.

Russian foreign office has already indicated the possibility of Moscow's role in arranging bilateral talks between India and Pakistan, but first the status quo ante along the borders must be preserved, Novosti emphasised.

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

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