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Clinton kicks off S Asia tour
NEW DELHI. Mar 19 . Bill Clinton was heading towards India today for a six-day tour of South Asia, which marks the first visit by a US president to the unsettled region for more than two decades, reports AFP.
The president, daughter Chelsea, and his aides left Andrews Air Force base aboard Air Force One at 4:27 p.m. (3:27 am BST), a base spokeswoman told AFP.
India will command the lion's share of the president's tour, sandwiched between a one-day visit to Bangladesh and a stopover of several hours in Islamabad for talks with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.
The visit is eagerly awaited in India, which has not hosted a US president since Jimmy Carter in 1978 and wants to bring a new dynamism to a relationship that has suffered from more than 50 years of neglect.
"Obviously, what 1 hope to do
first Is to rekindle the relationship between the US and India." Clinton said in Washington on Friday.
"We have a lot of things we can do together. A lot of mutual Interests.
India and the United States will sign a political document laving a road map for future ties during Clinton's visit, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sat-
''The statement, a political document, will set the direction for future Indo-US relations." he said.
But the mutual desire to see Indo-US ties launched on a new broad-based footing is tempered by deep differences over nuclear non-proliferation and US concerns over escalating military tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
The United States imposed a raft of sanctions on India after its May. 1998 underground nuclear tests, which triggered a tit-for-tat response from Pakistan.
Some have since been lifted and Washington has clearly linked withdrawal of the remainder to progress on nonproliferation and moves towards an easing of tensions with Pakistan.
"I want to do what I can to reduce tensions in the Indian subcontinent. to reduce the likelihood of weapons proliferation and the likelihood of conflict." Clinton said.
It is unlikely that Clinton's visit will see any concrete development on sanctions, with India stiffly resisting pressure to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and rejecting US offers to mediate in the dispute over Kashmir.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Saturday India would Hot sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) during the visit.
We are not going to sign CTBT during Clinton's visit, but the issue win be discussed." Vajpayee told reporters.
Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said Friday: "Our experience of any kind of third party facilitation. Intervention or mediation in South Asia through historical precedents Is not happy at all."
The Line of Control dividing Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir witnessed a bloody two-month conflict last year, and the current level of tensions is fuelling fears of a similar confrontation this summer.
In the run-up to the president's arrival. New Delhi has sought to shift the focus away from contentious Issues and push the visit as the beginning of a fresh Indo-US relationship founded on strengthened economic ties.
"A new dawn and a new op-portunity beckons for both of us and It is best that our two countries step forward together." said Singh, stressing India would not be overawed by the United States' superpower sta-
tus.
"It Is not as if the US Is meeting India to conier upon India something or to give it something. The two big democracies are meeting as equals and are looking ahead.” he said.
During his March 21-25 state trip. Clinton will visit the infotech showcase city of 1 Ivder-abad. as well as India's financial centre, Bombay.
Before that he will make a one-day visit to Bangladesh on Monday -- the first by a US president since the former East Pakistan won Its independence in 1971.
The trip will end with a controversial stopover in Pakistan. which the administration has repeatedly Insisted is in no way an endorsement of Musharraf's military rule
"I want to do what I can to support the restoration of democratic rule in Pakistan." Clinton said.