Bush, Putin Oppose Pakistan’s Tests

As Pakistani missile tests sent a wave of new tension across South Asia, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin stood side by side Saturday calling for Pakistan and India to avoid escalating their conflict into open war.

In the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops fired mortars and used small arms along the cease-fire line, part of a border where the two nuclear-armed countries have deployed 1 million troops.

“The testing while there is escalating tension really aggravates the situation, and Russia is concerned and sorry about that,” Putin said.

But despite the concern expressed after Saturday’s test, Pakistan continued its planned tests today with a second launch.

Putin and Bush spoke to reporters during a tour of the Hermitage museum, part of the last full day of a visit to Russia by Bush that began Thursday. They were spending it in this city on the Gulf of Finland that is Putin’s hometown.

Bush said his administration was “making it clear to both parties that there is no benefit of a war; there’s no benefit of a clash that could eventually lead to a broader war.”

Specifically, he called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to adhere to a promise Musharraf made in January to halt incursions of his troops across the border.

“It’s important that the Indians know that he is going to fulfill that promise,” Bush said.

For his part, Putin urged both Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to join a regional summit early next month in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to which both have been invited. An Indian spokeswoman said Saturday that Vajpayee would attend; Musharraf has not made his plans known.

However, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan offered a positive response to Putin’s pressure, telling the country’s state-run news agency: “Pakistan has all along been pleading for settlement of all issues with India through dialogue.”

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, accompanying Bush on a weeklong trip to Germany, Russia, France and Italy, singled out the dispatch of Pakistani troops across the border, which he said was “very destabilizing and is a course of tension and has contributed to the situation we find ourselves in.”

He said he spoke with Musharraf twice Thursday and with the Indian foreign minister Friday.

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Killings in Kashmir

The clashes in Kashmir on Saturday killed at least three suspected Islamic militants and two Indian soldiers, the Indian army reported.

Saturday’s missile exercise, meanwhile, tested a device with a range of 900 miles, easily enough to reach India from deep inside Pakistani territory. Pakistan said it was the first of several planned tests.

The Indian government reacted coolly. “We didn’t take it too seriously,” Vajpayee said.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao also shrugged off the test, suggesting that it was aimed at exhibiting Pakistan’s strength for political purposes at home.

“One fails to understand why Pakistan has chosen this moment to deplete one of the ready-made missiles in its stock,” she said. “It could possibly be directed at domestic audiences in Pakistan.”

But U.S. and Russian officials appeared alarmed--if not by the individual test, then by the pattern of growing conflict and the decision to perform the test now, rather than at a calmer moment.

“Any time you have two armies that close to one another and this level of tension, there is the likelihood of an outbreak of hostilities. And when both are nuclear armed, that should cause all of us concern,” Powell said at a news conference.

He too encouraged the Indian and Pakistani leaders to attend the long-planned Almaty meeting, in which Putin is expected to participate.

Powell said that although the missile test did not necessarily bring the two sides closer to war, “I don’t think it was a terribly useful thing to do right now.”

But after the U.S. and Russian statements, the tests continued. Today, Pakistan successfully conducted the first test of a Hatf III missile, also known as the Ghaznavi, which has a range of 176 miles, Radio Pakistan said. Both missiles are capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads.

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Assurances Given

At his news conference, Powell also said that U.S. officials had spoken with Musharraf several times since he pledged to halt the incursions and had won assurances that they would end.

But the United States has limited pressure it can apply on Musharraf, who has been the country’s single most important ally in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

On Friday, Putin and Bush signed a new treaty designed to drastically reduce the number of nuclear weapons deployed by the U.S. and Russia. On Saturday, in speaking jointly with no sign of difference between them about the tensions in South Asia, they demonstrated in one more way how the two countries have grown closer in foreign policy. Until recently, they saw India and Pakistan as rival spheres of influence, with Russia allied with New Delhi and the United States allied more with the government in Islamabad.