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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that there can be no redrawing of border with Pakistan, but the two countries can work together to ensure to make it a frontier of peace.
"I have publicly stated that there can be no redrawing of borders, but our two countries can work together to ensure that these are borders of peace, that people-to-people contacts grow in a manner in which people do not even worry whether they are located on this side of the border or that side," Singh said in an interview to CNN.
The interview taken in New Delhi was aired by the CNN, minutes before the Prime Minister landed in Washington on his first State Visit of the Obama Administration.
"If trade is free, if people-to-people contacts (are there) and our both countries competing with each other to enable people on both sides to lead the life of dignity and self respect. Those are issues, which we can discuss, we can reach agreement," he said when asked about the resolution of the Kashmir problem.
Reacting strongly to Dr Singh's statement, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said, "Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory awaiting settlement in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir".
"India is only one of the parties to the dispute; it cannot, therefore, unilaterally change the status of the dispute or place preconditions in open contradiction to the right of self-determination of Kashmiris," Basit said in a brief statement.
The Foreign Office said the statement was issued in response to Dr Singh's remarks about Jammu and Kashmir in the interview.
India maintains that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, including areas which it says has been illegally occupied by Pakistan, is an integral part of the country.
Pakistan had stopped insisting on the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, when significant progress was made on steps to settle the issue through back- channel contacts.
The current Pakistan People's Party-led government initially toed a similar line but has begun insisting on the implementation of the UN resolutions after relations between India and Pakistan soured in the wake of last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.