The Hindu : India, Pakistan to start dialogue in February

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

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India, Pakistan to start dialogue in February

By Amit Baruah and
B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD JAN. 6. In a giant step forward, India and Pakistan today announced that they had agreed to "commence" the process of "composite dialogue" in February. The level of the dialogue is still to be decided, according to both sides.

A joint press statement issued just before the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, returned to New Delhi late this afternoon, saw the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, reassure India that he "will not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be used to support terrorism in any manner."

The accord raised expectations of a rapid improvement in bilateral relations, with both sides stressing that there were no "winners and losers". A "win-win" situation had been created for both.

However, Gen. Musharraf went as far as to say that "history had been made," suggesting that the two countries may have agreed on a long-term trajectory to resolve contentious issues. At one point, he even used the term "deal."

Asked whether there had been some back-channel diplomacy, he said: "I don't think so. We [have] never reached in the past where we have reached now. With [the] passage of time and developments around the world, there is a realisation [of geo-economic realities]."

The statement continued: "The two leaders are confident that the resumption of the composite dialogue will lead to a peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of all sides."

At the end of several days of hard negotiations on the text of the statement, the two countries seemed to have ended a long period of acrimony and non-contact that had marked their relationship since the December 13, 2001 attack on India's Parliament.

The six-paragraph statement said: "Prime Minister Vajpayee said that in order to take forward and sustain the dialogue process, violence, hostility and terrorism must be prevented... President Musharraf emphasised that a sustained and productive dialogue addressing all issues would lead to positive results."

"Both leaders welcomed the recent steps towards normalisation of relations between the two countries and expressed the hope that the positive trends set by the CBMs (confidence-building measures) would be consolidated."

The National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, categorically denied that he had had any meeting with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt. Gen. Ehsan-ul-Haq, during his six-day stay in Islamabad. He, however, confirmed that he held meetings with other Pakistani interlocutors, but said it was up to Islamabad to identify these interlocutors.

These meetings were to "tie up" loose ends in the joint press statement. Asked whether the assurance on non-use of Pakistani soil for terrorist purposes meant that Islamabad would now cooperate with New Delhi on the issue, Mr. Mishra said that as the two countries continued the dialogue process, this possibility could arise.

On the question of India's wanted "list of 20", Gen. Musharraf said that this should be looked at in an environment of trust and harmony "later." He counselled presspersons that Pakistan and India should leave aside contentious issues and concentrate on steps that could be taken easily.

Sounding like a man India could do business with, he said that a "thaw" had taken place in bilateral relations owing to the positive actions taken by both countries — Gen. Musharraf was open in praising Mr. Vajpayee's "vision and statesmanship."

Gen. Musharraf said the two countries had arrived at an "agreement to take the [peace] process to its logical end" and added in a matter-of-fact fashion that Kashmir was an issue that had to be resolved.

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