The Hindu : India, Pakistan agree on timeframe for talks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

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India, Pakistan agree on timeframe for talks

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 17. India and Pakistan have arrived at a "broad understanding" on the modalities and timeframe to carry forward the process of a composite dialogue that was interrupted in 1998.

An agreement on the timetable and format was reached today, the second day of Joint Secretary-level talks held in the hill town of Murree, 50 km from here. The Indian and Pakistan Foreign Secretaries, Shashank and Riaz Khokar, are expected to put their seal of approval on the pact at their meeting here tomorrow.

Indications are that the first round of talks on substantive issues identified in the 1998 composite dialogue format will be held some time in May in New Delhi. It is not immediately clear if the May round will cover all the eight subjects.

Under the 1998 agreed format, peace and security, including confidence-building measures (CBMs), and Jammu and Kashmir, were to be discussed at the level of Foreign Secretaries.

The other six subjects and the level in which these were to be discussed (given in brackets) are: Siachen (Defence Secretaries), the Tulbul navigation project (Water and Power Secretaries), Sir Creek (Additional Secretary, Defence/Surveyor-General), terrorism and drug trafficking (Home Secretaries), economic and commercial cooperation (Commerce Secretaries) and the promotion of friendly exchange in various fields (Culture Secretaries).

Pakistan is keen on elevating Kashmir for discussion to the political level though no such indication was given at the talks. The argument is that dialogue on the contentious issue should be at the ministerial level, as progress on it would require political decisions.

This was evident from the comments made by the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, on the need to quicken the pace of talks on Kashmir.

"The President is wearing two hats for a year and advantage should be taken of that," he said. He argued that it was important not to draw out the process and not give those looking to disrupt the peace process an opportunity to intervene.

Mr. Kasuri said the widespread perception among the people of India and Pakistan was that a political party like the BJP was best placed to deliver peace to the region.

He said that all these factors combined to ensure that the talks proceeded along the desired lines, so that this feeling of deja vu arising from the cynical "we have gone through all this before" could be overcome.

Mr. Kasuri said that it would be a good idea if India and Pakistan began discussions to introduce and implement nuclear confidence-building measures. "If either party ever makes any mistake here, this mistake will be fatal," he added.

He said that there were reasons why the current talks could succeed. One, the situation in South Asia had changed. Two, the phrase "global village" was not a cliché any longer. Both India and Pakistan realised that they could not impose their will on each other and that peace was possible only through a negotiated settlement on all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.

In the course of the talks in the last two days, India did not raise the subject of nuclear CBMs. The view is that these could be discussed under the "peace and security" agenda, which already figures in the composite dialogue.

India is not enthused over the Pakistani proposal on a restraint regime as New Delhi believes that its defence preparedness is not Pakistan-centric.

Officials also underlined that the modalities and timeframe of the composite dialogue had to be read along with the January 6 statement. The statement had referred to some reassurances on what needed to be done and the assurances to sustain the process in the context of terrorism.

The Indian assessment so far is that while the ceasefire has held and that infiltration is considerably down, there is no visible action on dismantling of the terrorism infrastructure, camps, funding and training by Pakistan.

With the modalities and the timeframe for the composite dialogue out of the way, India and Pakistan will now focus on technical-level talks on reviving the communication links between Munnabhao (Rajasthan) and Khokharapar (Sindh) and running a bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar.

The Rajasthan/Sindh link talks are scheduled here on March 8 and 9 and these will be followed by parleys on March 29 and 30 for establishing bus services on both sides of Kashmir.

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