The Hindu : Front Page : Natwar Singh, Kasuri meeting 'productive'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Natwar Singh, Kasuri meeting 'productive'

By P S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, JUNE 21. The External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, and the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, today agreed to "provide continuous political guidance" to the latest process of bilateral parleys.

Assessing the "progress" made in these "discussions" so far as "positive," the two leaders, who held a "warm and productive meeting" at the Chinese city of Qingdao on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue there, welcomed the new confidence-building accord that the two sides had reached on Sunday on the nuclear risk-reduction issue.

Mr. Singh and Mr. Kasuri, who met for the first time since the assumption of office by the new Government in New Delhi, "reviewed the progress on all aspects of bilateral relations, including Jammu and Kashmir," according to a press note issued by the Indian Embassy in Beijing. Also reviewed was the "implementation of the framework for the dialogue process" that was worked out in February by the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries.

The two Ministers agreed to "remain in regular touch" and voiced expectation that they would meet each other on several occasions over the next two months.

Commending the outcome of the expert-level dialogue on nuclear CBMs, the two Ministers noted that "India and Pakistan have also called for regular working-level meetings ... among all the nuclear powers to discuss issues of common concern."

Mr. Kasuri later told The Hindu here over telephone from Qingdao that the new accord on nuclear CBMs could herald a process of détente in India-Pakistan relations. "We are responsible countries. Nobody should talk down to Pakistan and India. We are interested in non-proliferation." Disclosing that Mr. Singh showed him the text of the nuclear CBMs accord, Mr. Kasuri characterised it as "a good development." Responding to questions on the details of today's meeting, Mr. Kasuri said that no in-depth specifics were discussed on Jammu and Kashmir or the nuclear issue. He said Mr. Singh's reported proposal for a common nuclear security doctrine among India, Pakistan and China did not figure in today's talks. However, Pakistan was "prepared to discuss, look at this new idea," Mr. Kasuri said.

Commenting on the happy augury that today's meeting took place on Chinese soil, he said there was, of course, no facilitation by Beijing in the traditional diplomatic sense of the term. It was Mr. Singh who invited him to a "working lunch" today and the meeting took place in a "very cordial, friendly and warm atmosphere." The Cassandra-like "fears" about a possible breakdown of the India-Pakistan dialogue process, expressed in some quarters in both countries following the assumption of office by a Congress-led Government in New Delhi, were nullified. Mr. Kasuri said he received "total assurances" from Mr. Singh that the new Government would not only continue the current peace process but also carry this even further.

Pakistan, too, was "very serious about the peace process'' and the "only way out" of the impasse in bilateral relations was to evolve solutions "acceptable to Pakistan and India." Islamabad wanted "long-term peace, durable peace," Mr. Kasuri said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, he wanted the solution to be acceptable to the people there. The two Ministers said they "looked forward to the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries, scheduled for June 27-28 and to concrete outcomes from that meeting." That would take the "present process forward."

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