The Hindu : International / India & World : Another round of India, Pakistan talks in offing

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Thursday, Dec 16, 2004

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International - India & World

Another round of India, Pakistan talks in offing

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, DEC. 15. In another round of high-level India-Pakistan talks, the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, will meet the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, while the Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, is to hold discussions with his counterpart, Riaz Khokhar, in January in Dhaka.

Mr. Singh is scheduled to travel to Dhaka on January 6 to attend the January 7-8 meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers, just before the January 9-11 summit meeting of the South Asian heads of government. South Block sources said Mr. Singh and Mr. Kasuri would meet on the sidelines of the SAARC Foreign Ministers' meeting. Before the meeting, the SAARC Foreign Secretaries will hold formal consultations — providing Mr. Saran and Mr. Khokhar the opportunity to hold bilateral discussions.

The Foreign Secretaries are scheduled to meet before Dhaka for a review of the first round of the composite dialogue in Islamabad on December 27-28.

Areas to focus on

There are several areas which the two sides can be expected to focus on — differences over the type of travel document to be used on the proposed Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, the inability of the two sides to implement a June 2004 agreement to re-open consulates in Karachi and Mumbai and the delay in commencing the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail link.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed, said today that India had indicated its readiness to open the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail link by October 2005. "However, Pakistan has so far not accepted this time-frame," he said. Referring to the December 7-8 officia ls' meeting on the Srinagar-Muazaffarabad bus, Mr. Ahamed said that while discussions would be held again on the issue, "differences continue to persist, including on the issue of documents to be used for travel on this route".

In a recent interview to Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said: "We need to be realistic and practical in our approach. Fixing artificial time frames and deadlines will not help in resolving longstanding and complex issues like that of J&K [Jammu & Kashmir]."

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Another round of India, Pakistan talks in offing