The Hindu : Front Page : Positive, forward-looking talks: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 18, 2005

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Front Page

Positive, forward-looking talks: Manmohan

Amit Baruah

Frequency of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service to go up; Munabao-Khokrapar rail link to be operationalised

CRICKET LESSONS: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf explains the beauty and nuances of cricket shots to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the sixth ODI at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi on Sunday. In turn, Dr. Singh can teach the General a thing or two about hockey and football. The Prime Minister's wife, Gursharan Kaur, wanted to know from President Musharraf what, among other things, LWF and LWS shown on the giant TV screen meant. Pakistan won the ODI series 4-2, trouncing India by 159 runs in the final encounter. — AP

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on Sunday committed themselves to increasing the frequency of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and operationalising the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail link by the end of December. The talks lasted over two-and-a-half hours.

While the Prime Minister described the talks as "very positive, fruitful and forward-looking," Gen. Musharraf said progress had been made in the discussions at Hyderabad House during which all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, came up.

Both Dr. Singh and Gen. Musharraf met the Indian and Pakistan cricket teams just before the one-day game got under way at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium this morning. They watched the game for some time before proceeding to Hyderabad House.

The Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, told presspersons that the sides had decided to "revive" their Joint Commission, intensify work in the private sector Joint Business Council and discuss obstacles to free trade at the Commerce Secretary-level Joint Study Group on economic issues.

Mr. Saran quoted the Prime Minister as saying that he was willing to travel the road to "lasting peace" with Gen. Musharraf. Dr. Singh also stressed the importance of thwarting the actions of militant elements responsible for the April 6 attack on passengers of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service.

The condemnation of the act revealed that there was a greater degree of congruence in the views of India and Pakistan on the issue.

The Foreign Secretary said that Gen. Musharraf responded "very positively" to the "vision" outlined by Dr. Singh to transform relations in South Asia, for which an improvement in India-Pakistan ties was crucial.

The Prime Minister reiterated that while redrawing of boundaries was not possible, India was willing to take steps to bring the people living on the two sides of the Line of Control closer, including opening cross-LoC trade and transport links.

Dr. Singh also pointed to the fact that due to the commitments made by Pakistan to prevent terrorism from its territory in the January 6, 2004 joint statement, many opportunities had opened up for India and Pakistan.

Mr. Saran quoted Gen. Musharraf as saying that while confidence-building measures should be continued between the two sides and no "deadline" or "timeline" had been imposed to resolve the Kashmir issue, which had to be addressed. All the confidence-building measures proposed by the two sides would be discussed further, Mr. Saran said. The two leaders also discussed the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India and the Turkmenistan-Pakistan-India gas pipelines and felt that these were projects worth pursuing. Mr. Saran said that Gen. Musharraf had spoken of the energy requirements of the two countries and its importance for the their development.

Transit routes

Dr. Singh is said to have pointed to the importance of opening up transit routes to Central Asia and the Gulf. Vast opportunities would open up if normal trade were possible through these routes, Dr. Singh said. On Siachen and Sir Creek, the two sides agreed that there was a need to expedite the process of addressing these issues, which were part of the composite dialogue process. On Baglihar, Gen. Musharraf said he was thankful for the assurance held out by Dr. Singh that India was committed to the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. Also, the bilateral route for further technical discussions on the dam was still open even though Pakistan had taken the issue to the World Bank.

Mr. Saran did not disagree with the possibility of India pulling out more troops from Kashmir in case levels of violence did not go up after the snows melted in May.

Gen. Musharraf also met the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, over lunch at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and held discussions with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani

Joint statement

Both sides appeared "hopeful" that a joint statement would see the light of day on Monday, but still seemed to harbour last-minute doubts on whether the document would have all the specifics that are being talked about.

"I don't want to say anything at this juncture," the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Riaz Muhammad Khan, told this correspondent when asked if the joint statement had been given final touches. "We are working on it," he said. Negotiators were hard at work to narrow down the differences over formulations in the joint statement that is likely to maintain many specific issues, including a point on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

If the "specifics" of the statement are worked out, a step forward will be taken as far as cross-Line of Control (LoC) contacts are concerned.

These, senior officials said, could include beginning trade across the LoC, a suggestion that was recently reiterated by Dr. Singh.

Conscious of the fact that "nothing is done till it is done" between India and Pakistan, the officials said they could not provide a "ball-by-ball" commentary on what was being discussed behind closed doors.

Gen. Musharraf himself said on Saturday that the situation between Agra four years ago and Delhi today was "diametrically opposite."

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