NEW YORK: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he proposed to remain "engaged" with General Pervez Musharraf and if the Pakistani leader "delivered" on his promise to control terror flow into Jammu and Kashmir then it would be possible to inject a "movement forward" in the relationship between India and Pakistan.

Answering questions at a formal press conference on his last day of engagements here, Dr. Singh disagreed with the suggestion that his dialogue on Wednesday night with Gen. Musharraf was "a backward movement." Nor was it a "reversal" of the peace process, he added. The joint statement reflected a commitment to the search for a "pragmatic solution" to all issues between the two countries.

"Surprised"

Dr. Singh, however, confessed that he was "surprised" at General Musharraf's invocation of the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and that the reference was "at a divergence with the tone and tenor of his speech at the United Nations last year." The Prime Minister added that his initial thinking was that if that was going to be Pakistan's attitude, "there was no point in talking."

But Dr. Singh said when the matter was brought up with the Pakistan leader over dinner, he clarified that it was not his "intention" to muddy the waters of the peace process. The Prime Minister also suggested that it was unrealistic to expect "major dramatic pronouncements" from what was essentially a "side-show," as the visit was essentially United Nations-centric. His dinner dialogue was marked by frankness and they tried to understand their compulsions. It was, according to Dr. Singh, a very constructive "essay in mutual comprehension."

He explained that it was not for him or India to "decide who rules Pakistan. General Musharraf is the President, and we have to deal with him."

"We ought to take total view"

Dr. Singh added that there was no need to get too distracted by the General's United Nations performance and that we "ought to take a total view" and a single remark should not "colour" India's overall approach.

In reply to another question, the Prime Minister said: "I was very impressed by his [Gen. Musharraf's] unambiguous assurance that he had put in place systems that would ensure an end to cross-border export of terror." Dr. Singh hoped that "the General was right" and that the situation improved.

He recalled that he had told the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leadership that if infiltration and violence stopped, New Delhi could consider troops reduction in the Valley.

He added that "it was our obligation and that we owe it to ourselves to protect the dignity and human rights" of all citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and that India was prepared to review all cases of detenus.

Dr. Singh said "our stand has not changed" that there would be no re-drawing of borders. But he added that it would require ingenuity to reconcile the three positions: (a) the Indian position that the border would not be re-drawn; (b) the Pakistani position that status quo was unacceptable; and, (c) his own formulation that while the border would not be redrawn it was possible to make the border irrelevant.

However, no new specific confidence-building measures were discussed, and the agenda of the third round of the composite dialogue would emanate from the April 2005 joint statement, he said.

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