Vajpayee, Sharief ask foreign secretaries to meet
Saisuresh Sivaswamy in Colombo
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief today directed their foreign secretaries to meet tonight and tomorrow to work out the modalities for restarting their stalled dialogue on resolving differences between the two countries.
The two leaders met for an hour at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo, their first face-to-face meeting since the two countries conducted underground nuclear tests in May.
The two prime ministers met alone for an hour, beginning at 1700 hours (1630 hours IST) and were joined later by Minister of State for External Affairs Vasundhra Raje and Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan, and other members of their delegation.
The prime minister's press conference, scheduled at the Hotel Taj Samudra for 1800 hours, was held almost an hour behind schedule. Vajpayee made a brief statement, and fielded around five questions with one-liners (sample: "Yes, terrorism was touched upon, but I am not going into details") before making way for Nawaz Sharief who was more expansive about the discussions.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief and I have agreed that the dialogue
process should be resumed and we have directed our foreign secretaries
to meet today and tomorrow to work out the modalities of the resumption
of the dialogue," Vajpayee said in a terse statement at the start of the
press conference.
Asked about India's response to the peace security initiative unveiled
by Pakistan in the morning session of SAARC, Vajpayee said, "I am not
making any comment on the morning's speech." Sharief, in his statement,
once again made a plea for SAARC discussing contentious issues between
neighbours.
The Indian prime minister announced that Jammu and Kashmir was
discussed, and further talks would be held on the issue.
His Pakistani counterpart, on the other hand, insisted that J&K
was the core issue dogging relations between the two countries,
and re-emphasised that there cannot be lasting peace and security in the
region unless this issue was settled.
Quizzed on India ruling out third-party mediation in the dispute,
Sharief pointed out that no dispute between the two countries had been
settled without outside mediation, and quoted the instances of the Indus
waters treaty and the Rann of Kutch issue, which had been taken to the
International Court of Justice.
Ruling out the question of war and portraying himself as a man of peace,
Sharief said, "You can only solve your problems through talks. The two
foreign secretaries have been given the task of further exploring how to
resume talks which have remained stalemated since June 23, 1997."
The foreign secretary-level talks at that point had broken over
Pakistan's insistence that Jammu and Kashmir be discussed first and
foremost, while other contentious issues could be dealt with later.
India had taken the contrary point of view, that J&K be put on the
backburner and substantive progress be made on the other issues, over
which difference the talks had broken down.
Today, asked if India had accepted the June 23, 1997 proposals, Sharief
said, "No decision has been taken."
Reminded of his assessment of then Indian prime minister I K
Gujral as someone he would like to do business with and his opinion of
the latter's successor, Sharief said, "He is a good man, I have had a
very good meeting with him."
While Vajpayee was accompanied by Foreign Secretary K Raghunath and
other members of his delegation during the press conference, Sharief was
accompanied by Gohar Ayub Khan and other officials.
Sharief said the nuclear tests by India and subsequently by Pakistan had completely transformed the political landscape of the region. ''We have now understood each other's concerns.''
Sharief said the nuclear tests had added a new dimension to the
situation in the region. ''I am a man of peace, my vision of the
region is that it should be a peaceful and prosperous region.
Unfortunately, we have been left behind by the march of time. There
has to be a day, a way to pull ourselves out of the inertia with
determination to forge ahead.''
He reiterated that the proposal in his address to the SAARC
summit was for informal political consultations at the
association. Admitting that the SAARC charter did not permit this,
he said it should be changed in view of the recent developments in
the region.
Sharief said it would be in the fitness of things that an intensive
broad-based dialogue was initiated to meet the ''precarious security
situation'' in the region.
On his proposal for a peace, security and development initiative
by SAARC, Sharief said, ''it is a forward looking process.
Preliminary discussions could be held on this and Pakistan is ready
to host a preparatory meeting.'' Asked what the response of other SAARC leaders to his
proposal was, the Pakistan leader said, ''they have genuine concerns.''
He said his proposed initiative had figured at his talks with Vajpayee.
Earlier in the day, addressing the inaugural session of the tenth
SAARC summit, Vajpayee said India continued to seek good
relations with all its neighbours.
Apparently referring to Indo-Pak relations, he said differences
should be resolved in a rational manner, peacefully and through
bilateral negotiations. ''We have consistently been in favour of a
serious, sustained dialogue on these lines,'' he added.
Additional reportage: UNI
Tell us what you think of this report
|