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Sharief snubbed at SAARC retreat

Saisuresh Sivaswamy in Colombo

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief's proposal, made at the Bentota retreat of the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation near Colombo today, to amend the SAARC charter to include discussions on contentious issues and peace and security, was ignored by the other leaders.

Sources said when the Pakistani premier insisted on the adoption of his viewpoint in the Colombo charter to be issued tomorrow, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga snubbed him, saying that there was no such move before the association. SAARC is not the forum for raising such issues, she reportedly told Sharief.

Meanwhile, the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, K Raghunath and Shamshad Ahmed, will carry forward their discussions of the last two days, to find out modalities for the resumption of dialogue between the two countries, into Friday.

Official sources said, the talks, which are a sequel to the talks between prime ministers A B Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharief on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Colombo on Wednesday, were held in a "very cordial, constructive manner". It is now hoped that the two officials will be able to report to their respective heads of government before the two leave for their capitals tomorrow, on the conclusion of the SAARC summit.

Asked if the talks made progress on the narrowing down of differences between the two countries, officials said the talks were meant to explore just such a possibility.

Talks were being held due to India's interest and commitment to normalising relations with Pakistan, they said.

The two foreign secretaries spoke yesterday, after the prime ministers' decision, and today as well when short discussions were held between the two sides. Since there has been no conclusion, the interlocutors will carry on tomorrow as well.

"We are working on methods by which the two sides can move close," it was stated.

On Pakistan's insistence on the imperative of third-party negotiations to sort out the differences between the two sides, official sources said India's basic position has not changed. "We believe intermediaries have no role in resolving the dispute," they said.

Asked if the talks of the last two days were held as per the June 23, 1997, talks between the two sides, the sources it was still being worked out.

At the retreat, meanwhile, the heads of government held discussions on various issues concerning the association, it was stated. We believe that the basic agenda of SAARC is economic, and trade was a topic of discussion today, officials said. Apart from discussing the announcement of lifting Quantitative Restrictions on more than 2000 items, India also stressed on the need to move on to the fourth round of the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement talks, which are currently stalemated in the third round.

The leaders of the SAARC member-nations met during the day at the retreat to hold their discussions, and informally before lunch. There was no one-to-one between Vajpayee and Sharief today, it was stated.

Related Story:
Foreign secys of India, Pak discuss resumption of talks

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