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India offers to sign no-first-use pact with Pak

India and Pakistan today moved closer to "strong convergence" of views on new confidence-building measures, particularly on reducing the risk of nuclear war.

The two sides also moved a step ahead on the proposed sale of power by Islamabad to New Delhi.

These positive signals emerged after the first day of the resumed dialogue between Foreign Secretary K Raghunath and his Pakistani counterpart Shamshad Ahmed and Raghunath's meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief.

During his talks with Ahmed, Raghunath proposed an agreement between the two countries prohibiting the first use of nuclear weapons against each other.

In his meeting with Sharief, he told the Pakistani premier that India was keen to put the proposed bus service between Delhi and Lahore into operation soon, after Sharief said he wanted it to start early.

The bus service was proposed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sharief at their meeting in New York last month.

Regarding the proposal for sale of surplus power from Pakistan to India, agreed to by the two prime ministers, it was decided that an Indian team would visit Islamabad to discuss technical and other details.

At the end of the first day of the three-day meeting, Pakistani spokesman Tariq Altaf told reporters that the secretaries' talks on peace and security, including confidence-building measures, were inconclusive and discussions would continue on the various proposals made by the two sides.

Altaf said technical experts would examine the new suggestions and review the existing CBMs to make them more effective.

He said the discussions between the two secretaries, who are being assisted by senior officials of the foreign and defence ministries, were "frank, warm and cordial".

In this context, both sides felt the need to have a more stable system of communication for the defence forces of the two countries.

Indian sources said Raghunath conveyed to Ahmed New Delhi's strong concern about Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism and said such activities must freeze. That in itself would be a major confidence-building measure, he suggested.

They said he also assured the Pakistanis that India's nuclear tests were no threat to anyone and were undertaken in the country's "larger interests". Raghunath emphasised that a stable and secure Pakistan was in India's interests.

India also cautioned Pakistan against sensationalising the military exercise to be held next month in Rajasthan. It was explained that the exercise is to be held far away from the zone specified in the bilateral agreement stipulating that prior information about such events has to be given to the other side.

They said the corps-level exercise, involving the army and the air force, was planned 100 km away from the border, whereas the agreement stipulates that information must be given if such exercises are to take place within 75 km of the border. Yet India had informed Islamabad about the exercise in good faith as a confidence-building measure, the sources said.

The Indian side also urged Pakistan to respect the 1971 Line of Control pending a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue through bilateral negotiations, as laid down in the 1972 Simla Agreement.

This was in the context of violation of the LoC by Pakistan, which is funding and sponsoring terrorist activity in India. It was firmly conveyed to the Pakistanis that open encouragement to terrorists and militants in Jammu and Kashmir since 1980 was solely responsible for the trouble in the state.

The Indian side also cited instances of unprovoked firing along the LoC in the Siachen area, stressing that such actions would not help build confidence between the two countries.

The two foreign secretaries will take up the intractable Jammu and Kashmir issue tomorrow, besides discussing further CBMs.

On his arrival in Islamabad yesterday, Raghunath told reporters that India's approach to the resumed dialogue would be constructive and India was willing to work with Pakistan to build a stable atmosphere of peace and co-operation.

He said India and Pakistan would discuss all the issues within well-defined parameters. "We shall proceed on that basis in a professional and realistic manner," he said, and hoped that by the time the current rounds are over, "we will have achieved something in stretching the process forward".

Receiving Raghunath, Ahmed said Pakistan was entering the talks with sincerity of purpose in a bid to settle all outstanding issues, including the "core issue" of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the drastically changed regional environment required the two countries to work for durable peace and durable solutions, for which bold decisions would be required.

Ahmed said the nuclear tests by the two countries had thrown up a challenge not only to avoid risk of conflict but also to prevent an arms race in nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Referring to the joint statement issued by the two foreign secretaries in New York after their prime ministers had met, he said durable peace and security was in the interests of both Pakistan and India, and a peaceful settlement of all issues, including Kashmir, was essential for that.

The first round of talks ends on Sunday when a joint statement will be issued.

The second round of the resumed composite dialogue will be held in New Delhi from November 5 to 13. Six other outstanding issues will be discussed there.

These are: Siachen, the Wullar barrage/Tulbul navigation project, Sir creek, terrorism and drug trafficking, economic and commercial co-operation, and promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields.

The foreign secretaries had announced in New York last month the modalities to deal with these issues after a meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharief.

The dialogue between the two countries was stalled in September last year in New Delhi when the Pakistanis insisted on a joint working group on Kashmir.

Earlier, in Islamabad on June 23, the foreign secretaries had identified eight issues on which the two countries had major differences and agreed to set up joint working groups to find solutions to six of them. Kashmir and peace and security were to be dealt with by the secretaries themselves.

As a concession to Pakistan, India agreed to a discussion of the two issues separately by the foreign secretaries, followed by a second round at which the other six issues would be discussed.

UNI

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