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India, Pakistan, finally break the ice

India and Pakistan today made a breakthrough in their efforts to normalise relations by reaching a broad understanding on the modalities for resumption of the stalled talks.

Announcing this in Durban, principal secretary to the prime minister Brajesh Mishra said the deadlock on the modalities has been resolved and a broad understanding reached on the procedure for initiation of the official-level talks that broke down last year on the Pakistani insistence of Kashmir as the core issue that needed to be discussed first.

At a hurriedly called press conference in Durban prior to the departure of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Mauritius, Mishra said the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan had reached the understanding and its contours would be released after the prime ministers of both the countries meet in New York on September 23.

He, however, said the contours of understanding of the modalities have to await clearance by both the premiers when they meet.

The understanding was clinched after foreign secretaries of two countries, K Raghunath and Shamshad Ahmed held marathon discussions during the last five days on sorting out the nitty-gritty issues that were coming up in the way of resumption of talks.

Ahmed said the two countries had narrowed down their differences. ''We have been talking about the question of operationalising the mechanism'' on which the two countries differed in the past.

While Pakistan always insisted that the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir should be addressed on a priority basis, India favoured discussions on the entire gamut of bilateral relations.

Describing the development as a healthy and positive development in the Indo-Pak relations, Mishra said the text of the agreement was worked out in the wee hours of this morning and will be released at New York on September 23.

In the first two rounds of talks the two countries did not make any headway. But the desire expressed by the two countries to resume the dialogue received a boost when Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz held talks with Minister of State for External Affairs Vasundhara Raje.

Both the ministers instructed their foreign secretaries to persist with the talks in search of a solution to end the stalemate.

Sartaj Aziz also met Vajpayee in Durban on the sidelines of the NAM summit and both the leaders felt the urgent need to take steps in the direction of normalisation of relationship.

The talks between the two foreign secretaries, who were assisted by senior officials of their governments, were held under a veil of secrecy as both sides remained tight-lipped on the proposals under discussion for breaking the ice.

Aziz went to the extent of suggesting that both India and Pakistan should do away with the modalities and go ahead with the dialogue process.

Asked which of the two countries had shown flexibility to make the understanding possible, Mishra, in a lighter vein, said ''It will be known after the New York talks between Vajpayee and Sharief."

The two prime ministers met in Colombo on the fringes of the SAARC summit to ease the tension in bilateral relations following the series of nuclear explosions conducted by them, but talks failed to take off then due to rigid position by the Pakistani side.

UNI

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