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India and Pakistan may withdraw troops from Siachen

George Iype in New Delhi

India and Pakistan will explore the possibility of withdrawing its troops from the Siachen Glacier when the two countries resume a bilateral dialogue on March 28 after a gap of more than three years.

Sources in the ministry of external affairs said Foreign Secretary Salman Haider will present the Gujral doctrine of good neighbourliness before his Pakistani counterpart Shamshad Ahmed.

The doctrine, which has been reiterated time and again by India's Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, will state that India is willing to discuss everything with Pakistan including the vexed Kashmir issue without any pre-conditions.

India is likely to offer a withdrawal of its troops from Siachen if Pakistan guarantees that it will undertake a similar exercise and withdraw its forces from the highest battleground in the world.

MEA officials believe the Pakistani negotiating team will reiterate the Nawaz Sharief government's readiness to implement the 1989 agreement between the then prime ministers, Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto. The agreement sought the restoration of the pre-December 16, 1971 position in the un-demarcated area in Kashmir.

India expects that the Pakistan foreign secretary will quiz Haider about the conflicting views that various Indian leaders have been airing on the Kashmir issue in recent weeks.

Last month, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had suggested that one way to 'finish' the Indo-Pak dispute is to give up Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and make the Line of Actual Control the international border.

Interestingly while the resumption of foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan has evoked keen interest among South Asia-watchers, MEA sources said a formal agenda for the dialogue has not been finalised by both countries.

The absence of an agenda is said to be due to the crucial foreign ministers meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference which is scheduled to be held in Islamabad on March 23.

MEA officers fear there will be "India-bashing on the Kashmir issue" at the OIC meeting which does not augur well for the much-awaited Indo-Pak dialogue five days later.

Many believe Pakistan will provide the OIC members with its interpretation of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and accuse Indian security forces of committing atrocities and violating human rights in the valley.

There are apprehensions that armed with an OIC resolution and forced by the compulsions of its military establishment, Pakistan will adopt a hard line on Kashmir.

"India does not expect any dramatic breakthrough on the contentious Kashmir issue during the foreign secretary-level talks," an MEA official told Rediff On The NeT.

India, he said, will set its agenda for the talks only after the OIC session ends.

Apart from the Kashmir issue, commerce, communication and transport will dominate the foreign secretary talks. Removal of all trade barriers between the two countries will be an important item on the agenda.

On the cultural front, the foreign secretaries will examine some of the demands put forward by social activists and intellectuals in both countries -- that there should be frequent cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan.

The March 28 to 31 exercise will be the eighth round of foreign secretary-level talks on record. Differences between the countries on Kashmir had bogged down the last discussion in January 1994.

The resumption of a India-Pakistan dialogue will also set the agenda for the meeting between Gujral and his Pakistani counterpart, Gouhar Ayub Khan, son of the late Pakistani dictator General Ayub Khan. during the Non-Aligned Movement conference which begins in New Delhi on April 7.

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