SHARM EL SHEIKH: Talks between foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India held in the Egyptian resort town on Tuesday night failed to make any progress on the issue of resumption of composite dialogue.
Now observers here are pinning hopes on the prime ministers of the two countries to achieve a breakthrough in their meeting on Thursday.
The secretaries’ talks which concluded late on Tuesday night made little progress in terms of reaching an agreement on resumption of the stalled dialogue or on a joint statement for the prime ministers’ meeting — the main yardsticks of the success or otherwise of the discussion held at the highest diplomatic level on the sidelines of the NAM summit.
The talks were important only not for future engagement between the two countries, but also for setting the baseline for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. At the start of the talks there were some positive signs but these did not yield a concrete outcome after 90 minutes of intense discussions.
The prospects of any success at the talks were undermined by mixed signals from Islamabad about the appeal filed in the apex court against the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. Critical of Islamabad’s position on the issue, India adopted a hard line and asked Pakistan to extradite the persons wanted by it, prosecute the Mumbai attack accused and end the corss-LoC movements. There were clear indications that without Pakistan yielding to the Indian position there could be no revival of the structured talks.
The Pakistani side, which besides Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir included Pakistan’s High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik and Director-General South Asia at the Foreign Office Afrasiyab Hashmi, asserted that without India agreeing to resumption of the dialogue which it suspended in the aftermath of Mumbai terrorist attack, Pakistan wouldn’t agree to joint statement by the two prime ministers after their Thursday meeting.
Pakistan also proposed a ‘trajectory of meetings’ for further engagement, including another meeting of the leadership of both countries on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session, convening of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism meeting and a meeting of the interior ministers. However, because of the deadlock over resumption of Composite Dialogue not much could be achieved on these issues.
The Pakistani officials reiterated that Islamabad required full cooperation from New Delhi for dealing with terrorism.
They asked India to acknowledge that Pakistan had done a lot for eliminating terrorism which, sources said, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon grudgingly did.
Pakistan also took up the matter of Indian involvement in subversive activities on its soil and also asked about progress in the Samjhota Express blast probe. Despite the deadlock at the talks, the Pakistani side still appeared to be optimistic and encouraged by the fact that some sort of an engagement was continuing.
‘It is important that the foreign secretaries have met and engagement of the political leadership is taking place,’ Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told media after the talks. However, he cautioned that prolonged suspension of peace talks was not in the interest of either country.
Deadlock in initial Pak-India talks
SHARM EL SHEIKH: Talks between foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India held in the Egyptian resort town on Tuesday night failed to make any progress on the issue of resumption of composite dialogue.
Now observers here are pinning hopes on the prime ministers of the two countries to achieve a breakthrough in their meeting on Thursday.
The secretaries’ talks which concluded late on Tuesday night made little progress in terms of reaching an agreement on resumption of the stalled dialogue or on a joint statement for the prime ministers’ meeting — the main yardsticks of the success or otherwise of the discussion held at the highest diplomatic level on the sidelines of the NAM summit.
The talks were important only not for future engagement between the two countries, but also for setting the baseline for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. At the start of the talks there were some positive signs but these did not yield a concrete outcome after 90 minutes of intense discussions.
The prospects of any success at the talks were undermined by mixed signals from Islamabad about the appeal filed in the apex court against the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. Critical of Islamabad’s position on the issue, India adopted a hard line and asked Pakistan to extradite the persons wanted by it, prosecute the Mumbai attack accused and end the corss-LoC movements. There were clear indications that without Pakistan yielding to the Indian position there could be no revival of the structured talks.
The Pakistani side, which besides Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir included Pakistan’s High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik and Director-General South Asia at the Foreign Office Afrasiyab Hashmi, asserted that without India agreeing to resumption of the dialogue which it suspended in the aftermath of Mumbai terrorist attack, Pakistan wouldn’t agree to joint statement by the two prime ministers after their Thursday meeting.
Pakistan also proposed a ‘trajectory of meetings’ for further engagement, including another meeting of the leadership of both countries on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session, convening of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism meeting and a meeting of the interior ministers. However, because of the deadlock over resumption of Composite Dialogue not much could be achieved on these issues.
The Pakistani officials reiterated that Islamabad required full cooperation from New Delhi for dealing with terrorism.
They asked India to acknowledge that Pakistan had done a lot for eliminating terrorism which, sources said, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon grudgingly did.
Pakistan also took up the matter of Indian involvement in subversive activities on its soil and also asked about progress in the Samjhota Express blast probe. Despite the deadlock at the talks, the Pakistani side still appeared to be optimistic and encouraged by the fact that some sort of an engagement was continuing.
‘It is important that the foreign secretaries have met and engagement of the political leadership is taking place,’ Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told media after the talks. However, he cautioned that prolonged suspension of peace talks was not in the interest of either country.
