PM to meet Musharraf on sidelines of NAM summit

New Delhi, Sep 8: India today said dates for the stalled Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan could be set if the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the September 15-16 NAM Summit in Havana produced "satisfactory" results, especially on the issue of cross-border terrorism.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters New Delhi would like to see a willingness on the part of Pakistan to work together with India to fight the scourge of terrorism, which, he said, Gen Musharraf himself had once described as a "shared challenge, shared threat." "We should be working together on eliminating this threat," Mr Saran said while briefing reporters on Dr Singh's eight-day visit to Brazil and Cuba from September 10 to 18.

Asked to specify what steps India would like Pakistan to take in this regard, he said Islamabad was fully aware of what was required of it and should act accordingly.

Mr Saran said the meeting between Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf would take place "on one of the two days of the summit".

"Both leaders are very conscious of various aspects of India-Pakistan relations and both are committed to dialogue and the peace process between the two countries," he said.

He also said it was important for Pakistan to recognise that it was difficult to ensure the success of the peace process unless the problem of cross-border terrorism was addressed by it in a substantive way.

There has been a stalemate in the peace process between the two countries after the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai, which claimed over 180 lives.

Following the blasts, the Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries, scheduled for July 23-24, were postponed indefinitely, with India making it clear to Islamabad that the dialogue process could move forward only if it stopped supporting cross-border terrorism.

But Mr Saran said today that the dates for the Foreign Secretary- level talks had never been set. He also pointed out that other aspects of India-Pakistan relations, including meetings of working groups and technical groups, were going on as planned. Mr Saran said the Prime Minister would have bilateral meetings with other NAM leaders on the sidelines of the summit but expressed his inability to provide details because the schedules were still being worked out.

Dr Singh himself had indicated last month that he was not averse to a meeting with Gen Musharraf, pointing out that a country could choose its friends but not its neighbours.

At the same time, he had made it clear that there could be no progress in the peace process unless India was satisfied that Pakistan was taking firm steps to curb cross-border terrorism.

"As Prime Minister, it would be very difficult on my part to say that the peace process with Pakistan would continue when common people are made the target of cross-border terrorism," he had said at a press conference in Bhubaneshwar.

Yesterday, he told reporters on the margins of an event at Rashtrapati Bhavan that he was "disappointed" with Pakistan for not doing enough to honour its commitment to rein in terror.

The last meeting between Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf was in September, 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Before that, Gen Musharraf had visited Delhi in April last year to watch a cricket match betwen India and Pakistan. During his meeting with Dr Singh, he had reassured India that he would not allow Pakistani territory to be used for terrorist activities against this country.

UNI

Related Stories

In Focus: 7/11 Mumbai bomb blast