'India confident of resolving all Indo-Pak issues'

Moscow, Jan 24: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled out any third party mediation between India and Pakistan for the resolution of their differences and expressed confidence that the two countries can resolve them bilaterally.

''While India values Russia as a trusted friend, we are confident that all the issues between India and Pakistan can be resolved bilaterally in a spirit of goodwill and friendship,'' Dr Singh said.

He was answering a question by Russian mass media whether India needed Russian help and assistance in normalising the relations between the two neighbours on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's two-day official visit to India from tomorrow.

He said India and Pakistan had been engaged in a constructive dialogue since 2004 after a commitment was given at the highest level by Pakistan that no territory under its control will be used to support terrorism.

''Three rounds of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistanhave concluded successfully and we will be commencing the fourth round in February 2007,'' the Prime Minister said.

''A wide spectrum of bilateral issues is being discussed with Pakistan and significant progress has been achieved,'' he said .

''This process is anchored in people-to-people interaction and we have established transport links across the border and the Line of Control to facilitate this,'' he added.

''It is important that an environment of trust and confidence is created and the constituency of peace is expanded, which is integral to the process of building friendly relations,'' he noted, pointing out, ''Despite the threat of terrorism across the borders, we are moving ahead in the right direction.'' He said economic cooperation was taking place and the joint commission that remained dormant for 16 years had been revived in order to give an institutional and sustained basis to the improving relations. Bilateral trade had also grown at an impressive rate of about 40 per cent in 2005-06 over the previous year, he added.

''We intend to maintain our efforts to improve our ties with our neighbour Pakistan,'' Dr Singh said.

On Russia-India-China triangular cooperation, the Prime Minister welcomed the trilateral cooperation, saying, ''We are all neighbours and all three countries want to play a major role in the global economy.'' ''As Russia, China and India move ahead of their respective growth curves, a great challenge today is to find means to draw on the vast geo-economic potential that remains unexploited in our common neighbourhood. So we welcome this tri-partite cooperation,'' he said.

''There is a need to allow our key economic and commercial sectors to interact with each other in the trilateral framework.

In this endeavour, our vibrant private sectors have to be encouraged to interact more frequently,'' he said.

''In this context, i would like to mention energy as a critical sector in which the three countries should build sustainable long-term trilateral cooperation,'' the Prime Minister noted.

UNI