Advani says Pak's insistence on Kashmir being the core issue won't achieve anything

Islamabad, Apr 21 : Senior BJP leader and India's Leader of Opposition, LK Advani has said that Pakistan's insistence on describing Kashmir as the "core issue" between India and Pakistan would "not achieve anything", instead the matters relating to commerce should precede the dispute.

Advani said that he encouraged the composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan.

Advani was optimistic that a day would come when the two countries would form a confederation to solve the issue. He viewed cross-border terrorism as a "bone of contention" in the India-Pakistan peace process.

Acknowledging that militancy has decreased along the borders, the BJP leader in an interview with Pakistani daily said that no progress could be made in the peace process until militancy was completely wiped out.

In the interview, the former Indian deputy prime minister spoke on a wide range of issues, including communalism, the prospects of peace between India and Pakistan and the 2001 Agra Summit.

He said President Pervez Musharraf had "incorrectly" blamed him for the summit's failure. Instead, he said he was one of the architects of the summit. It was Musharraf's inflexibility that had led to the meeting's failure, said Advani.

ANI