Beijing, November 2
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf today raised the Kashmir issue publicly in China, saying the long-standing conflicts of Palestine and Kashmir were among the issues of utmost concern, and hoped that the upcoming SAARC Summit in Islamabad would provide a fresh impetus to commercial and economic cooperation in South Asia.

“Of utmost concern is the globalisation of terror, unresolved crises in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Korean peninsula as well as the long-standing conflicts of occupation of Palestine and Kashmir,” General Musharraf said in his keynote speech at the second annual summit of the Boao Forum for Asia at Boao city in Hainan.

Addressing an august audience, that included Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, General Musharraf did not make any direct reference to the tensions between India and Pakistan.

“Tensions in Asia and the instability in Afghanistan have adversely impacted upon the two regional organisations dedicated to economic, technological and cultural cooperation — SAARC and the Economic Cooperation Organisation of Central and West Asian Countries (ECO),” he said.

The ECO had plans for promoting economic and commercial activities among countries of Central Asia and South-West Asia and there were good prospects for developing access routes linking Central Asian states to the Arabian Sea.