Amritsar, December 24
The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, has said a high-level delegation, including the Union Minister for External Affairs, Mr Yashwant Sinha, will accompany the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to the forthcoming 12th SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad from January 4-6.
Mr Menon was talking to The Tribune here today, after returning from New Delhi where he briefed the Minister of External Affairs and the PMO about the ground situation in Pakistan with regard to the initiative taken by the Prime Minister for creating a thaw in the relations between the two countries.
Mr Menon
spent three days in Delhi for holding detailed discussions for working out a comprehensive agenda which will form the basis for holding talks on the sidelines of the SAARC summit with the Pakistani leaders. He said the confidence-building measures announced by
both the countries had helped ease tension and build an atmosphere of peace and harmony. He said the road map of future dialogue would depend upon the success of the SAARC summit as India and Pakistan were two major countries in the region.
Answering a question about the proposed agenda for the talks, Mr Menon said the Government of India was working on issues which would form the format for a comprehensive dialogue.
Meanwhile, a leading Pakistani journalist and a member of the National Assembly of the Pakistan People’s Party, Ms Sherry Rehman, who also returned to Pakistan today, said the road map for holding a structured dialogue with India would depend upon the success of the SAARC summit.
Ms Rehman felt that there was tremendous enthusiasm and optimism over the visit of Mr Vajpayee to Pakistan.
