New Delhi, January 27
India and Pakistan today simultaneously announced dates “to commence the process of the composite dialogue” as the two countries agreed to hold Joint Secretary-level talks in Islamabad on February 16 and 17 to be followed by a one-day meeting of Foreign Secretaries on February 18.
The announcement does not mean that the very composite dialogue is going to begin on February 16, highly placed sources in South Block told The Tribune. “It is not the very commencement of the composite dialogue. It will be the preliminary talks about talks,” they said.
The four-line formulation, simultaneously announced by the two countries’ foreign offices, says: “To commence the process of the composite dialogue, India and Pakistan have agreed to meet from February 16 to 18 in Islamabad. The Joint Secretary-level talks on February 16 and 17 will be followed by a one-day meeting of Foreign Secretaries on February 18.”
The Joint Secretary-level talks will be held between India’s Mr Arun Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Pakistan’s Mr Jaleel Abbas Jilani, Director-General (South Asia) in the Pakistani Foreign Office. Mr Jilani was Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner here and was declared “persona non grata” in the wake of the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on Indian Parliament House.
It is a win-win compromise for the two countries as both sides got what they wanted: India wanted talks to begin at the Joint Secretary level and Pakistan insisted on Foreign Secretary-level talks. The press statement lays stress on the phrase “one-day meeting” in context of the two Foreign Secretaries, implying distinction between “meeting” and “talks”.
Sources said the “talks about talks” would touch upon all eight subjects agreed between the two countries in 1998 which has come to be known as Composite Dialogue and decide on the modalities. These eight subjects pertain to (i) trade and economic cooperation; (ii) promotion of
friendly exchanges; (iii) cultural cooperation; (iv) Tulbul navigation project in Jammu and Kashmir; (v) settlement of Sir Creek dispute in Gujarat; (vi) Siachen; (vii) peace and security, including Confidence Building Measures (CBMs); and (viii) Jammu and Kashmir.
It was agreed that discussions on the last two of these eight subjects would be held between the two countries’ Foreign Secretaries while on the first six, officials of the Ministries concerned would be holding discussions.
Sources said the considered view of the Government of India was that satisfactory progress was being made on normalisation of relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. A firm indication of this is that the first-ever ceasefire between the armed forces of the two countries has been holding well since November 25 when it came into force.
On the flip side, however, is the fact that though infiltration of terrorists from across the Line of Control had declined, it had not stopped completely and there was no visible action from the Pakistani side on dismantling the infrastructure of cross border terrorism, sources said.
