New Delhi, February 5
Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik today discussed with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao the dates for talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries and later insisted that the Kashmir issue must form part of the dialogue.
The meeting between the two came amid reports that the SAARC Interior Ministers’ meeting in Islamabad from February 26-28, at which Home Minister P Chidambaram was to represent India, had been postponed yet again. Nepal is believed to have sought the postponement of the meeting.
Emerging from his 45-minute meeting with Nirupama at the South Block, the Pakistani envoy described his talks with the Foreign Secretary as “very good”, adding he would send the gist of the discussions to his government in Islamabad. It would be for the Pakistan government to take a final call on the date and the venue of the talks.
In an obvious reference to India’s assertion that the talks would focus on terrorism, Malik said the dialogue should not be on a specific subject but the entire gamut of bilateral ties.
An MEA spokesman described the meeting between Nirupama and Malik as positive and constructive, adding the two discussed details relevant to the upcoming talks. He said the Pakistani envoy had promised to return soon to the Foreign office with the dates for the talks acceptable to his government.
It was quite clear from the Pakistani envoy’s statement that Islamabad was hell bent upon raising the Kashmir issue at the talks. He said Pakistan had raised the Kashmir issue at every forum with India and would continue to do so. Malik said his country was not shying away from discussing terrorism since it also had its own concerns on the issue.
Sources in the Indian establishment said there was every possibility of the talks taking place later this month. In this connection, they pointed out that when Nirupama telephoned her Pakistani counterpart
Salman Bashir some 10 days back, she had invited him to
New Delhi for the talks. However, she also was willing to travel to Islamabad. “We have invited the Pakistan foreign secretary to New Delhi. But it is not written on the stone. Our foreign secretary can also travel to Islamabad.”
The sources also denied that India had agreed to hold the talks following intense international pressure as was being suggested by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
A positive assessment by India after the talks between foreign secretaries could set the stage for the meeting between their foreign ministers and later the prime ministers on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Thimpu on April 28-29.
