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| India, Pakistan push Kashmir talks; cross-LoC truck, bus soon | | | Islamabad:
India and Pakistan Wednesday sought to turn a 'new leaf' in their relations by agreeing to launch truck and bus links across the Line of Control (LoC) and deciding to speed up resolution of contentious issues, including the disputes over Kashmir and Siachen.
As the two neighbours concluded two days of talks between their foreign secretaries in the fourth round of the composite dialogue, they decided to implement a clutch of Kashmir-related confidence-building measures, including the early operationalisation of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad truck service and Kargil-Skardu bus link.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan held detailed discussions on resolving the Kashmir issue, which they described as more 'intensive and focused' than in the last 60 years and said this reflected a clear 'political will' by the leaderships of both sides to put old disputes behind and move relations to a new plane.
'Pakistan has agreed to consider the Kargil-Skardu bus service (between the two divided halves of Kashmir controlled by India and Pakistan). We will start looking at logistics and modalities to operationalise this bus link,' Menon told reporters at a joint press conference with Khan in the Pakistan foreign office.
In a clear sign that the peace process is moving forward in a 'climate of reconciliation', as described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the two sides also gave a push to a resolution of the dispute over the Siachen glacier with their defence secretaries, assisted by director general of military operations (DGMOs) planning to hold talks in April.
The two countries sought to bridge trust deficit by agreeing to push negotiations to conclude agreements on the prevention of incidents at sea, modalities for the conduct of quarterly flag meetings at the sectors in the LoC and the speedy return of inadvertent line crossers.
They agreed to fully observe the over three-year-old ceasefire at the LoC and proposed drafts for new border control guidelines along the international border. The two countries also committed to conclude an early agreement on no development of new posts and defence works along the LoC.
People-to-people contacts between the two countries will get a boost with Pakistan agreeing to fine-tune an agreement for a liberal visa regime.
An agreement on consular access and revise a protocol to enhance the visits to religious sites in each other's country will also be concluded.
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