news details |
|
|
| Mukherjee to visit Pakistan on Jan 13 | | Anti-terror mechanism, not J&K, discussed with Kasuri | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, Nov 27
The Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, on Monday reviewed a fragile peace process and exchanged views at a meeting in the Indian capital. Mukherjee, who hosted an informal lunch for Kasuri, had no structured agenda for the meeting.
This notwithstanding, the two leaders devoted much time to the joint anti-terror mechanism between India and Pakistan. According to insiders, Pakistan's Foreign Minister sought to engage Mukherjee in discussions on Kashmir issue and Siachen dispute. But Pranab Mukherjee made Kasuri concentrate on the "all-important" joint anti-terror mechanism.
Pranab Mukherjee will visit Pakistan on Jan. 13, 2007 in a bid to invigorate their peace process and to invite Pakistani leaders for a South Asia regional summit next year. "We will have substantive talks at that point of time", Mukherjee told media persons after meeting Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri. "This was just an informal meeting", Mukherjee said in reply to a query.
The discussion on the "all-important" joint anti-terror mechanism took place after Kasuri on Sunday said in New Delhi that for the effective implementation of India-Pakistasn joint mechanism against terror, both countries should avoid attaching propaganda to it. The joint anti-teror mechanism, which was agreed between Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and Pakistan President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, in Havana earlier this month, received a fillip in the recent Foreign Secretary level talks where it was institutionalised. However, as doubts remained on both sides over its effective implementation, Mukherjee was left with no choice but to discuss the matter with Kasuri.
The meeting between the two came two weeks after their Foreign Secretaries resumed peace talks and set up a joint panel to fight terrorism and curb tensions. This was the first meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in more than a year. Kasuri attended the marriage of the daughter of close friend, Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Minister for Panchayati Raj on Sunday. Kasuri and Aiyar studied together at Cambridge University.
Kasuri wanted Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to visit Pakistan before the end of the current year. He was told by Pranab Mukherjee that Manmohan Singh's visit was not posible this year; it could take place in January 2007. EARLY TIMES was offically told that there was no formal agenda for Pranab Mukherjee's lunch meeting with Kasuri. It was, nonetheless, a good opportunity for the two Ministers to meet, get o know each other and establish a rapport since Mukherjee is new to the Ministry of External Affairs. The meeting was termed as 'cordial'.
Mukherjee, a veteran politician, moved from the Defence Ministry to the Foreign Affairs portfolio last month in a Cabinet reshuffle. The India-Pakistan peace talks have made slow progress, particularly on their central dispute over Kashmir, since they were launched in 2004. New Delhi had suspended the dialogue after train blasts in Mumbai in July, blamed on a Pakistan-based militant group.
But it agreed to resume them after leaders of the two countries held talks on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana. India says Pakistan has not lived up to its promise to curb anti-India militant groups who are blamed of attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere across the country. Pakistan says it has done all it could and militant violence will cease once the Kashmir dispute is resolved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
