,Manmohan, Musharraf to Boost CBMs 

Arab News, Agence France Presse

NEW DELHI, 18 April 2005 — 

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed yesterday to boost road and rail links and revive a panel to promote trade during “very warm” talks after watching cricket together, officials said.

The two sides are also to introduce other confidence-building measures (CBMs), most notably to allow increased contact between people living on either side of divided Kashmir. But New Delhi made it clear a solution to the decades-old dispute over the Himalayan region, which both countries claim in full, is still some way off.

“There is a recognition that this is an issue which needs to be tackled between the two countries. But it is a complicated issue it may take time to resolve,” Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told a media briefing.

Manmohan and Musharraf agreed to increase the frequency of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service across divided Kashmir, which was relaunched on April 7 after a gap of almost 60 years.

The two leaders ran almost half an hour beyond a scheduled two-hour closed-door session after their delegations met, and emerged smiling for the cameras.

“The many issues which are with our two countries were discussed and the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir was also included and I want to say that I am very happy that discussions on all these issues were held in a very, very friendly atmosphere,” Musharraf said.

Manmohan accepted an invitation from Musharraf to visit Pakistan sometime this year with dates to be announced later, India’s Foreign Ministry said.

Yesterday evening, Musharraf met with Indian Kashmir separatist leaders to review the peace talks and was told by hard-line leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani the process was “ignoring” the wishes of Kashmiris, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

In a 90-minute-long meeting that included the Pakistan foreign minister, Geelani rejected a proposal for unity among the separatist leaders, some of whom want to join the peace talks between India and Pakistan, PTI said.

A joint statement on the progress of the talks is expected before Musharraf leaves for Manila today morning after a possible meeting with Indian media editors and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“We want to promote trade and any problems that are coming in the way we certainly want to resolve them,” PTI quoted Manmohan as saying during the talks.

Saran called for a joint trade commission which has not met since 1989 to be revived.

Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan has risen from $161 million in 2000 to $483.85 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, with the balance tilted heavily in India’s favor.

Other issues discussed by the leaders included the launch of a train service between Munnabao in India’s Rajasthan state and Khokrapar in the Pakistani province of Sindh in December, the release of 156 Pakistani fishermen from Indian jails, and the jailing of people who strayed across the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir.

Saran made it clear that the issue of militancy in the Indian zone of Kashmir was still bedeviling relations between the nuclear-armed rivals and could set back any progress. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting a rebellion in India-administered Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.

New Delhi, however, welcomed the fact that Musharraf had condemned an attack on a complex where passengers were being housed on the eve of the launch of the Kashmir bus service Musharraf and Manmohan, who first met in New York last September, spent about 90 minutes watching the opening overs of a one-day cricket match between the two nations in the Indian capital — eventually won by Pakistan despite a brief halt due to crowd trouble — before settling into the political talks.

Manmohan was shown on television presenting Musharraf with three birth certificates, including his own, prepared by a New Delhi hospital where his mother gave birth to him and two of his siblings in the 1940s.

Musharraf also invited Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi to Pakistan, Press Trust said. Sonia’s recalled at her meeting with Musharraf the “great fondness and enthusiasm” with which her children Rahul and Priyanka had been received in Pakistan last year.

Reports also said India’s opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani, a Hindu nationalist, is also expected to travel to Pakistan soon.