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Cross-Kashmir CBMs ahead of India, Pakistan talks
Saturday July 16, 2011 06:37:02 PM,
Manish Chand, IANS
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New Delhi:
India and Pakistan have decided not to let the July 13 Mumbai
terror attacks affect the tempo of their revived peace process and
are set to hold preparatory discussions on cross-Kashmir
confidence-building measures Monday ahead of the meeting of
foreign ministers later this month.
A six-member Pakistani delegation headed by Zehra H. Akbari,
Director General South Asia Division (DGSA) in Pakistan's Foreign
Office, will arrive here Sunday evening, well-placed sources told
IANS.
She will hold the meeting of the joint working group on
cross-border CBMs with the Indian delegation headed by Y.K. Sinha,
joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran,
Monday.
The talks are expected to firm up a slew of CBMs aimed at
enhancing travel and trade to bring people of the two halves of
Kashmir together. The two sides will also discuss the modalities
of the launch of the Kargil-Skardu bus link, an increase in the
frequency of cross-Kashmir bus link between Srinagar and
Muzaffarabad and an increase in the number of trading days across
the Line of Control (LoC), said sources.
Some of these cross-Kashmir CBMs, sources said, are likely to be
announced by the foreign ministers of the two countries when they
meet here July 27.
Officials of the two sides will also be giving finishing touches
to an agreement on liberalising the visa regime that will spur
greater people-to-people contacts, which was identified as a focus
area by the foreign secretaries of the two countries when they met
in Islamabad last month.
A separate meeting of the working group on nuclear CBMs is also
expected to be held soon.
Pakistan's Minister of State for External Affairs Hina Rabbani
Khar, who is widely expected to be elevated to the rank of cabinet
minister, will be coming here July 26 for talks with External
Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna next day, said the sources.
The foreign ministers' meeting will be preceded by preparatory
talks between Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his
Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao July 25.
In a sign of maturity in evolving ties that sunk to a new low
after 26/11 attacks, India has scrupulously avoided even an
insinuation linking elements in Pakistan to the terror strikes
that ripped across Mumbai July 13 and underlined that the talks
between the foreign ministers of the two countries will go on as
scheduled.
New Delhi's restraint is seen as signaling a strong political will
on part of the Manmohan Singh government to continue the
re-engagement process India started with Pakistan in February
after much domestic opposition.
Although New Delhi acknowledges that Pakistan's attitude towards
terror has changed, a point made by Rao in an interview recently,
it continues to have concerns over cross-border terror and these
will be conveyed by Krishna to Pakistan at the talks.
India has prepared an "error free" list of most wanted terrorists
allegedly hiding in Pakistan in which it has corrected mistakes in
the earlier dossier handed over to Islamabad in March. New Delhi
expects Islamabad to respond to the new list when the foreign
ministers meet here later this month.
(Manish Chand
can be contacted at manish.c@ians.in)
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